Rejoice, Jerusalem, and gather together all you who love her. Rejoice with her, you who were in mourning. So you will rejoice and be satisfied in the bosom of her consolations. (Cf. Is 66,10-11)
O Father, who through your Son works wonderfully the redemption of the human race, grant the Christian people to hasten with living faith and generous commitment towards Easter now at hand. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
O Father, who in Christ crucified and risen offer to all your children the embrace of reconciliation, give us the grace of a true conversion, to celebrate with joy the Passover of the Lamb. He is God, and lives and reigns with you.
Reading 1
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.’”
ANGELUS 27 March 2022 The Gospel for this Sunday’s Liturgy recounts the so-called Parable of the Prodigal Son (cf. Lk 15:11-32). It leads us to the heart of God, who always forgives compassionately and tenderly. Always, God always forgives. We are the ones who tire of asking for forgiveness, but he always forgives. It [the parable] tells us that God is a Father who not only welcomes us back, but rejoices and throws a feast for his son who has returned home after squandering all his possessions. We are that son, and it is moving to think about how much the Father always loves us and waits for us.
But there is also the elder son in the same parable who manifested his resentment in front of this Father. It can put us into crisis as well. In fact, this elder son is also within us and we are tempted to take his side, at least in part: he had always done his duty, he had not left home, and so he becomes indignant on seeing the Father embracing his [other] son again after having behaved so badly. He protests and says: “I have served you for so many years and never disobeyed your command”. Instead, for “this son of yours”, you go so far as to celebrate! (cf. vv. 29-30) “I don’t understand you!” This is the indignation of the elder son.
These words illustrate the elder son’s problem. He bases his relationship with his Father solely on pure observance of commands , on a sense of duty. This could also be our problem, the problem among ourselves and with God: losing sight that he is a Father, and living a distant religion, made of prohibitions and duties. And the consequence of this distance is rigidity towards our neighbour whom we no longer see as a brother or sister. In fact, in the parable, the elder son does not say my brother to the Father. No, he says that son of yours , as if to say: he is not my brother. In the end, he risks remaining outside of the house. In fact, the text says: “he refused to go in” (v. 28), because the other one was there.
Seeing this, the Father goes out to plead with him: “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours” (v. 31). He tries to make him understand that for him, every child is all of his life. Parents know this well and are very close to feeling like God does. Something a father says in a novel is very beautiful: “When I became a father, I understood God” (H. de Balzac, Le Père Goriot). At this point in the parable, the Father opens his heart to his elder son and expresses two needs, which are not commands, but essentials for his heart: “It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive” (v. 32). Let us see if we too have in our hearts these two things the Father needs: to make merry and rejoice .
First of all, to make merry , that is, to demonstrate our closeness to those who repent or who are on the way, to those who are in crisis or who are far away. Why should we do this? Because this helps to overcome the fear and discouragement that can come from remembering one’s sins. Those who have made mistakes often feel reproached in their own hearts. Distance, indifference and harsh words do not help. Therefore, according to the Father, we have to offer them a warm welcome that encourages them to go ahead. “But father, he did so many things”: a warm welcome. And we, do we do this? Do we look for those who are far away? Do we want to celebrate with them? How much good an open heart, true listening and a transparent smile can do; to celebrate, not to make them feel uncomfortable! The Father could have said: “Okay, son, come back home, come back to work, go to your room, establish yourself and your work! And this would have been a good way to forgive. But no! God does not know how to forgive without celebrating! And the Father celebrates because of the joy he has because his son has returned.
--->And then, like the Father, we have to rejoice . When someone whose heart is synchronized with God’s sees the repentance of a person, they rejoice, no matter how serious their mistakes may have been. They do not stay focused on errors, they do not point fingers at what they have done wrong, but rejoice over the good because another person’s good is mine as well! And we, do we know how to look at others like this?I would like to recount a fictional story, but one that helps illustrate the heart of the father. There was a pop theatre production, three or four years ago, about the prodigal son, with the entire story. And at the end, when that son decides to return to his father, he talks about it with a friend and says: “I’m afraid my father will reject me, that he won’t forgive me”. And the friend advises him: “Send a letter to your father and tell him, ‘Father, I have repented, I want to come back home, but I’m not sure that you will be happy. If you want to welcome me, please put a white handkerchief in the window’”. And then he began his journey. And when he was near home, at the last bend in the road, he had the house in view. And what did he see? Not one handkerchief: it was full of white handkerchiefs, the windows, everywhere! The Father welcomes us like this, completely, joyfully. This is our Father!
