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A commentary on Matth 28, 16-20: Holy Trinity Sunday, May 31, 2105

This Sunday dedicated to the Holy Trinity is, somehow, the highest point in our liturgical year. The disciple missionary, who tries to identify himself with Jesus Christ, receives today, in adoration and contemplation, a proposal to approach the mystery of God, a reality that is close to his most intimate identity (S. Agustin), but at the same time overrides every frontier and every human dimension. The Church offers today a reading of the last verses of Mathew’s gospel, where mention is made of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Let us reflect a bit on a few concepts that we can find in these last verses of Matthew:

1) To go up the mountain
Jesus meets his disciples on a mountain, in Galilee. It may seem an irrelevant geographical note, but I do not think so. In a sense, all of us are marked by geography. At least, on my side, I must say that some mountains have left a definitive mark in my personal life. I remember, for example, the Sinai majestic pics: there I could understand quite easily how Moses and Elia could feel the extraordinary presence of God (Cfr Ex 19, 20; 1 Kings 19, 8); I remember also the fantastic Machu Pichu in Peru, where I had de impression of being at the centre of our Planet and to enter into communion with the ancient Peruvians… In fact, for many religions and cultures mountains are a place of God’s revelation (theophany). And that can be easily understood: mountains help us to come out of ourselves, to overcome routine and superficiality, looking for the highest level of our personal conscience. And it’s precisely there, in the highest level of our conscience, that appears as a presence that cannot be expressed in words, but it’s clearly perceived as very real and authentic.
Jesus, on his side, used to go quite often to the mountain, alone or with the disciples, reaching, as the son of Mary, the highest level of conscience and communion with the Infinite Love; such an experience has become an extraordinary gift also for us, his disciples and brethren. Following his steps, we need also to climb continuously the mountain of our conscience, with the help of a place which invites us to overcome routine, noise and superficiality.

2) Adoration and doubt
Confronted with Jesus, identified “on the mountain” as the Son of God, the disciples experience a double movement of adoration and doubt. On one side, they feel the need to prostrate themselves and acknowledge the Divine presence in the Master and Friend, because only in adoration we can approach the mystery of God; word do not help and even sometimes they may sound almost like a “blasphemy”, in the sense that no words can contain that reality that one can just glimpse from our deepest conscience. That’s why, together with a sense of joy and adoration, the disciples experience also uneasiness and doubt: they are quite aware that they cannot reach to God and that all or words and concepts are limited and , in a sense, not completely truthful. All our concepts about God are inadequate and must be continuously corrected, with the help of the doubt, which lead us not to “sit” over what we have understood and to be ever open to new insights. God is awaiting us always in front of us on the way of history.

3) The name of God
Different people, cultures and religions, “grope about” for the mystery of God, giving Him different names according their own cultural experience. Israel, on his side, decided rather not to pronounce God’s name, because really no human being can “name” God. When somebody gives a name to something or somebody, somehow, he takes possession and manipulates the “named” object. But God cannot be possessed or manipulated. Nor even Jesus gives a name to God; what he does is to reveal his relationship with God as his Father and his Spirit. And He commands his disciple to go to the world and baptize “in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit”. When we are baptized, following this mandate, we do not name God, but we are consecrated to become members of that divine “family”. We –and the whole humanity- are called and consecrated to be in communion with this divine mystery of relationships and love.

4) God-communion
The most important religions have reached the idea of a unique God and this is an important step in the history of mankind. But Jesus, from the “mountain” of his human conscience, teaches us that God is unique, but not “single”; not “lonely”, but communitarian. In the same way, we, human beings, created on God’s image, are made to live in communion. None of us is complete; we need to be completed by others before reaching the image of God: Father-Son-Spirit. When somebody denies a member of the community is denying God. To adore God means to welcome Him/Her in the sanctuary of the conscience and, at the same time, in the concrete reality of every human being, in its marvellous singularity and diversity.

Fr. Antonio Villarino
Roma

A Prayer to the Holy Spirit: John 15, 26-27.12, 12.15 (24th May, Pentecost Sunday)

In this Sunday of Pentecost, we read two of the five promises that Jesus made, according to the Gospel of John.
Where is the difference between a professor in religion and a prophet, a cult organizer and a witness, an expert in Justice and a brother, a theologian and a believer? What is the difference between a well-structured group of people and a community of believers, a Church and an NGO?
The difference lies in the presence of the Spirit, the same that was present at the beginning of Creation, accompanied Jesus from the Incarnation to the Passover, gives life to the Church and blows wherever She wants, in the world and in human History.
On this matter, more than a commentary, I wish to share with you a prayer to the Holy Spirit, a prayer that each one may correct, complete, reduce, according to his/her own experience in live.

