Monday, June 19, 2017

Hand him your cloak as well-- Matthew 5:38-42.

Second Letter to the Corinthians 6:1-10. 

Brothers and sisters: As your fellow workers, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
For he says: "In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you." Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
We cause no one to stumble in anything, in order that no fault may be found with our ministry;
on the contrary, in everything we commend ourselves as ministers of God, through much endurance, in afflictions, hardships, constraints,
beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, vigils, fasts;
by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, in a holy spirit, in unfeigned love,
in truthful speech, in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness at the right and at the left;
through glory and dishonor, insult and praise. We are treated as deceivers and yet are truthful;
as unrecognized and yet acknowledged; as dying and behold we live; as chastised and yet not put to death;
as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things.

Psalms 98(97):1.2-3ab.3cd-4. 

Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.

The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.


Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 5:38-42. 

Jesus said to his disciples: "You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on (your) right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.
If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well.
Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles.
Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow."

"Hand him your cloak as well"


Living on Love is giving without limit
Without claiming any wages here below.
Ah! I give without counting, truly sure
That when one loves, one does not keep count!...
Overflowing with tenderness, I have given everything,
To his Divine Heart... lightly I run.
I have nothing left but my only wealth:
Living on Love.

Living on Love is banishing every fear,
Every memory of past faults.
I see no imprint of my sins.
In a moment, Love has burned everything...
Divine Flame, O sweetest Blaze!
I make my home in your hearth.
In your fire I gladly sing: (cf Dn 3,51)
I live on Love!...”

“Living on Love – what strange folly!”
The world says to me, “Ah! stop your singing,
Don't waste your perfumes, your life.
Learn to use them well...”
Loving you, Jesus, is such fruitful loss!...
All my perfumes are yours forever.
I want to sing on leaving this world:
“I die of Love!”

To love is to give everything. It's to give oneself.


Thursday, April 27, 2017

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son

Acts of the Apostles 5:17-26. 

The high priest rose up and all his companions, that is, the party of the Sadducees, and, filled with jealousy,
laid hands upon the apostles and put them in the public jail.
But during the night, the angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison, led them out, and said,
"Go and take your place in the temple area, and tell the people everything about this life."
When they heard this, they went to the temple early in the morning and taught. When the high priest and his companions arrived, they convened the Sanhedrin, the full senate of the Israelites, and sent to the jail to have them brought in.
But the court officers who went did not find them in the prison, so they came back and reported,
"We found the jail securely locked and the guards stationed outside the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside."
When they heard this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were at a loss about them, as to what this would come to.
Then someone came in and reported to them, "The men whom you put in prison are in the temple area and are teaching the people."
Then the captain and the court officers went and brought them in, but without force, because they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

Psalms 34(33):2-3.4-5.6-7.8-9. 

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.

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.

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.

The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.


Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 3:16-21. 

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

"So that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life"


What else, then, does the cross of Christ say to us, the cross that in a sense is the final word of His messianic message and mission? And yet this is not yet the word of the God of the covenant: that will be pronounced at the dawn when first the women and then the Apostles come to the tomb of the crucified Christ, see the tomb empty and for the first time hear the message: "He is risen." They will repeat this message to the others and will be witnesses to the risen Christ.

Yet, even in this glorification of the Son of God, the cross remains, that cross which-through all the messianic testimony of the Man the Son, who suffered death upon it - speaks and never ceases to speak of God the Father, who is absolutely faithful to His eternal love for man, since He "so loved the world" - therefore man in the world-that "he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

Believing in the crucified Son means "seeing the Father» (Jn 14,9), means believing that love is present in the world and that this love is more powerful than any kind of evil in which individuals, humanity, or the world are involved. Believing in this love means believing in mercy. For mercy is an indispensable dimension of love; it is as it were love's second name and, at the same time, the specific manner in which love is revealed and effected vis-a-vis the reality of the evil that is in the world, affecting and besieging man, insinuating itself even into his heart and capable of causing him to "perish in Gehenna" (Mt 10,28).