News in Homilies

Commentary to the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B –

The early Christians had only one Eucharistic celebration per week. Today we can attend mass every day. If repeated with faith, this sacrament which means union with the Lord of life makes this union more solid and deeper. 

ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

The believers’ reflection on the fate of Mary after death continued to grow over the centuries. It led to the belief in her assumption and, on 1 November 1950, to the papal definition: “The Immaculate Conception Mother of God ever Virgin, finished the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” What does this dogma mean? 

Commentary to the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B –

Unfortunately, today, as then, many simply recognize Jesus as the wise man who has shown the paths of justice and peace, one of the many prophets, perhaps the greatest of the prophets. While esteeming, they consider him a mere man “Joseph’s son” and do not realize or refuse to accept that he is “the Only Begotten” of the Father (Jn 1:14). 

Commentary to the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B –

Bread maintains, but does not ensure biological life forever; it is destined to be extinguished, and the legendary plant of immortality is a chimera, an illusion. But God has a bread that communicates eternal life and has given it to the world because he wants everyone to have life and have it abundantly (Jn 10:10).

Commentary to the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B –

It is enough that people put aside their selfishness, overcoming the greed to possess, “which is the root of every evil” (1 Tim 6:10), they welcome the logic of the Kingdom and make available to the brothers, without reservation, all that they have and the miracle happens: all are fed and had leftovers. 

Commentary to the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B –

In the church, who leads cannot but reproduce the pattern of the Master. Peter, reproved by Jesus several times for his eagerness to stand out, recommended to the priests of his community: “Shepherd the flock which God has entrusted to you, guarding it not out of obligation but willingly for God’s sake; not as one looking for a reward but with a generous heart; do not lord it over those in your care rather be an example to your flock” (1 Pet 5:1-2). 

Commentary to the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B –

It is commendable that, where no one acts, the church performs a substitute work in areas where she is not specifically competent, but refuses to be identified with the humanitarian institutions. She keeps vigilance to avoid being innocently involved in spectacular and lucrative initiatives, so as not to compete with civilian structures that, through the commitment of lay Christians, is instead called to animate. She possesses a divine word and it is on this word that she relies, resisting the temptation to resort to means that people consider more effective.

Commentary to the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B –

Jesus comes again to those who believe they know him and of belonging to his family and advances his proposal. He asked, as God did to Abraham, to leave everything that the home, the family and the country represent. He invites them to reconsider the religious convictions, assimilated during childhood and ever more deepened and made to evolve.

Commentary to the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B –

The slowness of Israel in reaching an explicit affirmation of eternal life is precious and enlightening. It makes us understand that, before believing in the resurrection and a future world, it is necessary to value and passionately love life in this world as God appreciates and loves it. 

Commentary to the feast of the Birth of St. John the Baptist

Jesus’ praise of him: “When you went out to the desert, what did you expect to see? A reed swept by the wind? What did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? People who wear fine clothes live in palaces. What did you really go out to see? A prophet? Yes, indeed, and even more than a prophet. I tell you this: no one greater than John the Baptist has come forward from among the sons of women” (Mt 11:7-11).

Commentary to the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B –

The passage ends with a comment by the evangelist: “he explained everything privately to his disciples” (v. 34). Reflection, silence and prayer are needed; one needs to devote time to dialogue with Christ. It is necessary to create a spiritual atmosphere to receive from the Spirit the needed light to assimilate and translate the message of this parable into choices of life. 

Commentary to the 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B –

Exorcism. Since ancient times, the belief that evil was caused by malignant spirits led people to guard against their evil influences by resorting to magical practices, formulas, and the recitation of prayers, performing ritual acts such as destruction of statues, aspersion, spraying; everything to force the demons to leave. “I’m not alone in the fight against evil, Christ and the community of brothers are with me.” 

Commentary to the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity – Year B –

We do not have exclusive right to faith in God. However, the assertion that, in the one God, there is a paternity, filiation and a gift of love is specific to Christianity. With an abstract term, not biblical and certainly inadequate, we call this mystery Trinity.

Commentary to the Solemnity of Pentecost Sunday – Year B –

“Jesus gives His Spirit to the disciples and confers them the power to forgive sins” (vv. 21-23). The disciples are sent to fulfill a mission: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  When he was in the world, Jesus made the face and the love of the Father present (Jn 12:45). Now, having left this world, he continues his work through the disciples to whom he confers his Spirit. 

Ascension of the Lord – Year B –

This completely new perspective could be the way to consider the years of life. We all know, and maybe we smile, of octogenarians who envy those who have fewer years than them. Well, they turn their gaze to the past, not to the future. The certainty of the Ascension reverses this perspective. While the years pass, the Christian is satisfied because he sees the days of a definitive encounter with Christ coming soon. He is happy to have lived, does not envy the young ones and looks at them with tenderness. 

Commentary to the 6th Sunday of Easter – Year B –

Israel understood that the Lord tied his heart to persons and took care of his people, yet she imagined him also ready to punish “the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation” (Ex 34:7). He contemplated the work of his hands, but he had not yet seen his face of Emmanuel—God with us—and, above all, had not yet discovered his heart.

Commentry to the 5th Sunday of Easter – Year B –

Commentary to the 4th Sunday of Easter – Year B –

No wonder that, even in times of religious crisis, the majority of people continue to believe in God. However, in verifying the identity of this God, we often notice that he is quite different from the one Jesus revealed. He is a God who adapts to the justice of man.

Commentary to the 3rd Sunday of Easter – Year B –

Wonder and fear always accompany even today, the manifestations of the Lord “in the middle” to his communities. Wonder and fear are the images of the radical changes that the apparition of the Risen Christ brings to human life. With its radiance, the light of Easter reveals the pettiness of each withdrawal to the current world and opens the minds and hearts on absolutely new reality to the world of the resurrected, world that fascinates and inspires wonder and fear, for it is God’s world.

Commentary to the 2nd Sunday of Easter–Year B–

Asking the human a disembodied faith is to demand the impossible; but it is also a mistake to claim, as Thomas, to check what cannot be perceived by the senses. The condition in which Jesus entered his resurrection, though more real than reality itself on which today our eyes and our hands are laid on, defies verification.