I Saw The Addams Family

XXV Sunday of Ordinary Time

The gift of the coat (Giotto, 1296-1304, the Upper Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi)

Luke 16.1-13: [1] He also said to his disciples: "There was a rich man who had a steward who was denounced to him for squandering his property. [2] He called and said, What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be manager. [3] The steward said to himself, 'What shall I do now that my master takes my administration? Dig, I have no strength to beg I am ashamed. [4] I know what I do because when I am dismissed Administration, there is someone to welcome me into his house. [5] He called for a master's debtors and one said to the first [6] How much do you owe my master? One hundred barrels of oil. He told him: 'Take your bill, sit down and write fifty. [7] Then he said to another: How much do you owe? He replied: One hundred measures of wheat. He told him: Take thy bill and write eighty. [8] The master commended the dishonest steward for his astuteness. The children of this world, in fact, to their peers are more astute than the children of light.
[9] Well, I say to you: make friends with unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails, you welcome you into eternal dwellings.
[10] who is faithful in little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in little is dishonest also in much.
[11] So if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will trust that true? [12] And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else, who will give yours?
[13] No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other or you and despise the other. You can not serve God and mammon.



Dear friends, dear friends,

proposed in the passage from the liturgy on Sunday (Luke 16.1-13, Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 23, 2007), the interlocutors are not tax collectors and sinners, as in the previous section (15.1), even those scribes and Pharisees who prefer to listen rather than murmur ( 16.2). Listeners called in question are its disciples. In this sense, the so-called parable dell''amministratore dishonest 'Jesus says not to "outsiders" (1 Cor 5:13), but for all those who are' inside 'the reality of His Church, "also said to his disciples "(16.1).

It is therefore to identify very clearly what it is, properly speaking Church, the assets that would be better administered. In the context of a Western culture that tends to consider first the sense of people and things according to quantitative criteria and visibility material, even the Church of the Disciples of Jesus was - and still is - seen as a major institution ( a large company), some rich people, and property values \u200b\u200bwill inevitably be subject to the logic of market forces and exchange.
We do, however, suffered a clarification: the most precious gift that the disciples of both yesterday and forever, are called to guard and administer is the 'deposit of faith' that Jesus gave us by giving us Himself himself: "Do this in remembrance of me" (Lk 22:19). It is summed up in him all the love and mercy of God that the world, more or less consciously, wait. In this sense, people, goods and values, which are found in the Church and relate mainly to the transmission and administration of Him and His Gospel, or end up being obsolete and unnecessary frills, if not, they become harmful.
In this same perspective is therefore to be accepted sense of this story of Jesus, fixing your attention to the dishonesty of a director: "There was a rich man who had a steward who was denounced to him for being wasteful with his possessions. He called and said, What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be manager. "

The call of the master 'to account' becomes a critical challenge for those who, having the responsibility for administering, ends up betraying his deepest vocation. These, coming "in itself" (as the youngest son of the preceding parable, 15.17), introduces us to a critical reflection on the meaning and value of subtlety in relation to the announcement of the gospel itself: "The administrator said himself, 'What shall I do now that my master takes my administration? Dig? I have no strength to beg I am ashamed. I know what to do because when I am dismissed from, there is someone to welcome me into his house. He called for a master's debtors and one said to the first: How much do you owe my master? One hundred barrels of oil. He told him: 'Take your bill, sit down and write fifty. Then he said to another: How much do you owe? He replied: One hundred measures of wheat. He told him: Take thy bill and write eighty. "

A first consideration may assess the real cleverness of this administration. We are located in front of a short-sighted strategy, if the result is actually that of losing a job is so prestigious. La sua ottusità si dimostra soprattutto nella debolezza strategica dimostrata da quest’uomo in rapporto al suo futuro. Come sapesse calcolare bene sull’immediatezza del suo presente, senza intuire che prima o poi i nodi sarebbero venuti al pettine. Soprattutto è chiaro che, come anche Gesù afferma al termine del brano, “nessun servo può servire a due padroni: o odierà l'uno e amerà l'altro oppure si affezionerà all'uno e disprezzerà l'altro. Non potete servire a Dio e a mammona”.

