08/06/2008 - 10th. Sunday of Ordinary
Time - Year A.
Ist. Reading Hos 6,3-6 Psalm 49 2nd. Reading Rm 4,18-25 Gospel Mt.9,9-13
"He became incarnate from the Virgin Mary": this is how we express
the great mystery of history and eternity. Thanks to this mystery we are able
to know all the other mystries: that of the Fatherhood and Mercy of God, that
of our santicification and of our sharing in the divinity, and the certitude
of the human dignity and its destination to be divine! The Son of God became
incarnate: he became flesh, real, visible, human and man. This is a mystery,
a gift of God. Hence we cannot fully comprehend it, and not even explain it
in an adequate way: its effable! Even so, its a mystery that has been given
to us so that we can build our lives and the history of humanity. We confirm
it because the Gospels speaks of it clearly, and speaks of it as the fullfilment
of the ancient prophesies. To Eve, God had promised a desendency able to strike
the head of the serpent, a disendency more powerful that evil. To the patriarchs
he promised that from their disendency would come him who "would receive
the peoples' homage" (Gen 49,10), he who has the authority of God. The
prophet Isaiah speaks clearly of the virgin who was to bear and give birth to
a son called "God with us"! The Gospel tells us of the angel that
was sent to Nazareth to Mary, a humble daughter of the people of God. She's
addressed with the words of the prophet that in her were to be fulfilled. The
girl is humble, but more humble is God himself, that finds a way in her through
which He could enter into the world and its history.
When human beings complain about God, they open themselves to the evil spirit
of lies: God doesnt fall short of wisdom, on the contrary, in all He does He
is moved by His love for us: He knows what we need, he was what's good for us.
It's when God complains of men, we cannot doubt his discernment. He see right,
we cannot bring excuses. If God complains of us, we can always confess our faults
and ask Him to show us the way of conversion.
Today God complains of men saying: "This love of yours is like a morning
cloud, like the dew that quickly disappears". He is not pleased with our
love, because its too vage, unstable, inconsistent. Its an apparent love that
is happy with its external expression, but doesnt know how to go deep, how to
be radical, and doesnt know how to be faithful. The same complain is found on
the lips of Jesus. He sees that the pharisees, considered as the best faithful
of God, dont have in them the love that God continues to have for those who
are even away from Him. They had stopped to love the sinners, they didnt want
to have anything to do with them, and so they were presenting a God who does
not love His children who are not able to obey all His laws. They are ready
to offer sacrificies to God in the Temple, while they keep away from God the
others who need God, without doing nothing to bring them back to faith with
love and kindness. Jesus teaches them to see men not as sinners but as sick
persons who can be healed.
The sick can be healed if he meets with a good doctor, and the good doctor was
sent by God! He is the good doctor, Jesus, who approaches everyone without the
fear of being contaminated, on the contrary, he goes near, knowing that Him
being near is an infallable medicine! All those who want to please God need
to learn from Him. So one needs to learn mercy, own it, because its the characteristic
of God. No one can be called His son or His friend if one wont put on oneself
mercy towards sinners. Jesus doesnt hesitate to say that He is the doctor that
all need, because there is no one who is without sin. It seems that this is
the first teaching that Jesus want his disciples to learn. He is at table in
Matthew's house to celebrate his call. Matthew has not yet given up everything
to follow Jesus, he had only decided, and he receives already this teaching.
Even he is judged a sinner because of his job. Welcoming Jesus into his house
he comes to experience, thanks to the Master, that God's love doesnt look to
the past of the person, but looks forward, to the future. He can be with Jesus
who called him without taking into account his past.
The whole Church should serve as a doctor and as a medicine, welcoming the sinner
and help him to come closer to Jesus, teaching him how to receive the mercy
he needs and how to share it with others. Im too a member of the Church
Tutta la Chiesa deve essere medico e medicina, accogliendo il peccatore e aiutandolo
ad avvicinarsi a Gesł, insegnandogli a ricevere la misericordia di cui ha bisogno
e a donarla a tutti gli altri. Thanks to Jesus "who was put to death for
our sins and raised to life to justify us", Im too belong to the Church.
In this Church Im to pray and to offer myself for those, who like myself, they
need Jesus, God's salvation, so that He can cancell the sins and welcome all
to that feast which God invites all His children who turns to Him.