As always, it is a joy to share with our loyal listeners noble thoughts of communion between heaven and our earthly life which is reflected in our daily way of life which should be a perennial Eucharist as a festive echo of our rest which however it makes bread to share in brotherhood even in these months in which we live with greater relaxation, during the holidays we see people who are usually far away; grandparents can experience a daily relationship with their grandchildren. July and August are months filled with an extra dose of joy and a renewed desire to live.
In the Italian language the word "vacation" means a suspension of daily activity which fills with tenacious perseverance routine actions: schedules and tasks that force us to keep up.
The summer season with a holiday period invites us to carve out fragments of the day to dedicate exclusively to ourselves in order to store essential energy to sow a future that we can live with satisfaction.
Holiday time for those who work and holiday time for those who study is a time that also serves to cleanse our mind from the many words spoken and heard in this period.
We note that the summer break must not be a journey into a dead end, into a depressed solitude, but also silence and solitude, experienced voluntarily, serve to recover, by savoring it, the content of our words, to bring out those latent potentials in our spirit, to provide a renewed luster to our ideals.
Pope Francis, addressing a group of deaf-mute pilgrims, said words that were significant even for us with perfect hearing: «The presence of God is not perceived with the ears, but with faith; therefore I encourage you to revive your faith to increasingly feel the closeness of God, whose voice resonates in everyone's heart, and everyone can hear it."
in tsunami, in the invasion of sounds and words we have become accustomed to listening and communicating words and gestures sometimes without content; we are in a group, elbow to elbow, without planning within the confines of our daily life. Sometimes we are part of a group, of a community, but it seems like we are surrounded by a spiral similar to the Tower of Babel: a din of voices chasing each other without communicating anything.
Especially in large cities, on public transport, at stops to wait for the bus, one has the impression of feeling immersed in a lake of floating words like a boiling pot but incapable of sending messages capable of adding to them and allowing us to perceive them. something beautiful that makes my life rise.
Especially in the world of young people, but we too, with a long past behind us at the center of this crossroads of common problems of noise and the avalanches of words, think of radios, television, cell phones, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook which are the world of young people's communication, but which we all use with ease and satisfaction, however we must say that in this crossing of words we lose the habit of speaking to others as brothers.
But an even more serious damage is that we no longer have the time to dialogue and listen to Jesus, our "inner Master" in the depths of our conscience.
If we really want to build communion of feelings with people, it is necessary to know how to leave the paths of men and set out on the harsh paths of solitude and silence. Only these paths lead to the thresholds of houses inhabited by men capable of communicating, to camps where the dawn of brotherhood still retains its fresh colors.
In this moment, at home or on the street, even with headphones in our ears, beyond wanting to close ourselves as in a chrysalis, let's not forget that there is Someone who is knocking on the door of our heart: it is the pilgrim of silence, it is Jesus , he who silent eternity even before creation hosted in its womb; he is the messenger of the mysterious answers to life's questions;
it is the leaven of the world's novelties that the world itself cannot create with its own strength alone.
He knocks in the immense silence of the valley of life, He is the breath of the centuries and the daily companion of our pilgrimage, the guide in the panorama of beauty, he is the master of truth.
We must learn that only when we have learned to write in our diary will we have written silent and secret pages of intimacy with Him, the Master Jesus, only then will we be able to rediscover and therefore use that language that pushes towards the direction of the Kingdom of brotherhood.
Our words, for now, have sounds learned in the mother's arms, but even then that stammering of incomprehensible words, that babbling of the child's language is inhabited by a soul that has its roots in an "elsewhere" before us, that it is not we who give it to ourselves, but it is the Spirit who will offer it to us and will make it grow in the constant presence of silence.
Truly, holidays with their large fragments of time are a beautiful opportunity to break away from usual habits and find spaces to practice and share noble ideals.
Good Father,
how beautiful is the world you created
and in which you called us to live and love!
