Reading 1 Is 9:1-6 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone. You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing, as they rejoice before you as at the harvest, as people make merry when dividing spoils. For the yoke that burdened them, the pole on their shoulder, and the rod of their taskmaster you have smashed, as on the day of Midian. For every boot that tramped in battle, every cloak rolled in blood, will be burned as fuel for flames. For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace. His dominion is vast and forever peaceful, from David's throne, and over his kingdom, which he confirms and sustains by judgment and justice, both now and forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this!
Responsorial Psalm Ps 96: 1-2, 2-3, 11-12, 13
R. (Lk 2:11) Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord. Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all you lands. Sing to the LORD; bless his name. R. Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord. Announce his salvation, day after day. Tell his glory among the nations; among all peoples, his wondrous deeds. R. Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea and what fills it resound; let the plains be joyful and all that is in them! Then shall all the trees of the forest exult. R. Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord. They shall exult before the LORD, for he comes; for he comes to rule the earth. He shall rule the world with justice and the peoples with his constancy. R. Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.
Reading 2 Ti 2:11-14 Beloved: The grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good.
Alleluia Lk 2:10-11 R. Alleluia, alleluia. I proclaim to you good news of great joy: today a Savior is born for us, Christ the Lord. R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Lk 2:1-14 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."
December 24, Christmas of the Lord - Opening of the Holy Door of Saint Peter and Mass in the night, Homily
An angel of the Lord, wrapped in light, illuminates the night and delivers to the shepherds the good news: «I announce you a great joy that will be for all the people: today, in the city of David, a Saviour is born for you, who is Christ the Lord» (Lk 2:10-11). Between the astonishment of the poor and the singing of the angels, heaven opens on earth: God made himself one of us to make us like him, he descended among us to raise us up and bring us back into the embrace of the Father.
This, sisters and brothers, is our hope. God is the Emmanuel, He is God-with-us. The infinitely great has become small; the divine light is shining in the darkness of the world; the glory of heaven has appeared on earth. How? In the littleness of a Child. And if God comes, even when our heart resembles a poor manger, then we can say: hope is not dead, hope is alive, and wraps our life forever! Hope does not disappoint.
Sisters and brothers, with the opening of the Holy Door we have begun a new Jubilee: each one of us can enter into the mystery of this proclamation of grace. This is the night when the door of hope has opened wide on the world; this is the night when God says to each one: there is hope also for you! There is hope for each one of us. But do not forget, sisters and brothers, that God forgives everything, God always forgives. Do not forget this, which is a way of understanding hope in the Lord.
To receive this gift, we are called to set out with the amazement of the shepherds of Bethlehem. The Gospel says that they, having received the angel’s announcement, «went without delay» (Lk 2:16). This is the indication to find lost hope again, renew it within us, sow it in the desolations of our time and our world: without delay. And there are so many desolations in this time!
And there are so many desolations in this time! Think of the wars, the machine-gun children, the bombs on schools and hospitals. Do not delay, do not slow down, but let the good news draw you in.
Without delay, let us go to see the Lord who was born for us, with a light and awake heart, ready to meet, so that we can translate hope into our life situations. And this is our task: to translate hope into the different situations of life. Because Christian hope is not a happy ending to be passively waited for, it is not the happy end of a film: it is the promise of the Lord to welcome here, now, in this land that suffers and that groans. It therefore asks us not to linger, not to drag ourselves into habits, not to stop in mediocrity and laziness; it asks us - Saint Augustine would say - to be indignant about things that do not go well and have the courage to change them; He asks us to be pilgrims in search of the truth, never tired dreamers, women and men who let themselves be disturbed by the dream of God, which is the dream of a new world where peace and justice reign.
