READING OF THE DAY First reading from the Book of Proverbs PRV 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls. Her husband, entrusting his heart to her, has an unfailing prize. She brings him good, and not evil, all the days of her life. She obtains wool and flax and works with loving hands. She puts her hands to the distaff, and her fingers ply the spindle. She reaches out her hands to the poor, and extends her arms to the needy. Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting; the woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Give her a reward for her labors, and let her works praise her at the city gates.
Second reading from the first Letter of Paul to Thessalonians 1 THES 5:1-6
Concerning times and seasons, brothers and sisters, you have no need for anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night. When people are saying, "Peace and security, " then sudden disaster comes upon them, like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, for that day to overtake you like a thief. For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to Matthew MT 25:14-30
Jesus told his disciples this parable: "A man going on a journey called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one-- to each according to his ability. Then he went away. Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them, and made another five. Likewise, the one who received two made another two. But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master's money.
After a long time the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them. The one who had received five talents came forward bringing the additional five. He said, 'Master, you gave me five talents. See, I have made five more.’ His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master's joy.’ Then the one who had received two talents also came forward and said, 'Master, you gave me two talents. See, I have made two more.' His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master's joy.’ Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said, 'Master, I knew you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter; so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back.' His master said to him in reply, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter? Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return? Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten. For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.'"
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER With these words the Lord reminds us that life is a journey towards eternity; therefore, we are called to employ all the talents that we have, without ever forgetting that “here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come” (Heb 13:14). In this perspective, every instant becomes precious, and thus we must live and act on this earth, while longing for heaven: our feet on the ground, walking on the ground, working on the ground, doing good on the ground and the heart longing for heaven. (Angelus, 11 August 2019)
CROSSING THE THRESHOLD OF HOPE OF ST JOHN PAUL II 2- Thus the saints of every age are also an incarnation of the filial love of Christ, which is the source of a Franciscan love for all creatures and also of love for the saving power of the Cross, which restores to the world the balance between good and evil. Is contemporary man truly moved by a filial fear of God, a fear that is first of all love? One might think-and there is no lack of evidence to this effect-that Hegel's paradigm of the master and the servant is more present in people's consciousness today than is wisdom, whose origin lies in the filial fear of God. The philosophy of arrogance is born of the Hegelian paradigm. The only force capable of effectively counteracting this philosophy is found in the Gospel of Christ, in which the paradigm of master-slave is radically transformed into the paradigm of father-son. The father-son paradigm is ageless. It is older than human history. The "rays of fatherhood" contained in this formulation belong to the Trinitarian Mystery of God Himself, which shines forth from Him, illuminating man and his history. This notwithstanding, as we know from Revelation, in human history the "rays of fatherhood" meet a first resistance in the obscure but real fact of original sin. This is truly the key for interpreting reality. Original sin is not only the violation of a positive command of God but also, and above all, a violation of the will of God as expressed in that command. Original sin attempts, then, to abolish fatherhood, destroying its rays which permeate the created world, placing in doubt the truth about God who is Love and leaving man only with a sense of the master-slave relationship. As a result, the Lord appears jealous of His power over the world and over man; and consequently, man feels goaded to do battle against God. No differently than in any epoch of history, the enslaved man is driven to take sides against the master who kept him enslaved. After all I have said, I could summarize my response in the following paradox: In order to set contemporary man free from fear of himself, of the world, of others, of earthly powers, of oppressive systems, in order to set him free from every manifestation of a servile fear before that "prevailing force" which believers call God, it is necessary to pray fervently that he will bear and cultivate in his heart that true fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom. This fear of God is the saving power of the Gospel. It is a constructive, never destructive, fear. It creates people who allow themselves to be led by responsibility, by responsible love. It creates holy men and women - true Christians - to whom the future of the world ultimately belongs. ( ST JOHN PAUL II)