We feel the need to listen to your voice,
which shows us what is good and good for us.
This is why you gave us your Church,
where the Word of your Son Jesus continually resonates.
You have also called us into your Church
to form a community
who educates by letting himself be educated,
who loves while guarding the brotherly,
who hope by carrying each other's burden.
Give us your Holy Spirit
because living in your Church
let's learn
to love like Jesus
to listen like Jesus
to suffer like Jesus
thinking like Jesus
to choose like Jesus.
Amen.
And now a musical pause that helps to fertilize the words heard with the infusion of the energies of the Holy Spirit.
In these days the weekday liturgy is presenting us with the figure of Abraham, it seems right to think of Joseph as the last of the patriarchs, closing the dynasty of the first of the patriarchs, precisely, Abraham.
Joseph, in fact, begins his great adventure as the "shadow of the Father".
He will be a provider father with calloused and industrious hands to provide bread, but above all a generous heart to give affection and love.
Abraham, "the father of faith", constituted the source of the new people of Israel and Joseph will have the burden and honor of ferrying ancient Israel to the shore of the new humanity redeemed by Christ.
This icon "helps to understand the limits of the Law, regarding the duties of fatherhood" that Saint Joseph will have to assume towards Jesus.
The concept of "fatherhood" in the Old Testament was rich in important tradition.
To underline the importance of the figure of the father in the culture of the Jewish people, it seems useful to me to recall Abraham's attitude towards Hagar, with whom he had a son. The Bible has made us know that «Princess Sarah, wife of the Patriarch, not being able to have children, offers her as her slave and makes her lie down with her husband, so that "her" husband of hers may have a child by her. In this situation, her slave became an "extension" of the body of her mistress Sara.
From the Bible we know that God, with the voice of the three ambassadors, at the Quercia di Mambre visiting Abraham's tent, announced that Sarah, having grown old in sterility, would give birth to a son a year after that visit, referred to as "the son of the promise », that is, a future without sunset. This son would have started a lineage as numerous as the countless grains of sand that lie on the sea shore.
The promise was kept and she who was called barren gave birth to "the son of the promise".
The two brothers, Ishmael, the son of the slave Hagar, and Isaac began to play together, this fact made Sarah jealous and she worried about protecting the son she had given birth to, fearing that Ishmael might take his privilege of birthright."
In recent days I have found a quote that I never thought I would find written by a person who has always declared himself an atheist and far from knowledge of the Gospels. This is Jean Paul Sartre.
This man, referring to Saint Joseph, wrote:
«And Joseph? Giuseppe, I wouldn't paint him. I would show nothing but a shadow at the bottom of the haystack and two shining eyes. Because I don't know what to say about Joseph and Joseph doesn't know what to say about himself. He worships and is happy to worship and he feels a bit in exile. I believe he suffers without admitting it. He suffers because he sees how much the woman he loves resembles God, how close she already is to God. Because God exploded like a bomb in the intimacy of this family. Joseph and Mary are separated forever by this fire of light. And Giuseppe's whole life, I imagine, will be about learning to accept."
Jean Paul Sartre
«I don't know a man» says Mary to the angel Gabriel who announces the future birth of Jesus (Luke 1, 34). Mary "discusses" with the angel and, from her absolutely human point of view, points out to him that what she has just heard is impossible: she, in fact, "does not know man". If a dialogue opens between Mary and the announcing angel, Joseph's are only thoughts, which fight in the secret of his heart in the face of the sudden whirlwind of events in which he found himself. The awareness of his total extraneousness towards Maria's pregnancy clashes with the objectivity of the facts, but also with his full and total trust towards his wife and, certainly, with a great sense of guilt for not having been able to defend her. But from the first moment, even when he struggles to understand, Joseph, who was "just", takes Mary's side, obeying a justice that is not that of his time, that of the rabbis, but that of the heart.
