READING OF THE DAY A reading from the Book of Sirach Sir 3:2-6, 12-14
God sets a father in honor over his children; a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons. Whoever honors his father atones for sins, and preserves himself from them. When he prays, he is heard; he stores up riches who reveres his mother. Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children, and, when he prays, is heard. Whoever reveres his father will live a long life; he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother.
My son, take care of your father when he is old; grieve him not as long as he lives. Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him; revile him not all the days of his life; kindness to a father will not be forgotten, firmly planted against the debt of your sins —a house raised in justice to you.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to Matthew Mt 2:13-15, 19-23
When the magi had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, Out of Egypt I called my son.
When Herod had died, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” He rose, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go back there. And because he had been warned in a dream, he departed for the region of Galilee. He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, He shall be called a Nazorean.
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER Mary, Joseph, Jesus: the Holy Family of Nazareth which represents a choral response to the will of the Father: the three members of this family help each other reciprocally to discover God’s plan. They prayed, worked, communicated. And I ask myself: you, in your family, do you know how to communicate or are you like those kids at the table, each one with their mobile phone, while they are chatting? (…) We must resume dialogue in the family: fathers, parents, sons, grandparents and siblings must communicate with one another … This is today’s homework, right on the day of the Holy Family. May the Holy Family be a model for our families, so that parents and children may support each other mutually in adherence to the Gospel, the basis of the holiness of the family. (Angelus, 29 December 2019)
FAUSTI – Giuseppe, like his namesake sold by his brothers, is a “dreamer”: in the depths of his pure heart, he sees God. One, even if he doesn't know it, always makes his dreams come true. But are they those of a pure or impure heart? God's dreams always come true in the end, even if they seem impossible to us. (Ps. 126,1) The angel speaks the Word that "awakens" us to life with the dream of God. The answer is he himself, which he carries out to the letter (1,21-24). He gives her body by offering her her body. This is love with deeds and in truth (1 Jn 3:18), worship pleasing to God. Mary is mentioned at the beginning as Joseph's wife (1,18); then we speak of the "child and his mother", always putting the child first. But both he and his mother are entrusted to the hands of Joseph, the prototype of believers. Herod is the figure of the pharaoh within Israel, within the Church and within each of us. In our paganism, as there is the search for the Magi to adore the Lord, so there is the search for Herod, who, like the Pharaoh, will kill his sons. Jesus, miraculously saved like Moses, enters Egypt to carry out the new Exodus. He will live in Egypt as a stranger, in solidarity with the loneliness of all the oppressed, he his brothers. Herod, like Pharaoh, ends; the Son, like Israel, sees its end. God from above laughs at the powerful and their plots. Herod, like Pharaoh, kills the children of Israel. The children of Bethlehem represent the blood of all the righteous, from Abel to Zechariah, from the first to the last innocent of every shoà. They prefigure the blood of the Servant, the Son who will save the brothers. The fate of the righteous – and of sinners – is the same as that of the only Righteous who became sin for us.
"The Nazorean", as Jesus will be called, is the fulfillment of what was said through the prophets. Welcomed by Joseph and the Magi, rejected by the wise and the powerful, He relives the history of his people: through Egypt and exile-with the killing of the innocents, anticipation of his-returns to the promised land. Thus he punctually fulfills what "is written". In this passage the story of Jesus is presented as a journey. It is the journey of the Son, who meets his lost brothers, retracing the same path. He who descends and ascends from Egypt is the Son who brings about the new definitive exodus. The shoà of the innocents, a prelude to that of the Righteous, is seen as the supreme evil of exile (Jer31:15). Egypt and exile are the double experience of slavery, one caused by the sin of others and the other by one's own: from both he frees the Nazorean, who is the "therefore" of the promise. The "Nazorean" is, in the same way as the people of Israel, the Son freed from the hand of Egypt and the exile who returns to the earth. In Jeremiah, exile is the place of definitive liberation. He who loves us with an eternal love says not to cry, because he will rebuild us, he will forgive us, he will make an eternal Covenant with us, and in this way we will all know the Lord. (Jer 31.3f). In the exit the powerful unjust; when he comes out of exile, the Just will die, and the Almighty will make a New Covenant with us. Exile is the death of the Son: infidelity reduces him to no longer exist. I-Am, in love with him, will bring him back into existence; but no longer with signs of power, as in Egypt, but with the impotence of the Cross, prefigured in the shoà of the child-servants. The path of the Son passes through solidarity with his brothers in their oppression and in their sin, up to the curse of their no longer being, making himself abandonment, curse and sin (Gal 3:13), so that every abandonment is not more abandoned, not even the abandonment of God. The cross will be God's closeness to everyone abandoned by God.