We learn from the example of the shepherds: the hope that is born in this night does not tolerate the indolence of the sedentary and the laziness of those who have settled in their comfort - and many of us, we have the danger of settling in our comfort -; Hope does not admit the false prudence of those who do not shift in order to avoid compromise, and the calculation of those who think only of themselves; hope is incompatible with the quiet life of those who do not raise their voices against evil and injustices committed on the skin of the poorest. On the contrary, Christian hope, while it invites us to wait patiently for the Kingdom that sprouts and grows, demands from us the audacity to anticipate this promise today, through our responsibility, and not only through our compassion. And here perhaps it will be good for us to question our compassion: I
Can I suffer-with? let’s think.
Looking at how often we settle in this world, adapting to its mentality, a good writer priest so prayed for the Holy Christmas: Lord, I ask you some torment, some restlessness, some remorse. At Christmas I would like to be dissatisfied. Happy, but also dissatisfied. Happy for what you do, dissatisfied for my lack of answers. Please take away our fake peace and put in our "manger", always too full, a stash of thorns. Put the desire for something else in your mind» (A. Pronzato, La novena di Natale). The desire for something else. Do not stand still. Let us not forget that the still water is the first to be corrupted.
Christian hope is precisely the "something else" that asks us to move "without delay". We disciples of the Lord, in fact, are asked to find in him our greatest hope, and then bring it without delay, as pilgrims of light in the darkness of the world.
Sisters, brothers, this is the Jubilee, this is the time of hope! It invites us to rediscover the joy of meeting with the Lord, calls us to spiritual renewal and commits us in the transformation of the world, so that this becomes a time of jubilee: become it for our mother Earth, distorted by the logic of profit; Become it for the poorest countries, burdened with unjust debts; become it for all those who are prisoners of old and new slavery.
To us all, the gift and commitment to bring hope where it has been lost: where life is wounded, in expectations betrayed, in dreams broken, in failures that break the heart; in the fatigue of those who can no longer cope, in the bitter loneliness of those who feel defeated, in the suffering that digs the soul; in the long and empty days of the prisoners, in the cold and narrow rooms of the poor, in the places profaned by war and violence. Bring hope there, sow hope there. The Jubilee opens so that hope, the hope of the Gospel, the hope of love and the hope of forgiveness may be given to all.
And we return to the crib, look at the crib, look at the tenderness of God that is manifested in the face of the Child Jesus, and ask ourselves: Is this expectation in our heart? Is there this hope in our hearts? [... ] Contemplating the friendliness of God who overcomes our misgivings and fears, let us also contemplate the greatness of the hope that awaits us. [... ] May this vision of hope illuminate our daily journey» (C. M. Martini, Christmas Homily, 1980).
Sister, brother, in this night it is for you that the "holy door" of God’s heart opens. Jesus, God-with-us, is born for you, for me, for us, for every man and woman. And, you know? , with Him joy blossoms, with Him life changes, with Him hope does not disappoint.
FAUSTI - "It was the true light" the Word, which is the "true" light, Every man has within himself the light of the Word. Despite the dis-listening, he is done for it, because it is done by it and of it. In his heart shines an inner, unquenchable light. It is the desire for truth and love that leaves him restless until he has the joy of finding what he is looking for. The Word, which is towards the Father, comes into the world as his life and light. Even before the promise to Abraham and the coming of the Messiah, the light of the Word is among men as wisdom that inspires them to the good, illuminating from within their minds and freeing their hearts. This light, which is in each one ,is man's most inalienable good and offers to all, even through the most personal and mysterious ways, to enter into dialogue with the Father. Despite the false lights, lies and slavery, every man is seduced by an "ancient and ever new beauty", which at least vaguely foretells and of which he is incurably ill. That is why he immediately recognizes it when it presents itself to him, in any way, as the light of his life. Every man is "very beautiful" (Gen 1:31) because in his deepest essence he is listening to the Word. And if he responds, his face lights up of the light of God. The Word, as it was addressed to the Father before creation, after it is also addressed to the world, to address it to the Father, even before becoming Flesh. Whoever accepts the Word has the dignity of the Word itself: it "becomes" what it is. It is a process of transformation: the Word makes us become children, putting us in dialogue with the Father. Our generation as children of God is the work of God himself through the Word. It is not blood or flesh or the will of man that will generate us children of God, but the Flesh and Blood of the Son of man, who does the Will of the Father. The becoming Flesh of the Word is the point of arrival of the history of God that is communicating itself to man. The eternal Word that was addressed to God and is God, in a precise