Do we know how to rejoice for others? May the Virgin Mary teach us how to receive God’s mercy so that it might become the light by which we see our neighbours.
After the Angelus:
Dear brothers and sisters, more than a month has gone by since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, since the beginning of this cruel and senseless war, that, like every war, represents a defeat for every one, for everyone of us. We need to reject war, a place of death where fathers and mothers bury their children, where men kill their brothers and sisters without even having seen them, where the powerful decide and the poor die.
War does not devastate the present only, but the future of a society as well. I read that from the beginning of the aggression in Ukraine, one out of every two children has been displaced from their country. This means destroying the future, causing dramatic trauma in the lives of the smallest and most innocent among us. This is the brutality of war — a barbaric and sacrilegious act!
War should not be something that is inevitable. We should not accustom ourselves to war. Instead, we need to convert today’s indignation into tomorrow’s commitment, because if we will emerge from these events, the way we were before, we will all be guilty in some way. Faced with the danger of self-destruction, may humanity understand that the moment has come to abolish war, to erase it from human history, before it erases humans from history.
I pray that every political leader may reflect on this, to commit themselves to this! And, looking on martyred Ukraine, to understand how each day of war worsens the situation for everyone. Therefore, I renew my appeal: Enough. Stop. May weapons be silenced. May peace be seriously pursued. Let us continue to pray untiringly to the Queen of Peace, to whom we consecrated humanity, in particular Russia and Ukraine, with such a huge and intense participation for which I thank all of you. Let us pray together. Hail Mary….
from 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!
Rejoice, Jerusalem,
RispondiEliminaand gather together all you who love her.
Rejoice with her,
you who were in mourning.
So you will rejoice and be satisfied in the bosom of her consolations. (Cf. Is 66,10-11)
O Father, who through your Son
works wonderfully the redemption of the human race,
grant the Christian people to hasten
with living faith and generous commitment
towards Easter now at hand.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
O Father,
who in Christ crucified and risen
offer to all your children
the embrace of reconciliation,
give us the grace of a true conversion,
to celebrate with joy the Passover of the Lamb.
He is God, and lives and reigns with you.
Reading 1
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.
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.’”
POPE FRANCIS
RispondiEliminaANGELUS 27 March 2022
The Gospel for this Sunday’s Liturgy recounts the so-called Parable of the Prodigal Son (cf. Lk 15:11-32). It leads us to the heart of God, who always forgives compassionately and tenderly. Always, God always forgives. We are the ones who tire of asking for forgiveness, but he always forgives. It [the parable] tells us that God is a Father who not only welcomes us back, but rejoices and throws a feast for his son who has returned home after squandering all his possessions. We are that son, and it is moving to think about how much the Father always loves us and waits for us.
But there is also the elder son in the same parable who manifested his resentment in front of this Father. It can put us into crisis as well. In fact, this elder son is also within us and we are tempted to take his side, at least in part: he had always done his duty, he had not left home, and so he becomes indignant on seeing the Father embracing his [other] son again after having behaved so badly. He protests and says: “I have served you for so many years and never disobeyed your command”. Instead, for “this son of yours”, you go so far as to celebrate! (cf. vv. 29-30) “I don’t understand you!” This is the indignation of the elder son.
These words illustrate the elder son’s problem. He bases his relationship with his Father solely on pure observance of commands , on a sense of duty. This could also be our problem, the problem among ourselves and with God: losing sight that he is a Father, and living a distant religion, made of prohibitions and duties. And the consequence of this distance is rigidity towards our neighbour whom we no longer see as a brother or sister. In fact, in the parable, the elder son does not say my brother to the Father. No, he says that son of yours , as if to say: he is not my brother. In the end, he risks remaining outside of the house. In fact, the text says: “he refused to go in” (v. 28), because the other one was there.