Musical break and prayer
MAN CHOSEN BY GOD
O St. Joseph,
chosen by God to be on this earth
guardian of Jesus
and most pure husband of Mary,
you have spent your life in perfect fulfillment
of duty, supporting with the work of your hands
the holy family of Nazareth,
protect favorably us who confidently turn to you.
You know our aspirations,
our anguish and our hopes:
we turn to you,
because we know we find in you the one who protects us.
You too have experienced
the test, the fatigue, the tiredness,
but your soul, filled with the deepest peace,
he rejoiced with joy at the intimacy with the son of God
entrusted to you, and with Mary, his sweetest mother.
Help us understand that we are not alone
in our work, to know how to discover Jesus next to us,
to welcome him with grace
and guard it faithfully as you have done.
Get that in our family
may everything be sanctified in charity,
in patience, in justice
and in the search for the good. Amen!
Giuseppe: the man of sudden decisions
Saint Joseph was called by God to serve the person and mission of Jesus through the exercise of his fatherhood, silent, hidden, but always available and attentive to resolve difficult situations.
His reflective presence and constant silence did not mean remaining immobile, passive, indecisive or falling behind the times, nor did it mean putting off until tomorrow "what life asks for today".
Giuseppe is an example of a man who is always attentive, quick in making decisions, without ever having uncertainties or delays. When he understood by the grace of God the great mystery that was taking place in Mary, he left running to go and embrace Mary, her betrothed, and immediately performed the ritual and legal act of marriage, beginning his family.
When the census of the population of Palestine was organized by the Roman Empire, Joseph, taking Mary by the arm, joined a caravan of other people and for several days went on a long walk covering the considerable distance that separates Nazareth from Bethlehem. Joseph must register for the census in Bethlehem because David was born in this city, of whom he was a distant heir. Giuseppe is a little worried during the journey because Maria is close to giving birth and he spends all his energy supporting her. Having arrived in Bethlehem, he completes what is required for the census and then starts looking for the accommodation needed to let Mary rest and calmly await the birth. But the search for accommodation is in vain. Every reception room is packed with people, even the homes of distant relatives are super crowded due to the census. Giuseppe decides to leave the town and goes into the nearby countryside where there are many caves, where shepherds often took temporary refuge for their flock, sheltering them from too much summer heat or rain.
Of course it is not a nice room to be born in, but at least there are no prying eyes and the delicacy and dignity of the giving birth woman is not violated by anyone. We can imagine how much joy and how much light that cave illuminated when the Child opened his eyes to smile at his mother and father! The Gospel says that even the Angels of heaven set out to sing "the glory of God and peace to men" and to spread the "good news" around.
Felice Giuseppe welcomed the shepherds who came to see the Child and immediately afterwards he worked hard to find dignified accommodation in a house, certainly not being able to think of being able to travel back to Nazareth given the fragile conditions of Mary and her Child.
After some time, to his great surprise, Giuseppe hears a knock on the door of the house and upon opening it he sees some strange characters, eager to pay homage to the Child who was born, to offer him gifts and to adore him. A visit that truly honors his entire family, but which still opens up a bad adventure.
Herod has not received any response from the Magi, he seeks that Child to kill him and Joseph runs away from Bethlehem in search of a safe place. He therefore decides not to take refuge nearby, but to even leave the land of Israel, starting a long journey along the sea route until arriving in Egypt.
Perhaps some listener in recent days has traveled by Freccia Rossa train or by car on the motorway; quick, quick movements.
Certainly not so for the little family of Joseph, Mary and little Jesus. They were not traveling but were on the run: how many sacrifices, how much fear, how much suffering and fear this journey cost, God only knows.
Giuseppe carried the burden on his shoulders because he is the head of the family, he is the first to defend and protect it, he is the first responsible for a journey into the unknown like a refugee with his family in tow.
