OMELIE / Omelie EN

10 mar 2019

10/03/2019 – 1st Sunday in Lent - C 

10/03/2019 – 1^st Sunday in Lent - C 

Reading 1 DT 26,4-10 * dal Salmo 90 * 2ª lettura Rm 10,8-13 * Vangelo Lc 4,1-13

In the Roman Catholic Churches we are already in Lent since four days ago. This is a time for paying special attention to the Word of God: this is why we will enhance the spirit of penance by forgetting to listen to our whims and passions, pushing also aside the distractions of television or other distracting and useless activities. We will devote more time to listening to God, in order to find again motivation and enjoy the fruits of our holy Baptism.

Today the gospel shows us Jesus while He is fasting: for an extended time of forty days He offers this penance to the Father as an act of love, of complete dedication to Him without thinking of Himself. He sees and accepts the Father really like a father, who thinks all the time of His life, both physical and spiritual, and social. So He can treat Himself like a son, a true son leaving the worries about His life to whom generated Him, wanted Him and loved Him.

This decision of Jesus’ becomes very clear out of the way in which He resists all the different temptations that are laid in front of Him at the end of the forty days. All the ways in which those temptations present themselves are trying to make Him choose on His own, in autonomy, without pausing to listen. It is like they were telling Him: “Decide for yourself regarding your food, and make your decision as you were omnipotent, because, as child of God, you are omnipotent, you should decide also about the need men feel to be fairly ruled, you should decide how you want to be recognized as the Messiah”. Temptations are strong, and they touch important topics in His life regarding the meaning of His presence and His mission in the world. But Jesus does not decide, nay, he decides to listen to the Father. He knows that God has spoken, He had the prophets writing down His Word, and He is still able to make His will known. The temptation always begins like this: “If you are the Son of God”, “Because you are the Son of God...”. It feels like as if, every time, Jesus answered: “As I am the Son, I would like to behave like a son, so I want to listen to the advice and the Father's decisions”. And every time he recalls and makes reference to one Word from the Sacred scripture. He Himself is the Word, but facing the temptation He does not trust even His own reasoning: He goes back always to the Scriptures, with clear humility, with love for every word suggested by the Holy Spirit to the prophets of His people.

It is important to hold on tight to the true and safe knowledge of God, like Jesus did: He is helping us to persevere and to decide to maintain the purity of knowing God as Father. If we started doubting, or fantasizing about His identity, everything else would be shaken: hope and prudence would be shaken, justice and ability to love would crumble. If we did not have clarity and certainty around knowing God as a Father, we would be pray of hypothesis, fantasies, human ignorance and we would quickly became pagans in our hearts, minds and actions.

Today more than ever we need to be precise about this: in fact, are spreading many ways of thinking and reasoning that break communion, confuse the families, destroy any progress towards justice and charity reached through hundreds of years of effort. This is due also and above all to the confusion surrounding the knowledge of God. In many environments, with or without bad intentions, it is now common to talk about God as some energy, as sparks or shards of a “cosmic God”, as a “One” that is in all things created, - that in this way are not created any more..., - and in this way they get to think they are divine or omnipotent, and therefore without sin! Even people declaring themselves Christians use this language, or ideas and practices that are implying it; from misunderstanding the Father they then get to the point they have no way to distinguish between Satan’s temptation and the God-love's inspirations!

The confusion coming from this destroys the communion in the Church, keeps away from the Sacraments, in particular from Confession, with serious consequences for the faith and the harmony inside the families and in society.

We need to clearly and fearlessly testify our faith in God the Father, and in whom He has sent, speaking out loud. Saint Paul is advising us to do so. “One confesses with the mouth and so is saved”: it is a great gift to be able to believe with the heart, keeping alive faith within us, but it is not enough in order to be saved, to be guarded against the dangers of the spreading paganism. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”. To witness faith by telling God's great works it is the order given by Moses to his people. We obey that command, telling about Jesus' resurrection from the dead and announcing with words and demonstrating through works that we think of Him like a Lord, Lord of our life and of the entire history.

Fasting in Lent will help us to become stronger internally and vigilant not to miss any occasion in which we could be witnesses of our faith and so change the world!