For that night was known before by our fathers, that assuredly knowing what oaths they had trusted to, they might be of better courage. So thy people received the salvation of the just, and destruction of the unjust. For as thou didst punish the adversaries: so thou didst also encourage and glorify us. For the just children of good men were offering sacrifice secretly, and they unanimously ordered a law of justice: that the just should receive both good and evil alike, singing now the praises of the fathers.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 33: 1, 12, 18-19, 20-22 A psalm for David. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye just: praise becometh the upright. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord: the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance. Behold the eyes of the Lord are on them that fear him: and on them that hope in his mercy. To deliver their souls from death; and feed them in famine. Our soul waiteth for the Lord: for he is our helper and protector. For in him our heart shall rejoice: and in his holy name we have trusted. Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, as we have hoped in thee. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord: the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance.
Second Reading: Hebrews 11: 1-2, 8-19
Now faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not. For by this the ancients obtained a testimony. By faith he that is called Abraham, obeyed to go out into a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he abode in the land, dwelling in cottages, with Isaac and Jacob, the co-heirs of the same promise. For he looked for a city that hath foundations; whose builder and maker is God. By faith also Sara herself, being barren, received strength to conceive seed, even past the time of age; because she believed that he was faithful who had promised, For which cause there sprung even from one (and him as good as dead) as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. All these died according to faith, not having received the promises, but beholding them afar off, and saluting them, and confessing that they are pilgrims and strangers on the earth. For they that say these things, do signify that they seek a country. And truly if they had been mindful of that from whence they came out, they had doubtless time to return. But now they desire a better, that is to say, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered Isaac: and he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son; (To whom it was said: In Isaac shall thy seed be called.) Accounting that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Whereupon also he received him for a parable.
Gospel: Luke 12: 32-48 Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom. Sell what you possess and give alms. Make to yourselves bags which grow not old, a treasure in heaven which faileth not: where no thief approacheth, nor moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands. And you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh, shall find watching. Amen I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. But this know ye, that if the householder did know at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open. Be you then also ready: for at what hour you think not, the Son of man will come. And Peter said to him: Lord, dost thou speak this parable to us, or likewise to all? And the Lord said: Who (thinkest thou) is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord setteth over his family, to give them their measure of wheat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom when his lord shall come, he shall find so doing. Verily I say to you, he will set him over all that he possesseth. But if that servant shall say in his heart: My lord is long a coming; and shall begin to strike the menservants and maidservants, and to eat and to drink and be drunk: The lord of that servant will come in the day that he hopeth not, and at the hour that he knoweth not, and shall separate him, and shall appoint him his portion with unbelievers. And that servant who knew the will of his lord, and prepared not himself, and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more.
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER In today’s Gospel passage (cf. Lk 12:32-48), Jesus calls his disciples to be continually vigilant. Why? In order to understand God’s transition in one’s life because God continually passes through life. And he indicates the manners in which to live this vigilance properly: “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning” (v. 35) This is the way. First and foremost, “the loins girded”, an image that evokes the attitude of the pilgrim, ready to set out on a journey. It is a case of not putting down roots in comfortable and reassuring dwellings but rather to surrender oneself, to be open with simplicity and trust to God’s passage in our lives, to the will of God who guides us towards the next destination. The Lord always walks with us and often he takes us by the hand, to guide us so that we do not err on this journey that is so difficult. (Angelus, 11 August 2019)