moment "became" Flesh. The way in which God communicates with us changes. What has always been and still is, "became" man, sharing our deathal condition. The love either finds or makes similar. God is Love and whoever loves gives himself totally. When He becomes Flesh, His gift is complete and definitive. God assumes a new relationship with His creature, which is to put Himself on a par with her to communicate fully with her. God is "a" man! Not a "divine and universal" man, with an ethereal body, made of light. God is a real and concrete man: Jesus. Every fragility, weakness and limit, the being-for-the-death of our condition, becomes His. And it is precisely His Flesh, and nothing else, that reveals the Glory. The Glory is God Himself, who manifests Himself in His unique splendour. This Glory is His, that of the Word, which we contemplate in the "flesh" of the man Jesus. In reality, every flesh comes from the Word; in its turn, the Word is the life and light of every flesh. John does not narrate the transfiguration, his entire Gospel is a Transfiguration, an Epiphany of God, a contemplation of the Glory in the flesh of the Son. From this moment on, John will no more speak of the Logos, but of the Son, and God will be called Father. The Son is full of the Gift of Knowledge of the Father. That is why it is the Son who wants and can communicate the Father to his brothers and sisters.
RispondiEliminaReading 1
Is 9:1-6
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
a light has shone.
You have brought them abundant joy
and great rejoicing,
as they rejoice before you as at the harvest,
as people make merry when dividing spoils.
For the yoke that burdened them,
the pole on their shoulder,
and the rod of their taskmaster
you have smashed, as on the day of Midian.
For every boot that tramped in battle,
every cloak rolled in blood,
will be burned as fuel for flames.
For a child is born to us, a son is given us;
upon his shoulder dominion rests.
They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero,
Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.
His dominion is vast
and forever peaceful,
from David's throne, and over his kingdom,
which he confirms and sustains
by judgment and justice,
both now and forever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this!
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 96: 1-2, 2-3, 11-12, 13
R. (Lk 2:11) Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.
Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name.
R. Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.
Announce his salvation, day after day.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
R. Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
Then shall all the trees of the forest exult.
R. Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.
They shall exult before the LORD, for he comes;
for he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
and the peoples with his constancy.
R. Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.
Reading 2
Ti 2:11-14
Beloved:
The grace of God has appeared, saving all
and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires
and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age,
as we await the blessed hope,
the appearance of the glory of our great God
and savior Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness
and to cleanse for himself a people as his own,
eager to do what is good.
Alleluia
Lk 2:10-11
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I proclaim to you good news of great joy:
today a Savior is born for us,
Christ the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Lk 2:1-14
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus
that the whole world should be enrolled.
This was the first enrollment,
when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town.
And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth
to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem,
because he was of the house and family of David,
to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
While they were there,
the time came for her to have her child,
and she gave birth to her firstborn son.
She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger,
because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields
and keeping the night watch over their flock.
The angel of the Lord appeared to them
and the glory of the Lord shone around them,
and they were struck with great fear.
The angel said to them,
"Do not be afraid;
for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people.
For today in the city of David
a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.
And this will be a sign for you:
you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes
and lying in a manger."
And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel,
praising God and saying:
"Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."
https://youtu.be/i5cJdgZrJ_o?si=ui9Wwkgz3G_qyIAN
RispondiElimina
RispondiEliminaDecember 24, Christmas of the Lord - Opening of the Holy Door of Saint Peter and Mass in the night, Homily
An angel of the Lord, wrapped in light, illuminates the night and delivers to the shepherds the good news: «I announce you a great joy that will be for all the people: today, in the city of David, a Saviour is born for you, who is Christ the Lord» (Lk 2:10-11). Between the astonishment of the poor and the singing of the angels, heaven opens on earth: God made himself one of us to make us like him, he descended among us to raise us up and bring us back into the embrace of the Father.
