OMELIE / Omelie EN

05 feb 2023

05/02/2023 - 5th Sunday in O. T. - year A

05/02/2023 - 5^th Sunday in O. T. - year A

Italy: Day for Life

Reading 1 Is 58,7-10 Psalm 111 Reading 2 1COR 2,1-5 Gospel MT 5,13-16

Last Sunday we have heard Jesus talk about the blessings, so the way He sees His disciples and, naturally, all men, so their cohabitation may be rich in consolations and joy. In fact, there, where the people are learning and they educate themselves according to that wisdom, serenity, joy, peace and sharing are enjoyed.

So this wisdom may spread we need someone to live by it firmly and to announce it without watering it down. Nobody can do so but who welcomes Jesus in his heart. They who welcome Him and live with Him are His disciple and become “master” of life, and become a consolation for the world around them.

Jesus knows this, and therefore today He says these beautiful things: “You are the salt of the earth ”, and then “You are the light of the world”.

They who live with Him and obey Him become precious, indispensable for the world. These are not empty words: we see their truthfulness by looking all around us. In an environment where there are some disciples of Jesus’ there is the possibility of being forgiven and love and compassione are widespread, and above all we can trust each other. In those places and peoples where Jesus is missing there is no possibility of trusting anyone, nor of confiding in anyone, nor of hoping to find compassion for ourselves or others.

Jesus does not want for His own people to become arrogant, and so He continues talking with some warnings: the salt needs to retain its flavour to be useful. A flavourless salt does not have any use for anyone and is thrown away. So it happens lamps are not useful to anyone if they are hidden. With these simple observations Jesus wants to tell His disciples that they really need to carry Him within their hearts, otherwise they are flavourless, and they have to let that be seen without hiding or disguising themselves, otherwise they are useless. The flavour is Him, it is the fullness of the love of which He is the only carrier. The source of the light is Him, He needs to be in full view or nobody is visible.

We know we are poor people, even sinners. How does it happen that our life becomes useful to the world so it acquires peace and wisdom coming from our presence? Sure, we know we are weak and fragile: the wealth is not us, but Jesus in us, like a treasure kept in clay pots; the pot is still fragile, but it becomes precious because of its content. This is exactly what Saint Paul is telling us in the second reading. He introduces Himself to the community in Corinth knowing he is a weak man, but carrying in himself the richness of Jesus’s presence, the very Jesus who had been crucified for love. A man dying on the cross is weak, but, since he has died for love, is showing us and giving us the greatness and the strength of that love in the very moment of his greatest weakness. We are not ashamed therefore of our poverty and miseries either, but we boast always and only of our Lord, who we carry in our heart and mind in the works wanted by Him and demonstrating His wisdom.

The first reading is suggesting us some of the works which are showing how God is, social works which are alleviating sufferings and poverty: through them we are showing the loving and merciful heart of God: «If you will get rid of aggression, of blaming others and of shameful ways of expressing yourself, if you will open the heart to the hungry, if you will satisfy those who are suffering in their heart, then your light will shine in the darkness».

And Jesus ends His short parables advising us to let shine in front of everyone the love the Father has sown in us, so He can show Himself through us and therefore others may recognise Him and meet Him. They who meet the Father know they are not alone in the world and begin to enjoy the salvation. They who meet the Father enjoy already the joys of the Paradise!

Today we offer our prayer for the Christians who are bearing witness to the fact that human life is God’s gift, that every person, since the beginning of their journey in this world, is a brother to be always loved and guided lovingly up to their entering paradise. And we offer to God the Father the life of all those people who, to suit convenience and selfishness, are sacrificed either in their mother’s womb or among incurable sufferings. On all of them we invoke Jesus’s holy name, who lets all suffering people touch Him.