Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time ìReading 1 Wis 9:13-18b Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the LORD intends? For the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans. For the corruptible body burdens the soul and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns. And scarce do we guess the things on earth, and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty; but when things are in heaven, who can search them out? Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high? And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 90 R. (1) In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
You turn man back to dust, saying, “Return, O children of men.” For a thousand years in your sight are as yesterday, now that it is past, or as a watch of the night.
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
You make an end of them in their sleep; the next morning they are like the changing grass, Which at dawn springs up anew, but by evening wilts and fades.
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart. Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness, that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days. And may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours; prosper the work of our hands for us! Prosper the work of our hands!
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Reading 2 Phmn 9-10, 12-17
I, Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus, urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment; I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you. I should have liked to retain him for myself, so that he might serve me on your behalf in my imprisonment for the gospel, but I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary. Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother, beloved especially to me, but even more so to you, as a man and in the Lord. So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me.
Alleluia Ps 119:135 R. Alleluia, alleluia. Let your face shine upon your servant; and teach me your laws. R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Lk 14:25-33 Great crowds were traveling with Jesus, and he turned and addressed them, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’ Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? But if not, while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms. In the same way, anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.”
OMILY OF JOHN PAUL II - September 7, 1980 . The Biblical Readings, which the Liturgy of this Sunday proposes to us, center around the concept of CHRISTIAN WISDOM, which each one of us is invited to acquire and to deepen ... the verse of the Responsorial Psalm is formulated with these beautiful words, "Give us, O Lord, the WISDOM of the HEART." Indeed, without it how would it be possible to worthily set up our lives, deal with its various difficulties, and indeed always maintain a deep attitude of inner peace and serenity? But to do this, as the First Reading teaches, one needs humility, that is, an authentic sense of one's own limitation, combined with an intense desire of a gift from above, which enriches us on the inside. Indeed, today's man, on the one hand, finds it difficult to embrace and understand all the laws that govern the material universe, which though they are the subject of scientific observation, but on the other hand, he presumes to legislate with certainty about the things of the SPIRIT, which by definition escapes physical observation: "We hardly depict earthly things, ...but who can trace the things of heaven, ...if You have not sent him Your HOLY SPIRIT from above?" (Wis. 9:16, 17). Here the importance of being TRUE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST is configured, since, through BAPTISM, He has become our KNOWLEDGE (cf. 1 Cor. 1:30) and therefore the measure of all that forms the concrete fabric of our lives. The Gospel that was read highlights precisely the necessary centrality of JESUS CHRIST in our existence. And it does so with THREE CONDITIONAL FRASES: 1) if we do not place Him above our dearest things, 2) if we are not willing to see our crosses in the light of His, 3) if we do not have a sense of the relativity of material goods, then we cannot be HIS DISCIPLES, that is, call ourselves CHRISTIANS. These are essential reminders of our identity as BAPTIZED .
POPE FRANCIS 8 September 2013 ANGELUS Good morning! In today’s Gospel Jesus insists on the conditions for being his disciples: preferring nothing to the love of Christ, carrying one’s cross and following him. Many people in fact drew near to Jesus, they wanted to be included among his followers; and this would happen especially after some miraculous sign which accredited him as the Messiah, the King of Israel. However Jesus did not want to disappoint anyone. He knew well what awaited him in Jerusalem and which path the Father was asking him to take: it was the Way of the Cross, the way of sacrificing himself for the forgiveness of our sins. Following Jesus does not mean taking part in a triumphal procession! It means sharing his merciful love, entering his great work of mercy for each and every man and for all men. The work of Jesus is, precisely, a work of mercy, a work of forgiveness and of love! Jesus is so full of mercy! And this universal pardon, this mercy, passes through the Cross. Jesus, however, does not want to do this work alone: he wants to involve us too in the mission that the Father entrusted to him. After the Resurrection he was to say to his disciples: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you”... if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven” (Jn 20:21-22). Jesus’ disciple renounces all his possessions because in Jesus he has found the greatest Good in which every other good receives its full value and meaning: family ties, other relationships, work, cultural and economic goods and so forth.... The Christian detaches him or herself from all things and rediscovers all things in the logic of the Gospel, the logic of love and of service.