--> The fourth dream takes him to the last "retreat", where the "Nazorean" takes his "home" and "name" in the "land"! The four stages of his listening / doing are the same as for every man. To marry Mary, the Mother of the Son of God, and to call him by name (1:24), to complete with them both the entry and exit from Egypt and exile - the journey from the cross to the resurrection - up to "making home" in the "land", and here, finally, living with discernment. “Nazorean will be called”: no prophet has this expression. Matthew knows it well. And he knows he's telling the truth. He doesn't actually say. "What was spoken by the prophet" but: "What was spoken by the prophets". The whole Bible, from Moses to John the Baptist, prophesied about him, the Son begotten before every creature, in whom, through whom and for whom everything was made (Col 1:15-17). Matthew, starting from Jesus and looking at him, re-reads past history, and sees how truly God fulfills in him every Word of his, without letting even one of them go empty (1 Sam 3:19). What matters is that the Nazorean - here associated by Matthew with Nazareth - is "the therefore" of the history of God and man. This "withdrawal" of yours into humble everyday life is the very mystery of God-with-us, who makes every everyday life divine: every rest and effort, every joy and pain, every love and fear, every work and fruit of man.
Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
RispondiEliminaREADING OF THE DAY
A reading from the Book of Sirach
Sir 3:2-6, 12-14
God sets a father in honor over his children;
a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons.
Whoever honors his father atones for sins,
and preserves himself from them.
When he prays, he is heard;
he stores up riches who reveres his mother.
Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children,
and, when he prays, is heard.
Whoever reveres his father will live a long life;
he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother.
My son, take care of your father when he is old;
grieve him not as long as he lives.
Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him;
revile him not all the days of his life;
kindness to a father will not be forgotten,
firmly planted against the debt of your sins
—a house raised in justice to you.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to Matthew
Mt 2:13-15, 19-23
When the magi had departed, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
“Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt,
and stay there until I tell you.
Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.”
Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night
and departed for Egypt.
He stayed there until the death of Herod,
that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled,
Out of Egypt I called my son.
When Herod had died, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream
to Joseph in Egypt and said,
“Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel,
for those who sought the child’s life are dead.”
He rose, took the child and his mother,
and went to the land of Israel.
But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea
in place of his father Herod,
he was afraid to go back there.
And because he had been warned in a dream,
he departed for the region of Galilee.
He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth,
so that what had been spoken through the prophets
might be fulfilled,
He shall be called a Nazorean.
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
Mary, Joseph, Jesus: the Holy Family of Nazareth which represents a choral response to the will of the Father: the three members of this family help each other reciprocally to discover God’s plan. They prayed, worked, communicated. And I ask myself: you, in your family, do you know how to communicate or are you like those kids at the table, each one with their mobile phone, while they are chatting? (…) We must resume dialogue in the family: fathers, parents, sons, grandparents and siblings must communicate with one another … This is today’s homework, right on the day of the Holy Family. May the Holy Family be a model for our families, so that parents and children may support each other mutually in adherence to the Gospel, the basis of the holiness of the family. (Angelus, 29 December 2019)
FAUSTI – Giuseppe, like his namesake sold by his brothers, is a “dreamer”: in the depths of his pure heart, he sees God. One, even if he doesn't know it, always makes his dreams come true. But are they those of a pure or impure heart? God's dreams always come true in the end, even if they seem impossible to us. (Ps. 126,1) The angel speaks the Word that "awakens" us to life with the dream of God.
RispondiEliminaThe answer is he himself, which he carries out to the letter (1,21-24). He gives her body by offering her her body.
