The Word every day: 15-21 December, 2024
Commentary on the Readings of the Day by Father Giordano Favillini
Sunday 15/12
Luke 3: 16-17
John answered and said to all: ‘I baptise you with water, but he who is mightier than I comes, he will baptise you in Holy Spirit and Fire’. Baptism injects into human existence a potential of divinity, which in the course of existence transforms and changes life, raising it to a high level of quality. Only God’s grace in us can realise this if there is the free adherence of the person
Monday 16/12
Matthew 21:23
Jesus entered the Temple, and while he was teaching, the chief priests and elders of the people approached him and said, ‘By what authority do you do these things? And who gave you this authority?’ The powerful of this world have delegated authority and if they are in communion with Jesus, who holds authority over everything, they will be able to rule justly otherwise they will be tyrants and not rulers.
Tuesday 17/12
Matthew 21: 31-32
Jesus said, ‘Truly I say to you, publicans and harlots pass you by in the kingdom of God. John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the publicans and the prostitutes believed him’. Those who feel they are too righteous believing they do not need conversion are in danger, they have lost control of their frailty and when they least expect it they will behave worse than the worst sinners of this world.
Wednesday 18/12
Matthew 1:20
Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife with you; for the child that is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit. She shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. Through Joseph, Jesus God enters a family, a people, a culture, in the Jewish tradition, he receives a name that will allow him to fulfil his mission as Saviour, thanks to the trust and obedience of a man Joseph.
Thursday 19/12
Luke 1:20
And behold, Zechariah, thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be able to speak until the day that these things come to pass, because thou hast not believed my words, which shall be fulfilled in their time. Many speak of God or religious realities, but only through those who believe deeply does the word of God come through, otherwise they are human words, better then to be silent.
Friday 20/12
Luke 1:38
Then Mary said: ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word’. Through Mary, Jesus God enters human flesh, becomes man, takes on all the fragility of our condition, feels all the feelings, all the limitations of a creature. That is why he has compassion and understands everything about our existential condition.
Saturday 21/12
Luke 1: 42 and 45
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud voice: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, and blessed is she who believed in the fulfilment of what the Lord told her’. It is Mary’s faith that allowed the Lord to enter world history as a man. If we have faith, we too can be vehicles of God’s works, his instruments to realise his innumerable good designs.