FAUSTI - The guests at the banquet are the poor and excluded persons. They are entitled for the Kingdom, because they are like Jesus. Now it is told to the disciple to see well if he is among them, because, to be with Him, it is necessary to choose the same place as Him. That is why to those who don't leave everything, He repeats three times the refrain "he can't be my disciple". The Kingdom is offered free of charge. However, there are conditions for accepting it. The door is narrow (13:24). We are all too swollen to enter! Faced with Jesus' requests, no one is able to make it. Luke wants to make us aware of our inability, so that, despairing of us, we hope in Him. These words are a puncture that pierces us: deflating us from all presumption, it makes us humble, poor and beggars, because we cry out to Him, like the blind man of Jericho (18:35-43). Our only possibility of being disciples is the confessed impossibility: "When I am weak, it is when I am strong" (2 Cor 12:10): strengthened by the strength of Him who comforts me and makes everything possible for me (Phil 4:13). No claim is able to make us disciples. It is only a gift of grace that God grants to the humble and the poor. But if everything is the action of God, everything is also the freedom of man, who can accept it or not. The full and rich man is sent back empty-handed (1:53); but the open and empty mouth is filled. The poverty that Jesus demands is not stoic, it is motivated by love for Him. It touches all levels and is the only virtue which, the more material it is, the more spiritual it is. But only if it is dictated by love and does not harden towards others. Poverty involves humiliation and leads to humility. Even though it is curse and deprivation in itself, it becomes a cordial and necessary choice for the disciple who wants to be with his Lord. The demands of discipleship are: hatred of what is dear and love of what is hateful in the world, to go after Jesus; prudent evaluation of those who do not want to remain in the middle of the enterprise or be defeated and wise madness of one who finds his strength in losing everything. Otherwise one is like a senseless , useless salt. Irrecoverable and to be discarded. We are at the heart of the Lucanian catechesis, which unfolds in the journey from Samaria to Jerusalem. If that is the situation, who will climb the mountain of God? Who will decide evangelically to abandon everything to choose the Kingdom? The strength of this decision is the love of those who have been conquered by Him. He becomes the Only person, the Only One, the rest has no taste. The so-called "religious" life proposes to all the core of the Christian faith. Whoever recognizes in his Lord his whole, becomes a prophecy for the whole Church, reminding her of what is essential. If she neglects poverty, humility and chastity (there are so many adulterers!) , even as apostolic means, she becomes insipid salt.She loses the light of which she is a witness, she abandons her poor, humble and free Lord. Today the Church is particularly tempted to use, "for the sake of good", instruments of power, entering into competition with the world. She seeks a fake relevance, without knowing that her identity with the Crucified One is her only strength. Although it is natural to degenerate towards wealth, power and honor, even though it is "obvious" to fall into what Jesus has discarded as a temptation (4:1-12), nevertheless this concerns the coming of the Kingdom more than any other evil. It is said that poverty is "wall and defense" of religious life . When it breaks down and collapses, it falls into the hands of the enemy and loses its essence: it no longer demonstrates its trust in the Father. If the mirage of the world is to become rich, that of the disciple is to become poor. The Kingdom is of the poor, because the King Himself has revealed Himself to be poor.
Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
RispondiEliminaìReading 1
Wis 9:13-18b
Who can know God’s counsel,
or who can conceive what the LORD intends?
For the deliberations of mortals are timid,
and unsure are our plans.
For the corruptible body burdens the soul
and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns.
And scarce do we guess the things on earth,
and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty;
but when things are in heaven, who can search them out?
Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom
and sent your holy spirit from on high?
And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 90
R. (1) In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
You turn man back to dust,
saying, “Return, O children of men.”
For a thousand years in your sight
are as yesterday, now that it is past,
or as a watch of the night.
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
You make an end of them in their sleep;
the next morning they are like the changing grass,
Which at dawn springs up anew,
but by evening wilts and fades.
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
And may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;
prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Reading 2 Phmn 9-10, 12-17
I, Paul, an old man,
and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus,
urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus,
whose father I have become in my imprisonment;
I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.
I should have liked to retain him for myself,
so that he might serve me on your behalf
in my imprisonment for the gospel,
but I did not want to do anything without your consent,
so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary.
Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while,
that you might have him back forever,
no longer as a slave
but more than a slave, a brother,
beloved especially to me, but even more so to you,
as a man and in the Lord.
So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me.
Alleluia
Ps 119:135
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Let your face shine upon your servant;
and teach me your laws.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Lk 14:25-33
Great crowds were traveling with Jesus,
and he turned and addressed them,
“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.
Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion?
Otherwise, after laying the foundation
and finding himself unable to finish the work
the onlookers should laugh at him and say,
‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’
Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down
and decide whether with ten thousand troops
he can successfully oppose another king
advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops?
But if not, while he is still far away,
he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.
In the same way,
anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple.”
OMILY OF JOHN PAUL II - September 7, 1980 . The Biblical Readings, which the Liturgy of this Sunday proposes to us, center around the concept of CHRISTIAN WISDOM, which each one of us is invited to acquire and to deepen ... the verse of the Responsorial Psalm is formulated with these beautiful words, "Give us, O Lord, the WISDOM of the HEART." Indeed, without it how would it be possible to worthily set up our lives, deal with its various difficulties, and indeed always maintain a deep attitude of inner peace and serenity? But to do this, as the First Reading teaches, one needs humility, that is, an authentic sense of one's own limitation, combined with an intense desire of a gift from above, which enriches us on the inside. Indeed, today's man, on the one hand, finds it difficult to embrace and understand all the laws that govern the material universe, which though they are the subject of scientific observation, but on the other hand, he presumes to legislate with certainty about the things of the SPIRIT, which by definition escapes physical observation: "We hardly depict earthly things, ...but who can trace the things of heaven, ...if You have not sent him Your HOLY SPIRIT from above?" (Wis. 9:16, 17).
