January 9th own festival. Have a good day everyone!

 

January 9th own festival. Have a good day everyone!

This Gospel episode says well the weakness and fragility of our being. When everything seems normal, we think we're strong. It's when the obstacle, the temptation, comes that we risk falling. Faith gives unimaginable boldness. Jesus won fear with all his parade of illness, evil, sin and death.

Strong of our faith, in front of the wonders God has accomplished we can exclaim: ′′ Truly, you are the Son of God ".

We remember the first words disan John Paul II: ′′ Don't be afraid to open doors to Christ ". We can say with the Gospel: we open the doors to Christ and we will no longer be afraid, because in him we will be victorious.

Belonging to the Lord

it means to be burned by his burning love,

being transformed by the splendor of its beauty. (Benedict XVI)

From the first letter of Saint John the Apostle 4,11-18

Dearly beloved, if God loved us like this, we too must love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love each other, God remains in us and the love of him is perfect in us.

In this we know that we remain in him and he is in us: he gave us his Spirit. And we ourselves have seen and attested that the Father sent His Son to be the savior of the world. Anyone who confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has in us. God is love; he who stays in love stays in God and God stays in him.

In this love has reached its perfection among us: that we have faith in judgement day, because as he is, so are we, in this world. There is no fear in love, on the contrary perfect love drives out fear, because fear assumes a punishment and those who fear are not perfect in love.

From the Gospel according to Mark 6,45-52

[After the five thousand men were satiated], Jesus immediately forced his disciples to board the boat and precede him on the other side, in Bets àida, until he discharged the crowd. When he discharged them, he went to the mount to pray.

Evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea and he was alone on the ground. Seeing them but they were fatigued in paddling because they had the opposite wind, at the end of the night he walked towards them walking on the sea, and wanted to pass them.

When they saw him walking on the sea, they thought: ′′ He's a ghost!", and they cried out, because everyone had seen him and they were shocked. But he immediately spoke to them and said: ′′ Come on, it's me, don't be afraid!". And he got on the boat with them and the wind stopped.

And within themselves they were greatly amazed, because they did not understand the fact of the loaves: their hearts were hardened.

..... This story of the Gospel contains rich symbolism and makes us reflect on our faith, both as individuals and as an ecclesial community, also our faith of all of us who are here today in the Square. Does the community, this ecclesial community, have faith? How is faith in each of us and faith in our community? The boat is the life of each of us but it is also the life of the Church; the reverse wind represents the difficulties and trials. Peter's invocation: ′′ Lord, command me to come toward you!" and his cry: ′′ Lord, save me!" they look so much like our desire to feel the Lord's closeness, but also the fear and distress that They accompany the toughest moments of our lives and our communities, marked by internal fragility and external difficulties.

Peter, in that moment, wasn't enough the safe word of Jesus, which was like the strained rope to cling to face the hostile and turbulent waters. This is what can happen to us too. When you don't hold on to the word of the Lord, for more security you consult with horoscopes and cartoons, you start to go to the bottom. This means that faith is not so strong. Today's Gospel reminds us that faith in the Lord and in his word doesn't open a path for us where everything is easy and calm; it doesn't take us away from the storms of life. Faith gives us the security of a Presence, the presence of Jesus that drives us to overcome existential storms, the certainty of a hand that grabs us to help us face difficulties, pointing us the way even when it's dark. Faith, in short, is not a loophole from life's problems, but it sustains the way and gives it meaning.

This episode is an amazing picture of the Church's reality of all-time: a boat that, along the way, faces reverse winds and storms that threaten to overwhelm it. What saves her is not the courage and qualities of her men: the guarantee against the shipwreck is faith in Christ and his word. This is the assurance: faith in Jesus and his word. We are safe on this boat, despite our miseries and weaknesses, especially when we get on our knees and worship the Lord, like the disciples who eventually ′′ prostrated before him, saying: ′′ Really you are the Son of God !"" (v. 33). How nice to say this word to Jesus: ′′ Really you are the Son of God!". Shall we all say it together? ′′ Really you are the Son of God!".

Virgin Mary helps us to persist well firmly in faith to resist the storms of life, to remain on the church boat, and to avoid the temptation of boarding boats, but unsure of ideologies, fashions and slogans. (Pope Francis, Angelus, August 13, 2017)

From the ′′ Speech ′′ of Saint Proclo, Bishop of Constantinople

(Disc. for Epiphany, 7,1-3; PG 65,758-759)

Sanctification of the waters

Christ appeared to the world and, putting order in the world in disorder, made it beautiful. He took upon himself the sin of the world and drove out the enemy of the world; he sanctified the springs of the waters and illuminated the souls of men. He added miracles to miracles that were greater and greater.

Today the land and the sea have divided among each other the grace of the Savior, and the whole world is filled with joy, because the present day shows us a greater number of miracles than in the previous holiday. Indeed on the solemn day of the Lord's past Christmas the earth rejoiced, because it brought the Lord into a manger; in the present day of Epiphany the sea flashes with joy; a tripudy because it received among Jordan the blessings of sanctification.

In the past solemnity we were presented as a little boy, who demonstrated our imperfection; in today's festival we see a mature man who lets the perfect one proceeds from perfect. In that the king wore the purple of the body; in this the source surrounds the river and almost covers it. Come on then! You see the wonderful miracles: the sun of justice washing in the Jordan, the fire immersed in the waters and God sanctified by a man.

Today every creature sings hymns and cries: ′′ Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord ′′ (Sal 117,26). Blessed is he who comes at all times, because he didn't come now for the first time... And who is he? Say it clearly, O Blessed David: He is the Lord God and shined for us (see. Sal 117,27). And not only the prophet David says this, but also the apostle Paul echoes him with his testimony and extends in these words: God's saving grace appeared to all men to train us (cf. Tt 2,11). Not to some but to all. To all, in fact, Jews and Greeks, give the saving grace of baptism, offering everyone baptism as a common benefit.

Come on, look at the strange flood, bigger and more precious than the flood that came in Noah's time. So the water of the flood caused mankind to perish; now instead the water of baptism, because of the power of the one who was baptized, calls to life the dead. So the dove, bearing an olive branch in its beak, indicated the fragrance of Christ the Lord's perfume; now instead the Holy Spirit, coming down in the form of a dove, shows us the Lord Himself, full of mercy towards us.

Luigi Russo