Seeing this, the Father goes out to plead with him: “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours” (v. 31). He tries to make him understand that for him, every child is all of his life. Parents know this well and are very close to feeling like God does. Something a father says in a novel is very beautiful: “When I became a father, I understood God” (H. de Balzac, Le Père Goriot). At this point in the parable, the Father opens his heart to his elder son and expresses two needs, which are not commands, but essentials for his heart: “It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive” (v. 32). Let us see if we too have in our hearts these two things the Father needs: to make merry and rejoice .
First of all, to make merry , that is, to demonstrate our closeness to those who repent or who are on the way, to those who are in crisis or who are far away. Why should we do this? Because this helps to overcome the fear and discouragement that can come from remembering one’s sins. Those who have made mistakes often feel reproached in their own hearts. Distance, indifference and harsh words do not help. Therefore, according to the Father, we have to offer them a warm welcome that encourages them to go ahead. “But father, he did so many things”: a warm welcome. And we, do we do this? Do we look for those who are far away? Do we want to celebrate with them? How much good an open heart, true listening and a transparent smile can do; to celebrate, not to make them feel uncomfortable! The Father could have said: “Okay, son, come back home, come back to work, go to your room, establish yourself and your work! And this would have been a good way to forgive. But no! God does not know how to forgive without celebrating! And the Father celebrates because of the joy he has because his son has returned.
--->And then, like the Father, we have to rejoice . When someone whose heart is synchronized with God’s sees the repentance of a person, they rejoice, no matter how serious their mistakes may have been. They do not stay focused on errors, they do not point fingers at what they have done wrong, but rejoice over the good because another person’s good is mine as well! And we, do we know how to look at others like this?I would like to recount a fictional story, but one that helps illustrate the heart of the father. There was a pop theatre production, three or four years ago, about the prodigal son, with the entire story. And at the end, when that son decides to return to his father, he talks about it with a friend and says: “I’m afraid my father will reject me, that he won’t forgive me”. And the friend advises him: “Send a letter to your father and tell him, ‘Father, I have repented, I want to come back home, but I’m not sure that you will be happy. If you want to welcome me, please put a white handkerchief in the window’”. And then he began his journey. And when he was near home, at the last bend in the road, he had the house in view. And what did he see? Not one handkerchief: it was full of white handkerchiefs, the windows, everywhere! The Father welcomes us like this, completely, joyfully. This is our Father!
EliminaDo we know how to rejoice for others? May the Virgin Mary teach us how to receive God’s mercy so that it might become the light by which we see our neighbours.
After the Angelus:
Dear brothers and sisters, more than a month has gone by since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, since the beginning of this cruel and senseless war, that, like every war, represents a defeat for every one, for everyone of us. We need to reject war, a place of death where fathers and mothers bury their children, where men kill their brothers and sisters without even having seen them, where the powerful decide and the poor die.
War does not devastate the present only, but the future of a society as well. I read that from the beginning of the aggression in Ukraine, one out of every two children has been displaced from their country. This means destroying the future, causing dramatic trauma in the lives of the smallest and most innocent among us. This is the brutality of war — a barbaric and sacrilegious act!
War should not be something that is inevitable. We should not accustom ourselves to war. Instead, we need to convert today’s indignation into tomorrow’s commitment, because if we will emerge from these events, the way we were before, we will all be guilty in some way. Faced with the danger of self-destruction, may humanity understand that the moment has come to abolish war, to erase it from human history, before it erases humans from history.
I pray that every political leader may reflect on this, to commit themselves to this! And, looking on martyred Ukraine, to understand how each day of war worsens the situation for everyone. Therefore, I renew my appeal: Enough. Stop. May weapons be silenced. May peace be seriously pursued. Let us continue to pray untiringly to the Queen of Peace, to whom we consecrated humanity, in particular Russia and Ukraine, with such a huge and intense participation for which I thank all of you. Let us pray together. Hail Mary….
from 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.
EliminaI 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!