RispondiEliminaHere the importance of being TRUE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST is configured, since, through BAPTISM, He has become our KNOWLEDGE (cf. 1 Cor. 1:30) and therefore the measure of all that forms the concrete fabric of our lives. The Gospel that was read highlights precisely the necessary centrality of JESUS CHRIST in our existence. And it does so with THREE CONDITIONAL FRASES: 1) if we do not place Him above our dearest things, 2) if we are not willing to see our crosses in the light of His, 3) if we do not have a sense of the relativity of material goods, then we cannot be HIS DISCIPLES, that is, call ourselves CHRISTIANS. These are essential reminders of our identity as BAPTIZED .
POPE FRANCIS 8 September 2013 ANGELUS
RispondiEliminaGood morning! In today’s Gospel Jesus insists on the conditions for being his disciples: preferring nothing to the love of Christ, carrying one’s cross and following him. Many people in fact drew near to Jesus, they wanted to be included among his followers; and this would happen especially after some miraculous sign which accredited him as the Messiah, the King of Israel. However Jesus did not want to disappoint anyone. He knew well what awaited him in Jerusalem and which path the Father was asking him to take: it was the Way of the Cross, the way of sacrificing himself for the forgiveness of our sins. Following Jesus does not mean taking part in a triumphal procession! It means sharing his merciful love, entering his great work of mercy for each and every man and for all men. The work of Jesus is, precisely, a work of mercy, a work of forgiveness and of love! Jesus is so full of mercy! And this universal pardon, this mercy, passes through the Cross. Jesus, however, does not want to do this work alone: he wants to involve us too in the mission that the Father entrusted to him. After the Resurrection he was to say to his disciples: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you”... if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven” (Jn 20:21-22). Jesus’ disciple renounces all his possessions because in Jesus he has found the greatest Good in which every other good receives its full value and meaning: family ties, other relationships, work, cultural and economic goods and so forth.... The Christian detaches him or herself from all things and rediscovers all things in the logic of the Gospel, the logic of love and of service.
FAUSTI - The guests at the banquet are the poor and excluded persons. They are entitled for the Kingdom, because they are like Jesus. Now it is told to the disciple to see well if he is among them, because, to be with Him, it is necessary to choose the same place as Him.
RispondiEliminaThat is why to those who don't leave everything, He repeats three times the refrain "he can't be my disciple". The Kingdom is offered free of charge. However, there are conditions for accepting it.
The door is narrow (13:24). We are all too swollen to enter!
Faced with Jesus' requests, no one is able to make it.
Luke wants to make us aware of our inability, so that, despairing of us, we hope in Him. These words are a puncture that pierces us: deflating us from all presumption, it makes us humble, poor and beggars, because we cry out to Him, like the blind man of Jericho (18:35-43).
Our only possibility of being disciples is the confessed impossibility:
"When I am weak, it is when I am strong" (2 Cor 12:10):
strengthened by the strength of Him who comforts me and makes everything possible for me (Phil 4:13).
No claim is able to make us disciples. It is only a gift of grace that God grants to the humble and the poor. But if everything is the action of God, everything is also the freedom of man, who can accept it or not.
The full and rich man is sent back empty-handed (1:53); but the open and empty mouth is filled.
The poverty that Jesus demands is not stoic, it is motivated by love for Him. It touches all levels and is the only virtue which, the more material it is, the more spiritual it is.
But only if it is dictated by love and does not harden towards others.
Poverty involves humiliation and leads to humility.
Even though it is curse and deprivation in itself, it becomes a cordial and necessary choice for the disciple who wants to be with his Lord.
The demands of discipleship are: hatred of what is dear and love of what is hateful in the world, to go after Jesus; prudent evaluation of those who do not want to remain in the middle of the enterprise or be defeated and wise madness of one who finds his strength in losing everything.
Otherwise one is like a senseless , useless salt. Irrecoverable and to be discarded. We are at the heart of the Lucanian catechesis, which unfolds in the journey from Samaria to Jerusalem.
If that is the situation, who will climb the mountain of God? Who will decide evangelically to abandon everything to choose the Kingdom? The strength of this decision is the love of those who have been conquered by Him.
He becomes the Only person, the Only One, the rest has no taste.
The so-called "religious" life proposes to all the core of the Christian faith.
Whoever recognizes in his Lord his whole, becomes a prophecy for the whole Church, reminding her of what is essential. If she neglects poverty, humility and chastity (there are so many adulterers!) , even as apostolic means, she becomes insipid salt.She loses the light of which she is a witness, she abandons her poor, humble and free Lord.
Today the Church is particularly tempted to use, "for the sake of good", instruments of power, entering into competition with the world. She seeks a fake relevance, without knowing that her identity with the Crucified One is her only strength. Although it is natural to degenerate towards wealth, power and honor, even though it is "obvious" to fall into what Jesus has discarded as a temptation (4:1-12), nevertheless this concerns the coming of the Kingdom more than any other evil. It is said that poverty is "wall and defense" of religious life . When it breaks down and collapses, it falls into the hands of the enemy and loses its essence: it no longer demonstrates its trust in the Father. If the mirage of the world is to become rich, that of the disciple is to become poor. The Kingdom is of the poor, because the King Himself has revealed Himself to be poor.