Do the news these days tell us how many difficulties emigrants have to face, poor in everything, among people who don't know each other and who even speak a different language? It took a lot of courage for Giuseppe! Several years passed before the dream of returning to his own land, to his home in Nazareth, came true.
When the news of Herod's death reaches him he doesn't think twice. He collects the few things he has and finally returns home, where he can give tranquility and peace to the family. Those childhood years flow happily for Jesus and Mary sings every day "the great things that God has done in her". Every year they go down to Jerusalem to bring their gifts to the temple and make their prayers. And it is on one of these occasions that Mary and Joseph "lost" their Child. They find him after three days of frantic searching and Mary, as a true mother, does not spare him the reproach while Giuseppe is silent because he immediately understands that his is not a "bizarre escapade", but a sign of the mystery of God that is hidden within Him. The iconography represents Joseph as a "great old man". However, he probably hasn't reached an age to earn this title. This image perhaps arose as a sign of his "high authority and great wisdom". The authority that he exercised was based on full awareness of the role that God had entrusted to him. He was, by the grace of God, fully aware, that he had in his hands the "Davidic son" with whom God was weaving the great web of salvation. Every act of his was a placing himself in the hands of God with extraordinary and timely wisdom, always leaving first place in his family and in his heart to "that Son", also dreamed of and desired by his ancestor King David. This enormous inner richness of his, made up of simplicity, effort, faith, silence and wisdom, made Joseph a "unique" specimen, so much so that he soon entered the cult of the Saints of the Western and Eastern Christian Church. It is no coincidence that there are also many saints who call themselves by his name and also many people who choose his name as their own. This means that even his "silence" was and is eloquent, more than any words. ■
PRAYER
The GUARDIAN OF THE NEW FAMILY OF JESUS:
THE CHURCH
San Giuseppe, Patron Saint of the Church,
You who are next to the incarnate Word
you worked every day to earn your bread,
drawing from Him the strength to live and work;
You who have felt the anxiety of tomorrow,
the bitterness of poverty, the precariousness of work;
You who radiate today the example of your figure,
humble before men, but very great before God:
look at the immense family entrusted to You.
Bless the Church, pushing her further and further
on the paths of evangelical fidelity;
protect workers in their harsh daily experience,
defending them from discouragement, from negative revolt,
as from the temptations of hedonism;
pray for the poor,
who continue the poverty of Christ on earth,
arousing continuous providences for them d
and their more gifted brothers;
and keep peace in the world,
that peace which alone can guarantee the development of peoples
and the full fulfillment of human hopes:
for the good of humanity,
for the mission of the Church,
for the glory of the Holy Trinity. Amen
(Pope Paul VI)
The earthly trinity arrives in Nazareth and becomes the model of every family of the new and eternal alliance.
Jesus, Joseph and Mary outline what is new in the family which becomes the source of joy of living a "family joy".
The family of Nazareth is a mosaic of human qualities lived in the genuineness of excellent human qualities.
Pope Francis wanted to sign the apostolic exhortation on family life, fruit of the synod of bishops, precisely on the family, on the 19th March feast of Saint Joseph, yesterday the guardian of the family of Nazareth and today protector of the universal Church, the new family of Jesus who gathers all the baptized.
musical break
The bible he summons many musical instruments to dance in a choir, but everything that breathes is involved in praising God. Then we also praise with our breathing, allowing ourselves to be involved with this piece of music.
To become fathers you need to recognize yourself as children, belonging to someone. Without this itinerary we do not become generators and creatives ourselves. One cannot be a father, a generator, if he has no one as a father.
Becoming fathers of men means no longer feeling time and possessions as something of one's own. We thus emerge from a comfortable conception of life and, in imitation of Christ, we become capable of giving ourselves and what we have received.
The whole Gospel is dotted with encounters. Jesus knew how to move with people. He knew how to listen to them. He knew how to get to the heart of their needs without erasing particular needs. Through them, he highlighted the deepest needs. Furthermore, he did not abandon people but kept them company.