Come, Holy Spirit
Break the barriers of my routine;
make my prayer truthful and deep;
make me live fully every moment,
every action,
every thought.
Give me the willingness to do good,
to be always ready,
to enjoy live with simplicity, good humour and love.
Overflow into my spirt and my body,
my mind and my feelings.

Come, Holy Spirit
Give me confidence.
Help me to overcome the fear
of myself,
of what others might say,
of failure…
Give me the trust a baby has in his own father.

Come, Holy Spirit
Be my inner teacher,
relate my heart to the heart of the Father,
so that I may know from the inside,
love truthfully,
avoid any falsity.
Come, Holy Spirit
Make me open and ready.
Lead me to act as a true brother,
overcoming any sense of indifference.
Help me to be ready to serve,
and to offer my time and energies
for the good of any one that might need them.

Come, Holy Spirit
Give me freedom and courage,
to be myself,
to be led by your inspirations,
to not confuse freedom with whims,
courage with pride and stubbornness.
Be the light that illuminates my walk,
the wind that pushes me on the way of generosity.

Come, Holy Spirit
Make me a missionary, here and now,
in the concrete circumstances of my life.
Give me the spirit of dialogue,
show me how to listen.
Help me to be open to new ideas,
and proposals;
to be ever ready to learn.
Help me to see always the best side of those around me
and of what they say and do.

Come, Holy Spirit
Fill me with your joy,
give me happiness and good humour.
Let me not confuse fidelity and harshness.
Do not allow the problems become a source of bitterness in my life:
Let me be a monument of praise and gratitude
to the Father of all Creation and to You, Holy Spirit.

Come, Holy Spirit
Make me resilient in front of failures,
big and small.
Help me not loose courage
before the incoherence of my brothers and sisters,
the sins of the Church,
the corruption in society,
my own shortcomings.
Give me your humble truth and your free love.
Now and for ever. Amen.

Fr Antonio Villarino
Rome

A commentary on Mk 16, 15-20: Ascension Day, May 17th 2015

This time the liturgy “jumps” from the Gospel of John, which we have been readings in the last Sundays, to the last chapter of Mark. We actually read the five last verses, where it’s shown to us how Jesus passed the “mission baton” to the community of disciples, the Church that is now continuing His mission in the world; Let us see briefly each of these five verses:

1.- “Go into the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation”
It cannot said more clearly. Jesus’ friends and disciples understood quite soon three things: a) that the experience of friendship and discipleship they had with Jesus was a kind of a “precious pearl”, that it was the most important thing that ever had happened in their lives; b) that in spite of His death – or rather in and through His death- Jesus was not a looser but a winner –not by way of arrogance but way of love- and that He is now living with the Father – and, consequently, continuously present in each and every historical time-; c) that this marvellous news could not remain hidden, but it should be spread to all the corners of the Earth. To proclaim this “Good News”, this “gospel”, is a mandate, not to impose on others an ideology or a set of rites, but to share with all the enormous gift received.

2.- “He who believes and is baptized will be saved”
The disciples understand that the mercy of God has been revealed to them and to all the human beings in the person of Jesus Christ. To receive that mercy, they do not have to be “the best ones”; they only have to believe, that is, not to close themselves up in their own arrogance and hypocrisy, but to open themselves and accept the free Love that is offered to them. The Baptism is the meaningful sign of that “conversion”, of that acknowledgement of our sins and of our purification an liberation by the powerful love of the One, “who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, being born in the likeness of men”.

3.- “They will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover”
Sometimes, it seems that doing mission consists in preaching. And, certainly, words are quite important; they allow us to illuminate our way, to enter into relationships with others and with God… But the Christian Message is much more than just words. It us action, education, health, freedom… It acts in the concrete lives of people. It’s interesting to note how from the beginning Mission has gone together with solidarity (hospitals, schools, homes for elderly and children…). This actions are not means to gain the sympathy of people; they are “messianic signs”, actions similar to those Jesus used to do in Galilee, concrete actions that show the concrete love and care of the Father for each person in need and distress. For the western world, quite often, healing is reduced to “physical healing”, but the healing the disciples experience is much more: it goes to the deepest root of the person, with evident positive effects in all its dimensions: physical, psychological, social and others. There’s no doubt, The Gospel, when it’s announced and received in sincerity, carries in itself a powerful healing and liberating force.