FAUSTI The disciples, even if they are "myriads of crowds" they remain always a flock with the character of littleness; because its Shepherd made Himself smallest of all. The Church will always be a small flock and will never have the pretension to become strong. So many sheep together will never make a wolf! The Father knows our real needs: to be what we are, that is, His children. This is the kingdom that Jesus has given to us. The one who treasures for himself , he loses one's life and he doesn't become rich in front of God. The real treasure is not what you have but what you give: this doesn't fail neither in death. Because the one who gives to the poor, he lends to God. This treasure mustn't be neither kept neither cured. It isn't the object of grief and of anguish, because no one subtracts it or destroys it to you. It is yours and it doesn't fail never to you : it is your likeness of son with the Father. The man becomes what he awaits. The one who waits for death, he becomes its son and he produces death. The one who does depend one's life by what he owns , he considers the death as a thief who steals everything. The one who is waiting for the Lord Jesus, he has his own life from the Father's Son. The time is full, filled with eternity. The time of the end remains unknown to us . But we know that it marks the encounter with "the Son of man" that comes , and we know that all life is a journey toward Him. The Christian life is waiting for the one who has to go back: the Bridegroom! The disciple does not have here his homeland. The house of his nostalgia is elsewhere. Stranger and pilgrim on earth, he hasn't a lasting city, but he looks for that future one (Heb 13:14), where He is the one whom he waits. The Luke's community is aware that the Lord will not come so many soon. The time of His return will be the night, the figure of personal death, advance of the cosmic night . But the time of waiting isn't empty. It's the time of salvation, in which the Church bears witness to his Lord all before the world .The history becomes the place of the decision and of the conversion, of the vigilance and of fidelity to the Word. Our vigilance is not to search into the darkness. It is to keep lighted before the world the light of the Lord, continuing His mission among the brothers. When we walk as He has walked, we lend our feet to His return. His eschatological coming is lived daily in the Eucharistic banquet. The condition in order to open to Him is to be "waiting" men, with "tied" sides and with "ardent lamps." They immediately open to Him because they wish Him. The believer stays awake in this night of the world. He stays awake because he knows that in this night something great happens: the Lord passes. It is His Easter. The Lord girds Himself to serve those who are girded: He serves His servants.To serve means to love. The night is ample as our life, with its difficulties. And the world knows many nigthts The Eucharist makes us ables to lead a bright and Easter life, until the rising of the sun. The kingdom comes when the believer lives the Eucharist. Source and summit of all Christian life, This shows in the present the past and the future time of Jesus: the Dead and Risen Lord becomes our food for to lead to us a life of Easter in waiting for His return. We all have received a great gift. The gift is fruitful as the love. If it remains unfruitful , is not received as a gift of love. The believer is called to take serious knowledge of his responsibility before God : he must witness how and with Jesus before the all world. So he will become what he is, son of the Most High, and takes possession of all the goods of his Lord.
JOHN PAUL II - ANGELUS - August 10, 1980 "FAITH is the basis of things hoped for and proof of things not seen"(Heb 11:1). With these words the author of the Letter to the Hebrews speaks to us in the second reading of today's Mass. FAITH, which moves man from the world of visible things to the invisible reality of God and eternal life, resembles that journey, to which was called by God Abraham - qualified therefore as "father of all those who believe" (cf. Rom. 4:11, 12). Later we read in the Letter to the Hebrews, "By FAITH Abraham, called by God, obeyed by setting out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and set out without knowing where he was going. By FAITH he stayed in the promised land . . ." (Heb 11:8-9). Yes, it is. FAITH is the pilgrimage spiritual in which man sets out, following the word of the living God, to arrive at the land of peace promise and happiness, to union with God "face to face"; to that union that will fill, in the heart of humanity, the deepest hunger and thirst: the hunger for truth and the thirst for love. Therefore, as we hear later in today's Sunday liturgy, the attitude of spirit, which befits the believer, is the attitude of vigilance: "You also be ready, for the Son of man will come at the hour you do not think of" (Luke 12:40). Such vigilance is also an expression of the spiritual aspiration to God through FAITH.
BENEDICT XVI - ANGELUS - August 8, 2010 In this Sunday's Gospel passage, Jesus' discourse to the disciples continues on the value of the person before God and on the futility of earthly concerns. This is not a eulogy to disengagement. On the contrary, listening to Jesus' reassuring invitation "Fear not, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the Kingdom" (Lk. 12:32), our hearts are opened to a hope that enlightens and enlivens our concrete existence : we have the certainty that "the Gospel is not only a communication of things that can be know, but it is a communication that produces facts and changes lives. The dark door of time, of the future, has been opened wide. He who has hope lives differently; a new life has been given to him" (Enc. Spe Salvi, 2 ). As we read in the passage from the Letter to the Hebrews in today's Liturgy, Abraham goes forward with a heart confident in the hope that God opens to him: the promise of a land and "numerous descendants," and he sets out "not knowing where he was going," trusting only in God (cf. 11:8-12). And Jesus in today's Gospel - through three parables - illustrates how the expectation of the fulfillment of the "blessed hope," His coming, must prompt even more to an intense life, rich in good works: "Sell what you possess and give it in alms; make for yourselves purses that do not grow old, a sure treasure in heaven, where thief does not come and woodworm does not consume" It is an invitation to use things without selfishness, thirst for possession or domination, but according to the logic of God, the logic of attention to the other, the logic of love: as Romano Guardini succinctly writes, "in the form of a relationship: starting from God, in view of God" (Accepting oneself, Brescia 1992, 44). We trust in the maternal support of the VIRGIN MARY, Queen of Saints, who lovingly shares our pilgrimage. To Her we address our prayers.