FAUSTI - This parable is dear to the ethics of capitalism. Talents are to be made fruitful, abundance is a sign of divine blessing, destitution is a curse! In reality, talents are not gifts or goods to be multiplied: instead, they represent the oil of the previous parable (of the ten virgins), which is love for the poor. Talent is the love that the Father has for me, which must "duplicate" in my loving response to my brothers and sisters. Responding to this love, makes me what I am: a son equal to the Father. "Like a man who emigrated to a faraway land," the Lord, after living with us, ended up on the cross, the farthest point from God. There He made Himself near every distance and suffering. Going away, He did not abandon us, but He left us His Spirit, because we, loving, realize our identity. He Himself remains always with us, under His sign. He went to live among the poor, and what we do for them, we do it for Him. If talent is the gift of love received, our love for Him in the poor is the talent that we are called to earn. This is the invitation that Jesus gave the young rich man for inheriting eternal life (19:6-30). Everyone is called to invest his gift. Not who has or gives more is realized, but simply who gives himself. It is not the quantity that counts, but the fact that everything is a gift, to which one responds by giving everything. Those who put their gift underground, for fear of losing it, move away from themselves and others. Our vigilance is wise and industrious, not inert. He who does not invest his talent, loses it. The cause of failure is the false image we have of the Lord. If we consider Him naughty and exigent, our relationship with Him is not one of love, but legalistic, fearful and sterile. The parable is structured in three phases. One past, in which we have received the gift, one present, in which we must make it fruitful, and one future, in which we will be asked to answer for what we have now done of it. The future judgment is not made by God. We do it here and now. He, in the end, will only read what we now write. Fidelity in daily things makes us earn our eternal dwelling place. Our little gestures of love towards our brothers and sisters make us become children. Love, with which we perform every action, is the oil, which makes us shine of the same light as the Father. The good servant is like the One Good. This is the great reward: His joy becomes ours! Even the servant who receives two talents, even though he has received less than half of the previous one, reduplicates his gift and receives the same infinite reward from the Lord. The servant who had received only one talent, if he had invested it in love, would have had the same reward as the other two. He has a false knowledge of the Lord. . This man seems just, because he gives back what is given to him. In reality, he sins gravely against the Lord and against himself: he rejects Him as love, and himself as a gift. His relationship with God is that of an bookkeeper, not that of a son. The Lord has sown love everywhere, which germinates love. One always reaps much more than one sows, otherwise it is useless to sow. Others respond to love with as much love and obtain the fullness of God's joy. The one who buries his life underground represents those who think they must give it back. Capital is not to be returned or jealously preserved, but to be invested in some way. Even if one has many blocks, one can always do something, for example give the bankers - they are the poor in the following paragraph, to get at least an interest.
READING OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFirst reading from the Book of Proverbs
PRV 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
When one finds a worthy wife,
her value is far beyond pearls.
Her husband, entrusting his heart to her,
has an unfailing prize.
She brings him good, and not evil,
all the days of her life.
She obtains wool and flax
and works with loving hands.
She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her fingers ply the spindle.
She reaches out her hands to the poor,
and extends her arms to the needy.
Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting;
the woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her a reward for her labors,
and let her works praise her at the city gates.
Second reading from the first Letter of Paul to Thessalonians
1 THES 5:1-6
Concerning times and seasons, brothers and sisters,
you have no need for anything to be written to you.
For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come
like a thief at night.
When people are saying, "Peace and security, "
then sudden disaster comes upon them,
like labor pains upon a pregnant woman,
and they will not escape.
But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness,
for that day to overtake you like a thief.
For all of you are children of the light
and children of the day.
We are not of the night or of darkness.
Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do,
but let us stay alert and sober.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to Matthew
MT 25:14-30
Jesus told his disciples this parable:
"A man going on a journey
called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them.
To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one--
to each according to his ability.
Then he went away.
Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them,
and made another five.
Likewise, the one who received two made another two.
But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground
and buried his master's money.
After a long time
the master of those servants came back
and settled accounts with them.
The one who had received five talents came forward
bringing the additional five.
He said, 'Master, you gave me five talents.
See, I have made five more.’
His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant.
Since you were faithful in small matters,
I will give you great responsibilities.
Come, share your master's joy.’
Then the one who had received two talents also came forward and said,
'Master, you gave me two talents.
See, I have made two more.'
His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant.
Since you were faithful in small matters,
I will give you great responsibilities.
Come, share your master's joy.’
Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said,
'Master, I knew you were a demanding person,
harvesting where you did not plant
and gathering where you did not scatter;
so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground.
Here it is back.'
His master said to him in reply, 'You wicked, lazy servant!
So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant
and gather where I did not scatter?
Should you not then have put my money in the bank
so that I could have got it back with interest on my return?
Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten.
For to everyone who has,
more will be given and he will grow rich;
but from the one who has not,
even what he has will be taken away.
And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.'"
