READING OF THE DAY First reading from the Book of Exodus EX 22:20-26
Thus says the LORD: "You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry. My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword; then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.
"If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people, you shall not act like an extortioner toward him by demanding interest from him. If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before sunset; for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in? If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate."
Second reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians 1 THES 1:5C-10
Brothers and sisters: You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit, so that you became a model for all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. For they themselves openly declare about us what sort of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to await his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to Matthew MT 22:34-40
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law tested him by asking, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER May the Lord grant us the grace, only this one: pray for our enemies; to pray for those who wish us ill, who do not love us; to pray for those who do us harm, who persecute us. And of us knows them by both names” I pray for this person, for that person, for this person, for that person… I assure that that this prayer will do two things: it will make the person better, because prayer is powerful and it will make us more as children of the Father. (Santa Marta 14 June 2016)
S. FAUSTI - "You will love" God is Love, and He commands us to love. To co-mmand means to send together: God sends us together towards love, so that His Life may also become ours. Love, in fact, makes one's life become the life of the other. The desire to be like God is not fulfilled by having everything in one's hands, but by putting oneself in the hands of the Father and one's brothers and sisters, for love! In love there is no good and evil, there is only good! God cannot be grasped with the mind or hands, but "understand, contain" in the heart. To love is to have the other in the heart. We are made to love, because God made us in His image and likeness. To know serves to love: one does not love except what one knows. And to love in turn serves to understand: one does not understand anything except what one loves. Love and intellect are mutually nourished: it is the dynamic tension proper to love, in an endless virtuous circle. Love concerns not only the heart and mind, but also life. Love is above all joy of the heart for the good of the other (the opposite is envy): it is expressed with the mouth as praise (the opposite is criticism), and is realized with the hands, placed at the service of the other as well as of myself. It manifests itself more in deeds than in words. Let us love one another not with words, but with deeds and in truth (1Jn 3:18). Love leads one to communicate what one has and is, until the union of intellect, will and action. Diversity and limitations -even negative ones- are not a place of concealment and aggression, perpetrated or suffered, but of acceptance and mutual service. The command is twofold: Loving God and neighbor, because only by loving the Father and brothers and sisters we become what we are: children. In this way we reach our identity, healing the original break with the Other, with ourselves and with others. Jesus is the Lord who makes Himself my neighbor and loves me with all His heart, so that I can do the same. With the same love I love Him and my brother, because He became my brother; I love God and man because God became man! For every time I love the last of my brothers, I love Him (Mt25) who became the last of all. Mutual love is the badge of the Christian. "By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (Jn 13:35).
Jesus is the most beautiful Name, as Paul says, "the Name above all other Names, and in His Name let every knee bend in heaven, on earth and under the ground, and let every tongue proclaim that Jesus is Lord, to the Glory of the Father" (Eph 2:9-1). And we ask Jesus to give us His own Love for the Father, to love Him as He does, with all the heart, with all the mind, with all the strength! I ask Jesus for forgiveness for having sometimes forgotten to be always loved by the Father, in any trial, suffering, humiliation. Always and everywhere the Father is Love, only Love, for everyone. Only Jesus has glorified the Father in total obedience, and I, rebellious and inconstant, still do not know how to trust Him totally, and I desire to defend myself, to make myself right. Only Jesus loved me at all costs, He gave His Life, He conquered my darkness. To the Lord only Glory, Trust, Praise, Adoration, Blessing! He is Our Creator, the Lord, He alone is healing, He alone is embrace, He alone is the total gift without measure of the Spirit! (Jn 3:34) And for every pain, let us invoke Him, let us contemplate His wounds, His Cross, The Love that conquered the world... Let us look at the great trial we are living, He is present, as He promised us and we entrust ourselves to Him, the Living One forever, and we are children with Him. And with Him we love the Father, we invoke Him, to the Father only our hands raised, Our "Thy Will be done" and "Thy Kingdom come". The Father knows what we need! As children we ask with confidence! And not only for us, but for the brothers and sisters we love as ourselves, purified by His forgiveness, we ask for everyone, for every pain, for every need, for every sigh!
READING OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFirst reading from the Book of Exodus
EX 22:20-26
Thus says the LORD:
"You shall not molest or oppress an alien,
for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.
You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.
If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me,
I will surely hear their cry.
My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword;
then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.
"If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people,
you shall not act like an extortioner toward him
by demanding interest from him.