In today’s Gospel passage (cf. Lk 12:32-48), Jesus calls his disciples to be continually vigilant. Why? In order to understand God’s transition in one’s life because God continually passes through life. And he indicates the manners in which to live this vigilance properly: “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning” (v. 35) This is the way. First and foremost, “the loins girded”, an image that evokes the attitude of the pilgrim, ready to set out on a journey. It is a case of not putting down roots in comfortable and reassuring dwellings but rather to surrender oneself, to be open with simplicity and trust to God’s passage in our lives, to the will of God who guides us towards the next destination. The Lord always walks with us and often he takes us by the hand, to guide us so that we do not err on this journey that is so difficult. Indeed, those who trust in God know well that the life of faith is not something static, but rather dynamic! The life of faith is a continuous journey towards ever new phases that the Lord himself points out to us day by day. Because he is the Lord of surprises, the Lord of novelty, indeed of true newness.
And then — the first manner was “the loins girded” — next there is the request to keep the “lamps burning” in order to be able to light up the darkness of the night. Thus, we are invited to live an authentic and mature faith capable of illuminating the many “nights” of our lives. We know, we have all had some days which were real spiritual nights. The lamp of faith requires being continuously nourished by the heart-to-heart encounter with Jesus in prayer and in listening to his Word. I return to something I have said to you many times: always carry a small Gospel in your pocket, in your bag, to read. It is an encounter with Jesus, with Jesus’ Word. This lamp of encounter with Jesus in prayer and in his Word is entrusted to us for the good of all: thus nobody can pull back in an intimist way in the certainty of one’s salvation, not interested in others. It is a fantasy to believe that one can illuminate oneself within, on one’s own. No, it is a fantasy. Real faith opens the heart to our neighbour and urges us towards concrete communion with our brothers, especially with those in need.
And in order to help us understand this attitude, Jesus recounts the parable of the servants who await the return of their master from the marriage feast (v. 36-40), thus presenting another aspect of vigilance: being ready for the last and definitive encounter with the Lord. Each of us will encounter, will find him/herself in that day of encounter. Each of us has their own date for the definitive encounter. The Lord says: “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes; ... If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those servants!” (v. 37-38). With these words the Lord reminds us that life is a journey towards eternity; therefore, we are called to employ all the talents that we have, without ever forgetting that “here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come” (Heb 13:14). In this perspective, every instant becomes precious, and thus we must live and act on this earth, while longing for Heaven: our feet on the ground, walking on the ground, working on the ground, doing good on the ground and the heart longing for Heaven.
We cannot truly understand in what this supreme joy consists. However, Jesus lets us sense it with the analogy of the master who, finding his servants still awake on his return: “will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them” (v. 37). The eternal joy in heaven is manifested this way: the situation will be reversed and it will no longer be the servants, that is, we who will serve God, but God himself will place himself at our service. And Jesus does this as of now: Jesus prays for us, Jesus looks at us and prays to the Father for us. Jesus serves us now. He is our servant. And this will be the definitive joy. The thought of the final encounter with the Father, abundant in mercy, fills us with hope and stirs us to constant commitment, for our sanctification and for the building of a more just and fraternal world.
May the Virgin Mary support this commitment of ours through her maternal intercession.
First Reading: Wisdom 18: 6-9
RispondiEliminaFor that night was known before by our fathers, that assuredly knowing what oaths they had trusted to, they might be of better courage.
So thy people received the salvation of the just, and destruction of the unjust.
For as thou didst punish the adversaries: so thou didst also encourage and glorify us.
