Homily of H.E. Mons. Claudio Gatti of May 6, 2007
5th EASTER SUNDAY (YEAR C)
1st reading: Acts 14:21-27; Psalm 144; 2nd reading: Rev 21:1-5; Gospel: Jn 13:31-35
The Gospel of John is what attracted and enticed me in a special way because the topic we are talking about, even if the passage is short, is of such importance, of such intensity that, if put into practice, would put today’s Church in a completely different situation from what is now, unfortunately, to everybody’s eyes the passage begins with a detail: "When Judas left the cenacle". That of Judas is an unfavorable, negative presence, especially for Christ. Judas’ presence prevents that intimacy and familiarity that Jesus wants to give to his great speech that is also the subject of the subsequent chapters of the Gospel of John. Judas leaves and Jesus is, at last, surrounded by his friends. He knows because he is God, that they will betray him and leave him alone but, despite this, he knows the love of the apostles who had left everything to follow him and gave up everything that was opposed to Him. Their love is still too human and, as long as it is not sustained by the love of God, fragility, weakness and detachment from Christ are still possible. Jesus is in the cenacle, but, besides Him who is offering himself as Redeemer, there is also the one who brought him into the world, Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. There is a dispute among exegetes debating the fact whether Judas were present or not at the time of the institution of the Eucharist. In my opinion he was not present for the reason I have just explained to you: Christ seeks intimacy, love, familiarity and, even if it is still in an imperfect form, he finds it in the apostles, in the eleven, and not in Judas, because he knew that he would have betrayed him. Jesus waited for him to go away from the cenacle in order to give Himself wholly as a Eucharistic Bread and as Word. Now we stop to examine this gift of Jesus as Word. There are expressions that seemingly appear out of place; Jesus is about to start His Passion, he is going to meet with death, so how can he say: "The Son of man has been glorified"? He is going to be humiliated and condemned shortly thereafter and condemned to death, so where is it possible to see this glorification? Before explaining this concept, however, it is necessary to specify that, when we speak of God, we must leave aside the human categories, the common ways of understanding and interpretation, we must choose the interpretation that God offers of his teachings and words. The Son of Man, Christ, has been glorified in the sense that the Father has accepted the oblation, the offering, but, above all, the obedience that Christ has shown towards the Father. The Father, since eternity, beyond the creation of man and every other reality, had also established the redemption and this had to be accomplished by His Son, by God the Son, the second person of the Most Holy Trinity. Well, Christ, as the psalm says, "Entered the world" saying that he sacrificed himself and offered His Body to the Father because all other animal sacrifices were useless to ensure that the alliance could be tightened again with a satisfactory and positive bond. Not only is the Son glorified, but the Father is also glorified, so the concept is the same: we give Glory to God when we obey Him. Whenever we obey God, in accordance with the Decalogue, in accordance with this new commandment of love that was instituted at the beginning of the new covenant; well, every time we respect these laws, we give glory to God, in the sense that we accept his teachings, we accept his directives and bow and carry them out with a gesture of obedience and docility. If God has been glorified in Him, "God will glorify him" too. The paradox is that Jesus is about to die, but what for men is humiliation, for God is exaltation. In the eyes of men, Christ is humiliated when he climbs on the cross, when he is nailed to the cross; for God, on the other hand, Christ is exalted at that very moment, as he said: "When I am exalted on the cross I will attract every being, every person to Me!" Here is the Glory that Christ sought and wanted. Christ, obediently, has made this death his own with a free and voluntary acceptance and God will immediately glorify him, in the sense that, with redemption, with the death of Christ, Heaven is opened and the souls of the right people will enter it from the underworld or from that limbo that we have always preached and affirmed not to exist. The limbo never existed. By the way, the claim that children who have died without having the chance to be baptized would go into the limbo is a mere theological invention. Finally, not long ago, even the Church claimed to be a wrong theory, unfortunately it took too long. We have letters from God, one from 2001 and one from 2006 where Jesus Christ says exactly that the limbo does not exist. But why doesn't the limbo exist? Why am I talking to you about this? Because everything is absorbed, as we will see later, by the love of God. "I give you a new commandment", and we begin to talk with trepidation about this wonderful law of love. "I Christ, I God, I give it to you": indicates a gift that the Lord is giving us and this must be emphasized. It is not an imposition, but a gift, because when we talk about love, we must always keep in mind, clearly, the one who loves and the one who is loved. "Love one another as I have loved you", these are the words the Lord utters. In order to love, and his applies to each of you, I must first be the object of love; I cannot give love to others if I have not been previously loved by someone, in the supernatural field by God, in the natural field by parents, relatives and educators. We know, from experience and because scholars say it too, the one who has never met love, will never know how to give it, will never know how to show this love. Now you well understand the meaning of the sentence: "God's love is preventive", that is, it precedes our love; His is infinite, ours is limited, His is perfect, ours is imperfect. His love lasts from eternity, because we have always been present in the mind of God and He loved each of us in a personal way, different from one another. If, within us, there is the love of God, then there is the realization of his plan, if there is love, man grasps the maximum of his own perfection. There is an expression on which I still want to focus your attention: in the version of the passage we have read there is the word children, "Little children, only for a short while I will be with you", I do not know and do not understand why they did not report exactly the word that best reflects what Christ said, that is: little children and not children. Jesus knows very well that he is going to die, then in all this talk which, I say it again, continues in the subsequent chapters, there is this anxiety, this loving care to leave to his apostles, as a testament, not only the teaching, but the expression of which this teaching is based. This, in fact, is the only time in the whole Gospel where there is this word: "little children" and I do not understand why they have taken it away and put instead "children". The correct wording is "little children", this is confirmed by John, the