This, sisters and brothers, is our hope. God is the Emmanuel, He is God-with-us. The infinitely great has become small; the divine light is shining in the darkness of the world; the glory of heaven has appeared on earth. How? In the littleness of a Child. And if God comes, even when our heart resembles a poor manger, then we can say: hope is not dead, hope is alive, and wraps our life forever! Hope does not disappoint.
Sisters and brothers, with the opening of the Holy Door we have begun a new Jubilee: each one of us can enter into the mystery of this proclamation of grace. This is the night when the door of hope has opened wide on the world; this is the night when God says to each one: there is hope also for you! There is hope for each one of us. But do not forget, sisters and brothers, that God forgives everything, God always forgives. Do not forget this, which is a way of understanding hope in the Lord.
To receive this gift, we are called to set out with the amazement of the shepherds of Bethlehem. The Gospel says that they, having received the angel’s announcement, «went without delay» (Lk 2:16). This is the indication to find lost hope again, renew it within us, sow it in the desolations of our time and our world: without delay. And there are so many desolations in this time!
EliminaAnd there are so many desolations in this time! Think of the wars, the machine-gun children, the bombs on schools and hospitals. Do not delay, do not slow down, but let the good news draw you in.
Without delay, let us go to see the Lord who was born for us, with a light and awake heart, ready to meet, so that we can translate hope into our life situations. And this is our task: to translate hope into the different situations of life. Because Christian hope is not a happy ending to be passively waited for, it is not the happy end of a film: it is the promise of the Lord to welcome here, now, in this land that suffers and that groans. It therefore asks us not to linger, not to drag ourselves into habits, not to stop in mediocrity and laziness; it asks us - Saint Augustine would say - to be indignant about things that do not go well and have the courage to change them; He asks us to be pilgrims in search of the truth, never tired dreamers, women and men who let themselves be disturbed by the dream of God, which is the dream of a new world where peace and justice reign.
We learn from the example of the shepherds: the hope that is born in this night does not tolerate the indolence of the sedentary and the laziness of those who have settled in their comfort - and many of us, we have the danger of settling in our comfort -; Hope does not admit the false prudence of those who do not shift in order to avoid compromise, and the calculation of those who think only of themselves; hope is incompatible with the quiet life of those who do not raise their voices against evil and injustices committed on the skin of the poorest. On the contrary, Christian hope, while it invites us to wait patiently for the Kingdom that sprouts and grows, demands from us the audacity to anticipate this promise today, through our responsibility, and not only through our compassion. And here perhaps it will be good for us to question our compassion: I
Can I suffer-with? let’s think.
Looking at how often we settle in this world, adapting to its mentality, a good writer priest so prayed for the Holy Christmas: Lord, I ask you some torment, some restlessness, some remorse. At Christmas I would like to be dissatisfied. Happy, but also dissatisfied. Happy for what you do, dissatisfied for my lack of answers. Please take away our fake peace and put in our "manger", always too full, a stash of thorns. Put the desire for something else in your mind» (A. Pronzato, La novena di Natale). The desire for something else. Do not stand still. Let us not forget that the still water is the first to be corrupted.
Christian hope is precisely the "something else" that asks us to move "without delay". We disciples of the Lord, in fact, are asked to find in him our greatest hope, and then bring it without delay, as pilgrims of light in the darkness of the world.
Sisters, brothers, this is the Jubilee, this is the time of hope! It invites us to rediscover the joy of meeting with the Lord, calls us to spiritual renewal and commits us in the transformation of the world, so that this becomes a time of jubilee: become it for our mother Earth, distorted by the logic of profit; Become it for the poorest countries, burdened with unjust debts; become it for all those who are prisoners of old and new slavery.