For the just children of good men were offering sacrifice secretly, and they unanimously ordered a law of justice: that the just should receive both good and evil alike, singing now the praises of the fathers.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 33: 1, 12, 18-19, 20-22
A psalm for David.
Rejoice in the Lord,
O ye just: praise becometh the upright.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord:
the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance.
Behold the eyes of the Lord are on them that fear him:
and on them that hope in his mercy.
To deliver their souls from death;
and feed them in famine.
Our soul waiteth for the Lord:
for he is our helper and protector.
For in him our heart shall rejoice:
and in his holy name we have trusted.
Let thy mercy, O Lord,
be upon us, as we have hoped in thee.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord:
the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance.
Second Reading: Hebrews 11: 1-2, 8-19
Now faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not.
For by this the ancients obtained a testimony.
By faith he that is called Abraham, obeyed to go out into a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
By faith he abode in the land, dwelling in cottages, with Isaac and Jacob, the co-heirs of the same promise.
For he looked for a city that hath foundations; whose builder and maker is God.
By faith also Sara herself, being barren, received strength to conceive seed, even past the time of age; because she believed that he was faithful who had promised,
For which cause there sprung even from one (and him as good as dead) as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
All these died according to faith, not having received the promises, but beholding them afar off, and saluting them, and confessing that they are pilgrims and strangers on the earth.
For they that say these things, do signify that they seek a country.
And truly if they had been mindful of that from whence they came out, they had doubtless time to return.
But now they desire a better, that is to say, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city.
By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered Isaac: and he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son;
(To whom it was said: In Isaac shall thy seed be called.)
Accounting that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Whereupon also he received him for a parable.
Gospel: Luke 12: 32-48
RispondiEliminaFear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom.
Sell what you possess and give alms. Make to yourselves bags which grow not old, a treasure in heaven which faileth not: where no thief approacheth, nor moth corrupteth.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands.
And you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately.
Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh, shall find watching. Amen I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them.
And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
But this know ye, that if the householder did know at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open.
Be you then also ready: for at what hour you think not, the Son of man will come.
And Peter said to him: Lord, dost thou speak this parable to us, or likewise to all?
And the Lord said: Who (thinkest thou) is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord setteth over his family, to give them their measure of wheat in due season?
Blessed is that servant, whom when his lord shall come, he shall find so doing.
Verily I say to you, he will set him over all that he possesseth.
But if that servant shall say in his heart: My lord is long a coming; and shall begin to strike the menservants and maidservants, and to eat and to drink and be drunk:
The lord of that servant will come in the day that he hopeth not, and at the hour that he knoweth not, and shall separate him, and shall appoint him his portion with unbelievers.
And that servant who knew the will of his lord, and prepared not himself, and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
But he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more.
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
RispondiEliminaIn today’s Gospel passage (cf. Lk 12:32-48), Jesus calls his disciples to be continually vigilant. Why? In order to understand God’s transition in one’s life because God continually passes through life. And he indicates the manners in which to live this vigilance properly: “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning” (v. 35) This is the way. First and foremost, “the loins girded”, an image that evokes the attitude of the pilgrim, ready to set out on a journey. It is a case of not putting down roots in comfortable and reassuring dwellings but rather to surrender oneself, to be open with simplicity and trust to God’s passage in our lives, to the will of God who guides us towards the next destination. The Lord always walks with us and often he takes us by the hand, to guide us so that we do not err on this journey that is so difficult. (Angelus, 11 August 2019)
FAUSTI
RispondiEliminaThe disciples, even if they are "myriads of crowds" they remain always a flock with the character of littleness; because its Shepherd made Himself smallest of all. The Church will always be a small flock and will never have the pretension to become strong.
So many sheep together will never make a wolf! The Father knows our real needs: to be what we are, that is, His children.
This is the kingdom that Jesus has given to us.
The one who treasures for himself , he loses one's life and he doesn't become rich in front of God.
The real treasure is not what you have but what you give: this doesn't fail neither in death. Because the one who gives to the poor, he lends to God.
This treasure mustn't be neither kept neither cured. It isn't the object of grief and of anguish, because no one subtracts it or destroys it to you.
It is yours and it doesn't fail never to you : it is your likeness of son with the Father.