Ma in gioco c’è una questione più alta. Se è vero che anche Gesù è convinto che “I figli di questo mondo, infatti, verso i loro pari sono più scaltri dei figli of light "- the rest would be interesting to understand better the meaning of this statement - however this does not exonerate" the sons of light "from trying to be clever, seen mostly in what is called on them to keep and administer. Do not forget, in fact, that "the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven is taken by force, and the violent take it by force" (Matt. 11:12).

In this respect it is not identifying the waste of administrative man as an appropriate methodology for the Gospel. The end never justifies any means in relation to the proclamation of the gospel. If in fact mammon, Besides being an idol dangerous, easily becomes an idol perverse, the shrewdness, according to Jesus, would succeed in blocking this voracious mundane mechanism by introducing a different perspective. Both the accumulation of wealth is dispersed in the hands of a few, but rather the gift and gratuity - fully expressed by self-performed by Jesus - teach us a new intelligence strategy and an interesting ad. In exercising the logic of the gift is not only neutralized the danger of a false tank, but above all we are given - being first to the reality of the Church of the Disciples of the Lord - to become truly free. Available primarily for Him Because the announcement of him spreading handfuls above all love and hope. And "The master commended the dishonest steward for his astuteness."

Even the suggestion will be lost gospel suggests that Jesus at the end of the parable: "Make friends with the unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into eternal dwellings", ie the time at which we will enter definitively into the infinite mystery of God after death. What will happen at that moment no one can anticipate, but why not - as suggested by the Gospel - we are meeting all those people, known and unknown, that in this life we \u200b\u200bhave achieved with a gesture of gratitude. Maybe even with a smile.
Above all, we will meet him, with the same intensity of sweetness and affection with which, from Sunday to Sunday, comes to us with the gift of His Word, His body and His blood shed for us, just with love. Without any claim of return.

That this is so for all a peaceful Sunday.


Don Walter Magni

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XXIV Sunday in Ordinary Time

Giorgio De Chirico, The Prodigal Son (1922, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan)

Luke 15-1-32: [1] approached him all the publicans and sinners to hear him. [2] The Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." [3] Then he told them this parable: [4] "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until he finds it? [5] Ritrovatala, puts it on his shoulders, rejoicing, [6] goes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying: Rejoice with me, because I found my lost sheep. [7] So, I tell you, there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no conversion. [8] Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one, light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? [9] and, when found, call her friends and neighbors, saying: Rejoice with me, because I found the coin I lost. [10] So, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. " [11] Then he said: "A man had two sons. [12] The younger one said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that falls to me. So he divided his property between them. [13] A few days later, the younger son gathered all his belongings and set off for a distant country where he squandered sue sostanze vivendo da dissoluto. [14]Quando ebbe speso tutto, in quel paese venne una grande carestia ed egli cominciò a trovarsi nel bisogno. [15]Allora andò e si mise a servizio di uno degli abitanti di quella regione, che lo mandò nei campi a pascolare i porci. [16]Avrebbe voluto saziarsi con le carrube che mangiavano i porci; ma nessuno gliene dava. [17]Allora rientrò in se stesso e disse: Quanti salariati in casa di mio padre hanno pane in abbondanza e io qui muoio di fame! [18]Mi leverò e andrò da mio padre e gli dirò: Padre, ho peccato contro il Cielo e contro di te; [19]non sono più degno di esser chiamato tuo figlio. Trattami come uno dei tuoi garzoni. [20]Partì e si incamminò verso suo father. When he was away his father saw him and compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck and kissed him. [21] The son said: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you no longer deserve to be called your son. [22] But the father said to his servants, "Quick, bring out the best robe and put it on, Put the ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. [23] Bring the fattened calf and kill it; we are celebrating, [24] For this my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found. And they began to celebrate. [25] The eldest son was in the field. Come back when it was close to home, he heard music and dancing; [26] called a servant and asked him what it was all about. [27] The servant answered: 'return your brother and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound. [28] He became angry and refused to go. His father came out to beg. [29] But he answered his father: Behold, I served you for many years and I never disobeyed your command, and you will not ever have given me a young goat to celebrate with my friends. [30] But now that this son of yours who has devoured your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf. [31] The father said, 'Son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours, [32] but we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found. "