If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge,
you shall return it to him before sunset;
for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body.
What else has he to sleep in?
If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate."
Second reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians
1 THES 1:5C-10
Brothers and sisters:
You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake.
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord,
receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit,
so that you became a model for all the believers
in Macedonia and in Achaia.
For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth
not only in Macedonia and in Achaia,
but in every place your faith in God has gone forth,
so that we have no need to say anything.
For they themselves openly declare about us
what sort of reception we had among you,
and how you turned to God from idols
to serve the living and true God
and to await his Son from heaven,
whom he raised from the dead,
Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to Matthew
MT 22:34-40
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law tested him by asking,
"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"
He said to him,
"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
May the Lord grant us the grace, only this one: pray for our enemies; to pray for those who wish us ill, who do not love us; to pray for those who do us harm, who persecute us. And of us knows them by both names” I pray for this person, for that person, for this person, for that person… I assure that that this prayer will do two things: it will make the person better, because prayer is powerful and it will make us more as children of the Father. (Santa Marta 14 June 2016)
S. FAUSTI - "You will love" God is Love, and He commands us to love. To co-mmand means to send together: God sends us together towards love, so that His Life may also become ours. Love, in fact, makes one's life become the life of the other.
RispondiEliminaThe desire to be like God is not fulfilled by having everything in one's hands, but by putting oneself in the hands of the Father and one's brothers and sisters, for love! In love there is no good and evil, there is only good! God cannot be grasped with the mind or hands, but "understand, contain" in the heart. To love is to have the other in the heart. We are made to love, because God made us in His image and likeness. To know serves to love: one does not love except what one knows. And to love in turn serves to understand: one does not understand anything except what one loves. Love and intellect are mutually nourished: it is the dynamic tension proper to love, in an endless virtuous circle.
Love concerns not only the heart and mind, but also life. Love is above all joy of the heart
for the good of the other (the opposite is envy): it is expressed with the mouth as praise (the opposite is criticism), and is realized with the hands, placed at the service of the other as well as of myself. It manifests itself more in deeds than in words. Let us love one another not with words, but with deeds and in truth (1Jn 3:18).
Love leads one to communicate what one has and is, until the union of intellect, will and action.
Diversity and limitations -even negative ones- are not a place of concealment and aggression, perpetrated or suffered, but of acceptance and mutual service.
The command is twofold: Loving God and neighbor, because only by loving the Father and brothers and sisters we become what we are: children. In this way we reach our identity, healing the original break with the Other, with ourselves and with others.
Jesus is the Lord who makes Himself my neighbor and loves me with all His heart, so that I can do the same. With the same love I love Him and my brother, because He became my brother; I love God and man because God became man!
For every time I love the last of my brothers, I love Him (Mt25) who became the last of all.
Mutual love is the badge of the Christian. "By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (Jn 13:35).
RispondiEliminaJesus is the most beautiful Name, as Paul says, "the Name above all other Names, and in His Name let every knee bend in heaven, on earth and under the ground, and let every tongue proclaim that Jesus is Lord, to the Glory of the Father" (Eph 2:9-1). And we ask Jesus to give us His own Love for the Father, to love Him as He does, with all the heart, with all the mind, with all the strength!
I ask Jesus for forgiveness for having sometimes forgotten to be always loved by the Father, in any trial, suffering, humiliation. Always and everywhere the Father is Love, only Love, for everyone.
Only Jesus has glorified the Father in total obedience, and I, rebellious and inconstant, still do not know how to trust Him totally, and I desire to defend myself, to make myself right.
Only Jesus loved me at all costs, He gave His Life, He conquered my darkness.
To the Lord only Glory, Trust, Praise, Adoration, Blessing! He is Our Creator, the Lord, He alone is healing, He alone is embrace, He alone is the total gift without measure of the Spirit! (Jn 3:34)
And for every pain, let us invoke Him, let us contemplate His wounds, His Cross, The Love that conquered the world...
Let us look at the great trial we are living, He is present, as He promised us and we entrust ourselves to Him, the Living One forever, and we are children with Him.
And with Him we love the Father, we invoke Him, to the Father only our hands raised, Our "Thy Will be done" and "Thy Kingdom come". The Father knows what we need! As children we ask with confidence! And not only for us, but for the brothers and sisters we love as ourselves, purified by His forgiveness, we ask for everyone, for every pain, for every need, for every sigh!