author of the Gospel, when he will be writing his first letter and will frequently use the expression "little children" while addressing the Christians, but it is not an expression he invented or coined, it is an expression, a term, a wording that he grasped and learned from Christ. In the word "little children" there is all the love, the gracefulness, the paternal concern, there is the desire to continue to be present, even if in a different way: "still for a little while I am with you". After resurrection, however, the presence of Christ will be an operational, strong and continuous presence that is realized in a particular way in the Eucharist and in the Word, as he reiterates with the statement: "When two or more people are gathered, I am in the midst of them and they are with them". When there is a family, when there is a community gathering in the name of Christ, then Christ is present. "Love one another as I have loved you", this expression should be clearly placed in offices, homes and places of power of the ecclesiastical authority. I am not interested, for the moment, in civil authorities. "Love one another as I have loved you": every member of the hierarchy, when reading it, should question themselves every day and ask: "Do I love my brothers? Do I love the sheep that God entrusted me with strong and selfless love" If this were done, the rebirth of the Church would now be at a much higher point than it is at the moment. Why is there this spiritual decadence? Because there is no love! How is it possible to think that the gentleman who holds an ecclesiastical position and who wears certain clothes of different colors, is at ease when he does nothing but to manifest his authority in a repressive and oppressive manner? Is this love? No. This is not love, this is not respect for the law of the New Testament and then the only thing we can do is to ensure that this law can become truly operative at all levels, starting from above, because every reform must start from the top and go lower and lower. Doing it in the opposite direction is not easy, but from the top down it is much easier, it should be easier. Then we pray that this law of love can truly penetrate every community, every Church, every family, every vital corner of the Church and oil those mechanisms that are now blocked by hypocrisy, interest, selfishness, wickedness and hardness of heart. The mechanisms must be put in motion again and the oil is that of love; the road, the way is that of love, because it is Christ who says it: "By this they will all know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another"; if there is no love, you can be a nun, a religious man, a priest, a bishop, a cardinal and even a Pope, but you will not have the Christian badge. Only if we know how to love the others can they recognize us as disciples of the Lord, if there is no love then we are not disciples, much less masters for our brothers. Let us remember, we will be judged on love, it is on this commandment and around this commandment that the judgment of God will rotate and then let’s anticipate it, examining and asking ourselves how far we can love and this to the Glory of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
At the end of the H. Mass, H.E. Mons. Claudio Gatti made a meditation on the feast of May 13: Anniversary of Marisa's vows and Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Fatima
Our lady, while appearing in Lourdes, said: "I am the Immaculate Conception" and, appearing here in Rome, said: "The Immaculate Conception opens the history, the Mother of the Eucharist closes the history", so there is a perfect contact and development between Lourdes and Rome. Furthermore, Our Lady, appearing to Bernadette, gave the message of penance: only through penance, the man, after having purified himself, can come to be reconciled with God. There is also a very important episode which took place in 1916, a year before the beginning of the Fatima apparitions: an angel, the angel of Portugal, had appeared to the three shepherds showing them a chalice and a host above it suspended in the air. Then the angel bowed in adoration, so a Eucharistic dialogue had already begun, which was then developed by the Mother of the Eucharist, appearing here in Rome to Marisa.
In the message of Fatima there is also the beginning of the Church purification. The third secret, as you know, has not been disclosed in its fullness. God and Our Lady, when had appeared to Marisa, gave the correct interpretation of the part that was disclosed: our Lord's plan to revive the Church. There is, therefore, closeness and a connection between Rome and Fatima and we can say that we are fully within the message of the disclosed secret.
This year is also the 90th anniversary of the apparitions in Fatima and is an important date, I would say historic. I am sorry that in the Church this anniversary was almost underhanded without giving it the appropriate importance. In fact, these apparitions, according to the judgment of God, which is what counts, are relevant to the implications regarding the Church rebirth.
Therefore, next May 13 is an important date. This year it coincides with a Sunday, so it will not be difficult for us to celebrate it in the most solemn way; however, also the anniversary of Marisa’s consecration to God occurs. As God used humble creatures, the three simple children, the three little shepherd and Bernadette, so He used our sister, another humble creature, to make the truth and, above all the Eucharist in the Church, triumph.
As on the occasion of my anniversary of priestly ordination we celebrate the feast of priesthood, so on the anniversary of the consecration of Marisa we will widen our gaze to all consecrated, non-priestly souls who have offered themselves to the Lord, so that their consecration may be even more honest, pure and generous. We hope that Marisa can be present to celebrate her anniversary and the realities I have told you about because her presence is always linked to the will of God. This night was particularly hard and painful for our sister and this prevented her to be present today because she is literally devastated.
So let's do a triduum like we also did for the anniversary of my ordination, especially to ask the Lord to realize what he promised and to speed up the times because, honestly, while abandoning ourselves to his will, we are tired of waiting. Next Tuesday there will not be the day of Eucharistic adoration, it will be moved to Thursday; on Friday there will be the bible class, so I am not asking for anything special because the timetable remains the usual that you already know. Saturday, instead, there will be the vigil during which I will continue to tell you about our story before the apparitions. Sunday we will solemnly carry the relic of Our Lady in procession; we are the only ones who have authentic relics of Our Lady, St. Joseph and Jesus: the hair of one and the other twisted together and rolled up to form a single curl.
We will make a solemn procession, we will ask Mary to convey our desires, our needs. I recommend that the intention that the Church may, as soon as possible, resume the path guided by the light of the Gospel and the Eucharist, be always vigilant and alive in you,
Praised be Jesus Christ.