4. “He was taken into the heaven and sat down at the right hand of God”
Certainly, the words used in this sentence –taken into heaven, Sat down, right hand- are part of a symbolic language that tries to transmit an important truth with various dimensions, one of which can be expressed in the following terms: Jesus, being now “in heaven” (beyond the Earth), has overcome the limitations proper to a Galilean born in the first Century; now He is sharing the same age and condition than all of us, from every culture and human condition. In his new condition, Jesus cannot longer be manipulated (“Do not touch me”, He said to the Magdalene), but He is near to each one in whatever condition we are: man or woman, black or white, more or less sinner, left -wing or right-wing… We all can be in communion with the One who is now “sitting at the right hand of God”, in every historical epoch and in every human condition.

5.- “They went forth and preached everywhere, while the worked with them”
The disciples did not remain passive in Jerusalem, lost in a nostalgic attachment to the past. They took responsibility for the Gospel in the world and put themselves on the way, sure that the Lord was with them, even if in a different manner. This is the Church, the community of disciples that takes upon itself the responsibility to share the gospel to the last corner of the Earth. Each one of us is a part of this Church and has a part in its mission. The mission that Jesus entrusted to us for the life of millions.
Fr. Antonio Villarino
Roma

A commentary on John 15, 9-17, VI Sunday of Easter, May 10th 2015

We continue Reading the gospel of John, as in previous Sundays, but this time we leave behind the allegories (the Good Shepherd, the Vine and the branches) to come to a direct and moving declaration of friendship in a circle formed by Jesus, the Father and the disciples. I invite you to read this text imagining to be there in that room “at the upper floor”, in that house in Jerusalem, where Jesus was staying with his friends, before confronting the most decisive “hour” in His life. Let us go a bit into detail:

1.- The decisive hour, the time of truth
In chapters thirteenth to fourteenth, John tells us about Jesus’ gestures, feelings and words in those last hours of His life, when He was already aware of the deadly conflict He had with the authorities of His nation and His project of the Kingdom appeared set for a complete failure. The text we read today resounds with a special emotional energy, because what is at stake it’s not an idea or a project, but something much more relevant and “personal”: the quality of His relationships with His Father and His disciples.
In fact, that Holy Thursday was one of this crucial moments that we have in life, when we can become cowards and traitors (avoiding suffering) or reach the maximum of generosity, confirming our unconditioned faithfulness and our readiness to give up even our whole life in a supreme decision of confidence, trusting in God and in the Project (vocation) he has called us to follow. In that crucial moment, Jesus celebrates with his friends, the most important rite of His religious Tradition, the Passover, making it new and present in His own life. As the People did in Egypt, the same way Jesus prepared Himself “to pass”, in His case, “from this world to the Father”. In such a moment of supreme decision, life is played at its very essentials and Jesus thinks shows what it’s that really matters to Him.

2.- In the end, only love matters
Jesus has shared three intense years with His disciples. Together they travelled quite a lot from Galilee to Jerusalem; together they cured sick people, announced forgiveness to sinners, ate with humble and rich people, had big arguments with Pharisees, proposed a strong moral renewal… But now, when the end is nearing, all that seems to a certain point secondary. In fact, what really matters to Jesus in those dramatic hours is what He says clearly in today’s reading: “As my Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love”.
This is the secret of His life: Jesus has no doubts, even in the most dramatic moments and sufferings, that He is loved by the Father. That is the source of His strength, serenity, and deep joy that makes Him exult before the beauty of Nature or before those simple people, to whom God reveals himself as a God of wisdom and pardon, ready to re-construct broken hearts. That is the source of His complete freedom from fanatic moral condemnations from left or from right. And Jesus shares that experience of love with His friends, even if they do on understand Him fully. As a matter of fact, they do not have to be perfect or very clever; the only thing that, at this dramatic moment, really matters is that He loves them as the Father loves Him. They are not “servants”; they are not “civil servants” of a determined political, social or even religious project; they are “friends”, more, they are “brethren”; with them He shares everything; joys and sorrows, failures and successes… and, over all, the Father’s love.

3.- To abide
To His Friends and brothers, Jesus aske sonly one thing: that the love each other and abide in His love. But this love between Jesus and His disciples is not a “cheap” feeling for superficial or “shallow” people, with no roots (like a plan in the sand). It’s rather a stout friendship, rooted in the awareness of being children of the same Father and of sharing the same project of a new humanity. It’s not a friendship of convenience (that ends when the benefices end), but a friendship that endures beyond failures and successes, a friendship that remains in time and open to all those who want to follow Jesus from whatever culture or condition. A friendship that leads to the acceptance of His mandates in a mature and concrete faithfulness. A friendship that becomes affective nearness, capacity to forgive and understand, faithfulness and so many things that we can experience in our daily lives.
A friendship we celebrate and confirm in every Eucharistic celebration; a friendship that we pray that it becomes fertile and gives is Jesus Joy and mission.
Fr. Antonio Villarino
Roma