Homilies and Other Writings

  (Homily on Matthew 1:18-24, Fourth Sunday of Advent) The time for the Messiah to be born had come, and God needed three people: a woman to accept the challenge of being a mother; a man who would protect both mother and child, respecting the chastity of the mother and the divine dignity of her Child; and an angel to dispel the darkness of doubt in Joseph, an angel with a message of consolation and joy, an angel bringing clear indications of the way forward. 1. The woman receives an honor from God, but also an immense challenge… It was an honour for Mary to contribute with God’s plan of saving human beings. God, who created all things by Himself, did not want to restore His creation without the help of a woman. He Who could have saved us by Himself, did not want to save us without Mary’s yes. Because God loved Mary, He associated her to His work of Salvation, and made her the new Eve, the new Mother of all the living, that is, of all those who participate in the life of grace ...

  What do we Christians hope for? What is our hope about? In today’s Gospel, we see the existential impact of Jesus’ message on the people of His time. In other words, the Gospel shows Christian hope against the background of human desires. The other readings will help us to delineate the object of our hope, what is it that we expect from Jesus’ Gospel. 1. The words of John the Baptist, though not coming from his discouragement, may very well apply to our discouragement: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” ( Matthew 11:2-11). We had expected peace, happiness… we had expected health, financial stability from You, Lord, and we have not always obtained what we had hoped for. “ We had hoped that you would do this or that for us, and here we are… are you the one that we were expecting would make our lives better, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus’ response is amazing: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the ...

Advent is a time of hope. Not only hope that Jesus will come to save, but also hope that He will save us , that we will benefit from salvation. If Jesus comes to save, but the fruits of His salvation are not shown in us, what’s good about His coming? Those who are not saved cannot rejoice. Those who cannot be saved, or those who think that they cannot be saved, those people have no hope. There is a crisis of hope in many churches, in Christians and also among priests. We have tried so many things to make our churches grow and nothing seems to work. People have tried so many things to attract the youth to our churches, and everything seems to have failed. We have tried so many times to change, to do better, and here we are… What else can we do? What can we hope for? Can Jesus save us? What can we expect from His coming among us? 1. Sometimes we think that there is nothing we can do because we have no strength left, or no talent, or no experience. “If anyone can do something, that g...

  The soldiers, who did not believe in Jesus, said to Him in mockery: “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” ( Luke 23.35-43). For them, salvation meant worldly welfare, bodily health. A true king, for them, must have a good life himself and be able to provide a good life to his subjects. The not-so-good thief, for his part, did have faith. He knew perhaps that there was another life, but he was interested in this life only “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” As if he were saying, “ what’s the point of having power if you do not use it to avoid suffering? Is there any meaning in this suffering ?” Jesus is a King who can save from the spiritual death of sin and from the eternal death of hell; Jesus can destroy also corporeal death and give Eternal Life in Heaven to our bodies also. But in order to overcome his enemies, sin and death, this King needed to fight. He needed to rescue His subjects from sin, and the only way to do it was by taking upon Himself ...

  Today’s readings touch upon one of the most important problematics in today’s world: our relationship with the truth. What is truth? What is our truth, as human beings? Where is that truth and where does it come from? 1. The prophet Isaiah says that many nations shall come to Jerusalem and say to each other: “‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” ( Isaiah 2.1-5). This is a prophecy of the Messianic times: the Apostles were instructed by Jesus to preach the Good News to all nations beginning from Jerusalem (cf. Luke 24:46; Acts 1:4-7). Jerusalem is an image of the Kingdom of Heaven, an organized community with the God-man Jesus as its leader and centre; a community that will be perfect in Heaven but begins on earth through the Church. In this Jerusalem, “the thrones for judgment were ...

The Thessalonians believed that the day of the Lord was happening immediately, and so some of them started to say, “What’s the point of working or planning for the future, if the day of the Lord is coming next week, or soon enough?” St. Paul reminds them that the expectation of the Lord’s coming does not excuse them from working in this world ( 2 Thessalonians 3.7-12), and he tells them in his Letter about the signs of the Lord’s coming. Today’s readings may help us to reflect upon what it means to be a Christian in today’s world. For some people being a Christian is coming to church on Sundays, or often enough. Of course, coming to church is part of it, and the most important part of it (because of the Eucharist). But that’s not all. 1. For St. Paul, being a Christian was working for your own food, that is, minding your business. This means doing your job in a productive way, as one who expects fruit. A Christian does not cheat at work. A Christian should love what he does, ev...