Dear friends, dear friends,

Sunday, September 16, 2007 we celebrate the XXIV Ordinary Time. It will read the Gospel of Luke from 15.1 to 32. The interlocutors of Jesus are very different: "They approached him all the publicans and sinners to hear him. The Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them'. Then he told them this parable. So "the publicans and sinners" means "hear" what "the Pharisees and scribes murmured." And Jesus, not at all frightened, he decided to tell "them this parable. His word is for everyone, but only a well-disposed to give its true listening.
On the one hand, we may be attracted by the images of his stories - the attentive caring pastor, a woman of the house and noticed a good father -; for another, digging further, we run into some verbal actions that constantly recur like a refrain: something or someone loses, someone who goes to look for and finally located with great joy.

It's easy to shepherd us back to Jesus 'Good Shepherd' (the pastor even 'beautiful' in ch. 10 of John), although in this case, Jesus seems coinvolgerci più direttamente: “Chi di voi se ha cento pecore e ne perde una, non lascia le novantanove nel deserto e va dietro a quella perduta, finché non la ritrova?”.
La donna di casa ci potrebbe persino riportare a Marta di Betania, così attiva e pronta da non accorgersi della ricchezza che la sorella Maria aveva già trovato (Lc 10,40-41): “O quale donna, se ha dieci dramme e ne perde una, non accende la lucerna e spazza la casa e cerca attentamente finché non la ritrova?”.
Di tutt’altro genere è la figura del padre dei due figli. Quando, infatti, Gesù parla di paternità non ha tanto dei riferimenti umani ed esistenziali cui riferirsi, ma sembra attingere a un’esperienza deeper and more decisive. As if the powers of imagination gave way up to the reality itself of the Father and His relationship with Him as if the merciful face of God can not bear a more imaginative and allusive. Only the Son, in fact, can fully reveal the Father: "All things have been given to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him "(Mt 11:27).

Here is a passage that is worth mentioning. It is not so much our human experience of fatherhood that can descriptively refer to some features of the face of God, but the opposite is true. A father should act as described by Jesus in the parable does not deserve approval. It is not much on letting the minor child if they go home, taking away half inheritance, without even an excuse. Him back again, after he squandered it all. Without the slightest reproach. Here we are asked quite a leap in the heart of Jesus, accepting what we are saying just like the word 'God'. As we were saying his God, his own paternity. Perhaps Jesus was merely commenting on a famous passage from the Book of Exodus - the rest again later criticized by the prophet Jonah 4.2 - in which God himself, speaking to Moses, said to be "Lord! The Lord! God the merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth "(Exodus 34:6).

To better understand the unique features of this mercy, so there are some verbal actions to help returning on time for all three stories heard. The first
existential experience that introduces us to understand God's mercy is that of loss: a sheep that is lost in the bush, a drama that ends somewhere below that of furniture, a child who leaves the family home, even slamming the door . If not we practice to share the experience of existential confusion, there is a real risk that the mercy of God may be confused with a naive gooders and, therefore, inevitably rejected. In this sense, Jesus, speaking of the sinful woman in Simon the Pharisee, he sees her own in a particular susceptibility to this mercy, saying, "Her many sins are forgiven, for she loved much, but one to whom little is forgiven, loves little "(Lk 7:47).

The second is the search for verbal action with a vengeance that God alone knows how to put in place in relation not only to man generally, but specifically to the sinner. Maybe it will be increasingly difficult to determine the reasons for the loss. But the fact remains that the pastor will not rest until I find a lamb, like the woman her money and how this father who will never cease to stand to wait until just the outline of the son's horizon. But

decisive in order to seize the mercy of God by the party itself, it is the last action. In fact, if it is God who seeks us out, then surely he'll end up, feeling a joy unspeakable. Like the shepherd who "goes home, call together his friends and neighbors, saying: Rejoice with me because I have found my sheep which was lost", or the woman who, "after finding it, call her friends and neighbors, saying: Rejoice with me, I have found the coin I lost. " The merciful father, took by an overwhelming joy, if it is said to have been very well understood by the youngest son, the prodigal son will be understood by even more, which say that "we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come in life was lost and is found ".

May the joy that we all experience, taking part in Sunday, is increasingly rooted in the joy that God himself try to see us at the table with his son.
What is a good Sunday for all.

Don Walter Magni