This is love with deeds and in truth (1 Jn 3:18), worship pleasing to God.
Mary is mentioned at the beginning as Joseph's wife (1,18); then we speak of the "child and his mother", always putting the child first. But both he and his mother are entrusted to the hands of Joseph, the prototype of believers. Herod is the figure of the pharaoh within Israel, within the Church and within each of us. In our paganism, as there is the search for the Magi to adore the Lord, so there is the search for Herod, who, like the Pharaoh, will kill his sons.
Jesus, miraculously saved like Moses, enters Egypt to carry out the new Exodus.
He will live in Egypt as a stranger, in solidarity with the loneliness of all the oppressed, he his brothers.
Herod, like Pharaoh, ends; the Son, like Israel, sees its end.
God from above laughs at the powerful and their plots.
Herod, like Pharaoh, kills the children of Israel. The children of Bethlehem represent the blood of all the righteous, from Abel to Zechariah, from the first to the last innocent of every shoà.
They prefigure the blood of the Servant, the Son who will save the brothers.
The fate of the righteous – and of sinners – is the same as that of the only Righteous who became sin for us.
"The Nazorean", as Jesus will be called, is the fulfillment of what was said through the prophets. Welcomed by Joseph and the Magi, rejected by the wise and the powerful, He relives the history of his people: through Egypt and exile-with the killing of the innocents, anticipation of his-returns to the promised land. Thus he punctually fulfills what "is written".
In this passage the story of Jesus is presented as a journey. It is the journey of the Son, who meets his lost brothers, retracing the same path. He who descends and ascends from Egypt is the Son who brings about the new definitive exodus.
The shoà of the innocents, a prelude to that of the Righteous, is seen as the supreme evil of exile (Jer31:15). Egypt and exile are the double experience of slavery, one caused by the sin of others and the other by one's own: from both he frees the Nazorean, who is the "therefore" of the promise.
The "Nazorean" is, in the same way as the people of Israel, the Son freed from the hand of Egypt and the exile who returns to the earth.
In Jeremiah, exile is the place of definitive liberation. He who loves us with an eternal love says not to cry, because he will rebuild us, he will forgive us, he will make an eternal Covenant with us, and in this way we will all know the Lord. (Jer 31.3f).
In the exit the powerful unjust; when he comes out of exile, the Just will die, and the Almighty will make a New Covenant with us.
Exile is the death of the Son: infidelity reduces him to no longer exist. I-Am, in love with him, will bring him back into existence; but no longer with signs of power, as in Egypt, but with the impotence of the Cross, prefigured in the shoà of the child-servants.
The path of the Son passes through solidarity with his brothers in their oppression and in their sin, up to the curse of their no longer being, making himself abandonment, curse and sin (Gal 3:13), so that every abandonment is not more abandoned, not even the abandonment of God. The cross will be God's closeness to everyone abandoned by God.
--> The fourth dream takes him to the last "retreat", where the "Nazorean" takes his "home" and "name" in the "land"! The four stages of his listening / doing are the same as for every man. To marry Mary, the Mother of the Son of God, and to call him by name (1:24), to complete with them both the entry and exit from Egypt and exile - the journey from the cross to the resurrection - up to "making home" in the "land", and here, finally, living with discernment.
RispondiElimina“Nazorean will be called”: no prophet has this expression. Matthew knows it well. And he knows he's telling the truth. He doesn't actually say. "What was spoken by the prophet" but: "What was spoken by the prophets". The whole Bible, from Moses to John the Baptist, prophesied about him, the Son begotten before every creature, in whom, through whom and for whom everything was made (Col 1:15-17).
Matthew, starting from Jesus and looking at him, re-reads past history, and sees how truly God fulfills in him every Word of his, without letting even one of them go empty (1 Sam 3:19).
What matters is that the Nazorean - here associated by Matthew with Nazareth - is "the therefore" of the history of God and man. This "withdrawal" of yours into humble everyday life is the very mystery of God-with-us, who makes every everyday life divine: every rest and effort, every joy and pain, every love and fear, every work and fruit of man.