The Word every day: 29 December 2024 – 4 January 2025
Commentary on the Readings of the Day by Father Giordano Favillini
Sunday 29/12
Luke 2: 43B-48
The young boy Jesus stayed in Jerusalem without his parents noticing. His mother said to him, ‘Son, why have you done this to us? Behold, your father and I were anxiously looking for you’. And he said to them, ‘Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I am to take care of my Father’s affairs?’ Children are not the property of their parents, each one has his own vocation, parents must help their children to fulfil it without imposing their own plans.
Monday 30/12
Luke 2: 39A-40
Mary and Joseph returned to Galilee to their town of Nazareth. The child grew and was strengthened full of wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. The divinity extraneous to man entered humanity through the earthly life of Jesus, lived in the most ordinary way during the time he spent in Nazareth as a worker in his family.
Tuesday 31/12
John 1:2
He, Jesus, was in the beginning with God. Everything was made through Him and without Him nothing was made of what exists. The birth of Jesus is the revelation in time of the plan for the divinization of mankind that God has always had in mind.
Wednesday 1/01
Luke 2:16
The shepherds went without delay and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger. Jesus came into this world to become the food of life, to satisfy the hunger and thirst for truth that is present in every man. That is why he is laid in a manger. I wish you all a Holy Year 2025, that all may return to the Lord and receive the dignity of children of God.
Thursday 2/01
John 1:23
John the Baptist answered: ‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said’. Christmas is to be experienced every day by making ourselves available to live according to God’s word without putting our own desires or selfish interests before it. In this way the Lord can pass through our lives.
Friday 3/01
John 1:29
John saw Jesus coming towards him and said: ‘Behold the Lamb of God, the one who takes away the sin of the world’. What does not allow one to experience true love towards the Lord and towards others is sin. This is the real problem. Jesus came to solve it. He took sin upon himself and nailed it to the cross, giving everyone the chance to live in true love.
Saturday 4/01
John 1:38
Jesus then turned around and observing that they were following him said to them, ‘What do you seek?’ In our conscience the Lord also asks us: ‘What do you seek?’. Are we seeking the true way of life? Have we lapsed into laziness, into starvation, into mediocrity? To believe is to always seek the Lord without ever stopping, for we shall see Him at the end of our earthly existence.