6th Sunday in Ordinary Time – February 17, 2019 – Year C

The Beatitudes: A Good News

 

There is a video by Fr. Fernando Armellini with English subtitles

commenting on today’s Gospel reading:

 

Introduction

 

Those who has the money to invest, do not rely on the first sales pitch that is on the street. He asks for information, seeks advice from some expert in economics, checks which actions are down and which are rising, which gives major reliability and which are on sale. Only at the end, after careful consideration of the risks, he chooses what to buy.

 

Our life is a precious capital that God has placed in our hands and must be productive. What are the values at ​​play? What are the actions that will bump up the capital? Some are in great demand and majority of the people is betting everything on them: success at any cost, career, money, health, glory, the look, the pursuit of pleasure. Will it be a right choice?

 

Other actions instead depreciate: the service to the last ones without gain, patience, endurance, the renunciation of the superfluous, generosity toward those in need, moral rectitude…. How is one, who relies on these values, considered in our culture: wise, naive, a dreamer, an idealist?

 

Had we many lives, we would grope to play one on each wheel, but we have only one, unrepeatable life: we are not allowed to make mistakes. The advice from a reliable connoisseur is essential and urgent, but there is the looming danger of choosing the wrong advisor. A wise saying always proves right: “Do not trust anyone, not even friends.” Focus on the values ​​that God guarantees.

 

To internalize the message, we repeat:

“Blessed is he who puts his hope in the Lord.”

 

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7th Sunday in Ordinary Time – February 24, 2019 – Year C

What do you do for free?

 

There is a video by Fr. Fernando Armellini with English subtitles

commenting on today’s Gospel reading:

 

Introduction

 

Ernesto says in front of his colleagues at school: “I respect everyone, but if they kidnap my child I certainly will kill the responsible.”

 

Joseph is an employee; one day he comes home upset by anger for the injustice suffered and confides to his wife: “I have to make Luigi pay! When he will need a favor, he will have to ask me on his knees and I will make him wait until when I want.”

 

The jeweler George was robbed three times by robbers and was also threatened with death; now he keeps a gun at hand to defend himself.

 

Let’s evaluate these three attitudes. 

 

We all agree in considering that Ernesto, Joseph, and George are not wicked: They do not attack those who do good, merely they react against those who do evil. Violence, retaliation, revenge have their own logic and can be justified.

 

Maybe we do not share the way they intend to restore justice, but the goal that the three aim is not evil. They just want to punish and deter those who commit reprehensible actions. We could say that they are just people: They respond good with the good and evil to what is evil. But is it enough to be considered Christians by being just? 

 

Who is inwardly transformed by love and by the Spirit of Christ goes beyond the logic of people and places in the world a new sign: the love towards those who do not deserve it.

 

To internalize the message, we repeat:

“Love your enemies, to be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”

 

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time – March 3, 2019 – Year C

There is only one Master

 

There is a video by Fr. Fernando Armellini with English subtitles

commenting on today’s Gospel reading:

 

Introduction

 

Like all those who teach the way of God—as the doctors of the temple that the twelve-year-old Jesus went to listen to (Lk 2:46), as the Baptist (Lk 3:12), as Nicodemus (Jn 3:10)—also Jesus is called master by the people. In fact, if we exclude the cases just mentioned, this term (which occurs 48 times in the Gospels) is always referred to and only to him.

 

Jesus, however, is an original master. He speaks and behaves differently from the others. He does not give his classes in a school; he teaches along the way. He does not require a fee from his listeners, does not reserve his training for an elite of intellectuals. He addresses the poor of the earth, those despised by the masters of Israel wondering: “How can a man who guides the plow become wise, he whose pride lies in snapping a whip and talks of nothing but cattle?” (Sir 38:25). He is a free master in both the interpretation and in the practice of the Torah, but he surprises especially because instead of inviting the disciples to follow the precepts of the Law, from the beginning of his mission, he asks them to follow him. The Law is his person, his life, not the quagmire of rabbinical discussions.

 

The masters of Israel explained what should be done to please God, relying on their knowledge of the Torah. They presented their teachings, derived from the scriptures, in the words used also by the prophets: “Thus says the Lord.”

 

Master Jesus speaks differently. He introduces his teachings with the expression: “I tell you,” placing his words alongside those of God.

 

In the Gospels, the apostles are never called masters, but always and only pupils, disciples who should learn not a lesson but a life, following the only Master.

 

To internalize the message, we repeat:

“Only one is our master, Christ the Lord, and we are all disciples.”