The man becomes what he awaits. The one who waits for death, he becomes its son and he produces death. The one who does depend one's life by what he owns , he considers the death as a thief who steals everything.
The one who is waiting for the Lord Jesus, he has his own life from the Father's Son.
The time is full, filled with eternity.
The time of the end remains unknown to us .
But we know that it marks the encounter with "the Son of man" that comes , and we know that all life is a journey toward Him.
The Christian life is waiting for the one who has to go back: the Bridegroom!
The disciple does not have here his homeland.
The house of his nostalgia is elsewhere.
Stranger and pilgrim on earth, he hasn't a lasting city, but he looks for that future one
(Heb 13:14), where He is the one whom he waits.
The Luke's community is aware that the Lord will not come so many soon.
The time of His return will be the night, the figure of personal death, advance of the cosmic night . But the time of waiting isn't empty.
It's the time of salvation, in which the Church bears witness to his Lord all before the world .The history becomes the place of the decision and of the conversion, of the vigilance and of fidelity to the Word.
Our vigilance is not to search into the darkness. It is to keep lighted before the world the light of the Lord, continuing His mission among the brothers.
When we walk as He has walked, we lend our feet to His return.
His eschatological coming is lived daily in the Eucharistic banquet.
The condition in order to open to Him is to be "waiting" men, with "tied" sides and with "ardent lamps."
They immediately open to Him because they wish Him.
The believer stays awake in this night of the world.
He stays awake because he knows that in this night something great happens: the Lord passes.
It is His Easter. The Lord girds Himself to serve those who are girded: He serves His servants.To serve means to love.
The night is ample as our life, with its difficulties. And the world knows many nigthts
The Eucharist makes us ables to lead a bright and Easter life, until the rising of the sun.
The kingdom comes when the believer lives the Eucharist.
Source and summit of all Christian life, This shows in the present the past and the future time of Jesus: the Dead and Risen Lord becomes our food for to lead to us a life of Easter in waiting for His return.
We all have received a great gift.
The gift is fruitful as the love.
If it remains unfruitful , is not received as a gift of love.
The believer is called to take serious knowledge of his responsibility before God : he must witness how and with Jesus before the all world. So he will become what he is, son of the Most High, and takes possession of all the goods of his Lord.
JOHN PAUL II - ANGELUS - August 10, 1980
RispondiElimina"FAITH is the basis of things hoped for and proof of things not seen"(Heb 11:1). With these words the author of the Letter to the Hebrews speaks to us in the second reading of today's Mass.
FAITH, which moves man from the world of visible things to the invisible reality of God and eternal life,
resembles that journey, to which was called by God Abraham - qualified therefore as "father of all
those who believe" (cf. Rom. 4:11, 12). Later we read in the Letter to the Hebrews, "By FAITH Abraham,
called by God, obeyed by setting out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and set out without knowing where he was going. By FAITH he stayed in the promised land . . ." (Heb 11:8-9). Yes, it is. FAITH is the pilgrimage
spiritual in which man sets out, following the word of the living God, to arrive at the land of peace
promise and happiness, to union with God "face to face"; to that union that will fill, in the heart
of humanity, the deepest hunger and thirst: the hunger for truth and the thirst for love.
Therefore, as we hear later in today's Sunday liturgy, the attitude of spirit, which befits the
believer, is the attitude of vigilance: "You also be ready, for the Son of man
will come at the hour you do not think of" (Luke 12:40). Such vigilance is also an expression of the
spiritual aspiration to God through FAITH.
BENEDICT XVI - ANGELUS - August 8, 2010
RispondiEliminaIn this Sunday's Gospel passage, Jesus' discourse to the disciples continues on the value of the person
before God and on the futility of earthly concerns. This is not a eulogy to disengagement. On the contrary,
listening to Jesus' reassuring invitation "Fear not, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give
you the Kingdom" (Lk. 12:32), our hearts are opened to a hope that enlightens and enlivens our concrete existence : we have the certainty that "the Gospel is not only a communication of things that can be
know, but it is a communication that produces facts and changes lives. The dark door of time, of the future, has
been opened wide. He who has hope lives differently; a new life has been given to him" (Enc. Spe Salvi, 2 ).