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
RispondiEliminaWith these words the Lord reminds us that life is a journey towards eternity; therefore, we are called to employ all the talents that we have, without ever forgetting that “here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come” (Heb 13:14). In this perspective, every instant becomes precious, and thus we must live and act on this earth, while longing for heaven: our feet on the ground, walking on the ground, working on the ground, doing good on the ground and the heart longing for heaven. (Angelus, 11 August 2019)
CROSSING THE THRESHOLD OF HOPE OF ST JOHN PAUL II
2- Thus the saints of every age are also an incarnation of the filial love of Christ, which is the source of a Franciscan love for all creatures and also of love for the saving power of the Cross, which restores to the world the balance between good and evil. Is contemporary man truly moved by a filial fear of God, a fear that is first of all love? One might think-and there is no lack of evidence to this effect-that Hegel's paradigm of the master and the servant is more present in people's consciousness today than is wisdom, whose origin lies in the filial fear of God. The philosophy of arrogance is born of the Hegelian paradigm. The only force capable of effectively counteracting this philosophy is found in the Gospel of Christ, in which the paradigm of master-slave is radically transformed into the paradigm of father-son. The father-son paradigm is ageless. It is older than human history. The "rays of fatherhood" contained in this formulation belong to the Trinitarian Mystery of God Himself, which shines forth from Him, illuminating man and his history. This notwithstanding, as we know from Revelation, in human history the "rays of fatherhood" meet a first resistance in the obscure but real fact of original sin. This is truly the key for interpreting reality. Original sin is not only the violation of a positive command of God but also, and above all, a violation of the will of God as expressed in that command. Original sin attempts, then, to abolish fatherhood, destroying its rays which permeate the created world, placing in doubt the truth about God who is Love and leaving man only with a sense of the master-slave relationship. As a result, the Lord appears jealous of His power over the world and over man; and consequently, man feels goaded to do battle against God. No differently than in any epoch of history, the enslaved man is driven to take sides against the master who kept him enslaved. After all I have said, I could summarize my response in the following paradox: In order to set contemporary man free from fear of himself, of the world, of others, of earthly powers, of oppressive systems, in order to set him free from every manifestation of a servile fear before that "prevailing force" which believers call God, it is necessary to pray fervently that he will bear and cultivate in his heart that true fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom. This fear of God is the saving power of the Gospel. It is a constructive, never destructive, fear. It creates people who allow themselves to be led by responsibility, by responsible love. It creates holy men and women - true Christians - to whom the future of the world ultimately belongs.
( ST JOHN PAUL II)
FAUSTI - This parable is dear to the ethics of capitalism. Talents are to be made fruitful, abundance is a sign of divine blessing, destitution is a curse!
RispondiEliminaIn reality, talents are not gifts or goods to be multiplied: instead, they represent the oil of the previous parable (of the ten virgins), which is love for the poor.
Talent is the love that the Father has for me, which must "duplicate" in my loving response to my brothers and sisters.
Responding to this love, makes me what I am: a son equal to the Father.
"Like a man who emigrated to a faraway land," the Lord, after living with us, ended up on the cross, the farthest point from God.
There He made Himself near every distance and suffering. Going away, He did not abandon us, but He left us His Spirit, because we, loving, realize our identity.
He Himself remains always with us, under His sign.
He went to live among the poor, and what we do for them, we do it for Him.
If talent is the gift of love received, our love for Him in the poor is the talent that we are called to earn. This is the invitation that Jesus gave the young rich man for inheriting eternal life (19:6-30).
Everyone is called to invest his gift.
Not who has or gives more is realized, but simply who gives himself. It is not the quantity that counts, but the fact that everything is a gift, to which one responds by giving everything.
Those who put their gift underground, for fear of losing it, move away from themselves and others.
Our vigilance is wise and industrious, not inert. He who does not invest his talent, loses it.
The cause of failure is the false image we have of the Lord. If we consider Him naughty and exigent, our relationship with Him is not one of love, but legalistic, fearful and sterile.
The parable is structured in three phases. One past, in which we have received the gift, one present, in which we must make it fruitful, and one future, in which we will be asked to answer for what we have now done of it.
The future judgment is not made by God.
We do it here and now.
He, in the end, will only read what we now write.
Fidelity in daily things makes us earn our eternal dwelling place. Our little gestures of love towards our brothers and sisters make us become children. Love, with which we perform every action, is the oil, which makes us shine of the same light as the Father.
The good servant is like the One Good.
This is the great reward: His joy becomes ours!
Even the servant who receives two talents, even though he has received less than half of the previous one, reduplicates his gift and receives the same infinite reward from the Lord.
The servant who had received only one talent, if he had invested it in love, would have had the same reward as the other two.
He has a false knowledge of the Lord. . This man seems just, because he gives back what is given to him.
In reality, he sins gravely against the Lord and against himself: he rejects Him as love, and himself as a gift.
His relationship with God is that of an bookkeeper, not that of a son.
The Lord has sown love everywhere, which germinates love.
One always reaps much more than one sows, otherwise it is useless to sow.
Others respond to love with as much love and obtain the fullness of God's joy.
The one who buries his life underground represents those who think they must give it back.
Capital is not to be returned or jealously preserved, but to be invested in some way.
Even if one has many blocks, one can always do something, for example give the bankers - they are the poor in the following paragraph, to get at least an interest.