To us all, the gift and commitment to bring hope where it has been lost: where life is wounded, in expectations betrayed, in dreams broken, in failures that break the heart; in the fatigue of those who can no longer cope, in the bitter loneliness of those who feel defeated, in the suffering that digs the soul; in the long and empty days of the prisoners, in the cold and narrow rooms of the poor, in the places profaned by war and violence. Bring hope there, sow hope there.
EliminaThe Jubilee opens so that hope, the hope of the Gospel, the hope of love and the hope of forgiveness may be given to all.
And we return to the crib, look at the crib, look at the tenderness of God that is manifested in the face of the Child Jesus, and ask ourselves: Is this expectation in our heart? Is there this hope in our hearts? [... ] Contemplating the friendliness of God who overcomes our misgivings and fears, let us also contemplate the greatness of the hope that awaits us. [... ] May this vision of hope illuminate our daily journey» (C. M. Martini, Christmas Homily, 1980).
Sister, brother, in this night it is for you that the "holy door" of God’s heart opens. Jesus, God-with-us, is born for you, for me, for us, for every man and woman. And, you know? , with Him joy blossoms, with Him life changes, with Him hope does not disappoint.
P. FRANCIS
EliminaFAUSTI - "It was the true light" the Word, which is the "true" light, Every man has within himself the light of the Word. Despite the dis-listening, he is done for it, because it is done by it and of it. In his heart shines an inner, unquenchable light. It is the desire for truth and love that leaves him restless until he has the joy of finding what he is looking for.
EliminaThe Word, which is towards the Father, comes into the world as his life and light. Even before the promise to Abraham and the coming of the Messiah, the light of the Word is among men as wisdom that inspires them to the good, illuminating from within their minds and freeing their hearts. This light, which is in each one ,is man's most inalienable good and offers to all, even through the most personal and mysterious ways, to enter into dialogue with the Father.
Despite the false lights, lies and slavery, every man is seduced by an "ancient and ever new beauty", which at least vaguely foretells and of which he is incurably ill. That is why he immediately recognizes it when it presents itself to him, in any way, as the light of his life.
Every man is "very beautiful" (Gen 1:31) because in his deepest essence he is listening to the Word. And if he responds, his face lights up of the light of God.
The Word, as it was addressed to the Father before creation, after it is also addressed to the world, to address it to the Father, even before becoming Flesh.
Whoever accepts the Word has the dignity of the Word itself: it "becomes" what it is. It is a process of transformation: the Word makes us become children, putting us in dialogue with the Father.
Our generation as children of God is the work of God himself through the Word.
It is not blood or flesh or the will of man that will generate us children of God, but the Flesh and Blood of the Son of man, who does the Will of the Father.
The becoming Flesh of the Word is the point of arrival of the history of God that is communicating itself to man. The eternal Word that was addressed to God and is God, in a precise moment "became" Flesh.
The way in which God communicates with us changes. What has always been and still is, "became" man, sharing our deathal condition. The love either finds or makes similar.
God is Love and whoever loves gives himself totally. When He becomes Flesh, His gift is complete and definitive.
God assumes a new relationship with His creature, which is to put Himself on a par with her to communicate fully with her. God is "a" man! Not a "divine and universal" man, with an ethereal body, made of light. God is a real and concrete man: Jesus.
Every fragility, weakness and limit, the being-for-the-death of our condition, becomes His.
And it is precisely His Flesh, and nothing else, that reveals the Glory. The Glory is God Himself, who manifests Himself in His unique splendour. This Glory is His, that of the Word, which we contemplate in the "flesh" of the man Jesus.
In reality, every flesh comes from the Word; in its turn, the Word is the life and light of every flesh.
John does not narrate the transfiguration, his entire Gospel is a Transfiguration, an Epiphany of God, a contemplation of the Glory in the flesh of the Son. From this moment on, John will no more speak of the Logos, but of the Son, and God will be called Father. The Son is full of the Gift of Knowledge of the Father. That is why it is the Son who wants and can communicate the Father to his brothers and sisters.