As we read in the passage from the Letter to the Hebrews in today's Liturgy, Abraham goes forward with a heart
confident in the hope that God opens to him: the promise of a land and "numerous descendants," and he sets out
"not knowing where he was going," trusting only in God (cf. 11:8-12). And Jesus in today's Gospel - through three parables - illustrates how the expectation of the fulfillment of the "blessed hope," His coming, must prompt
even more to an intense life, rich in good works: "Sell what you possess and give it in alms;
make for yourselves purses that do not grow old, a sure treasure in heaven, where thief does not come and woodworm does not consume" It is an invitation to use things without selfishness, thirst for possession or domination, but according to the logic of God, the logic of attention to the other, the logic of love: as Romano Guardini succinctly writes, "in the form of a relationship: starting from God, in view of God" (Accepting oneself, Brescia 1992, 44).
We trust in the maternal support of the VIRGIN MARY, Queen of Saints, who lovingly shares our pilgrimage. To Her we address our prayers.
POPE FRANCIS
RispondiEliminaANGELUS 11 August 2019
In today’s Gospel passage (cf. Lk 12:32-48), Jesus calls his disciples to be continually vigilant. Why? In order to understand God’s transition in one’s life because God continually passes through life. And he indicates the manners in which to live this vigilance properly: “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning” (v. 35) This is the way. First and foremost, “the loins girded”, an image that evokes the attitude of the pilgrim, ready to set out on a journey. It is a case of not putting down roots in comfortable and reassuring dwellings but rather to surrender oneself, to be open with simplicity and trust to God’s passage in our lives, to the will of God who guides us towards the next destination. The Lord always walks with us and often he takes us by the hand, to guide us so that we do not err on this journey that is so difficult. Indeed, those who trust in God know well that the life of faith is not something static, but rather dynamic! The life of faith is a continuous journey towards ever new phases that the Lord himself points out to us day by day. Because he is the Lord of surprises, the Lord of novelty, indeed of true newness.
And then — the first manner was “the loins girded” — next there is the request to keep the “lamps burning” in order to be able to light up the darkness of the night. Thus, we are invited to live an authentic and mature faith capable of illuminating the many “nights” of our lives. We know, we have all had some days which were real spiritual nights. The lamp of faith requires being continuously nourished by the heart-to-heart encounter with Jesus in prayer and in listening to his Word. I return to something I have said to you many times: always carry a small Gospel in your pocket, in your bag, to read. It is an encounter with Jesus, with Jesus’ Word. This lamp of encounter with Jesus in prayer and in his Word is entrusted to us for the good of all: thus nobody can pull back in an intimist way in the certainty of one’s salvation, not interested in others. It is a fantasy to believe that one can illuminate oneself within, on one’s own. No, it is a fantasy. Real faith opens the heart to our neighbour and urges us towards concrete communion with our brothers, especially with those in need.
And in order to help us understand this attitude, Jesus recounts the parable of the servants who await the return of their master from the marriage feast (v. 36-40), thus presenting another aspect of vigilance: being ready for the last and definitive encounter with the Lord. Each of us will encounter, will find him/herself in that day of encounter. Each of us has their own date for the definitive encounter. The Lord says: “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes; ... If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those servants!” (v. 37-38). With these words the Lord reminds us that life is a journey towards eternity; therefore, we are called to employ all the talents that we have, without ever forgetting that “here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come” (Heb 13:14). In this perspective, every instant becomes precious, and thus we must live and act on this earth, while longing for Heaven: our feet on the ground, walking on the ground, working on the ground, doing good on the ground and the heart longing for Heaven.
We cannot truly understand in what this supreme joy consists. However, Jesus lets us sense it with the analogy of the master who, finding his servants still awake on his return: “will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them” (v. 37). The eternal joy in heaven is manifested this way: the situation will be reversed and it will no longer be the servants, that is, we who will serve God, but God himself will place himself at our service. And Jesus does this as of now: Jesus prays for us, Jesus looks at us and prays to the Father for us. Jesus serves us now. He is our servant. And this will be the definitive joy. The thought of the final encounter with the Father, abundant in mercy, fills us with hope and stirs us to constant commitment, for our sanctification and for the building of a more just and fraternal world.
RispondiEliminaMay the Virgin Mary support this commitment of ours through her maternal intercession.