Brothers and sisters

The Lord give you peace!

To understand the Gospel it is important to understand the context, the environment in which Jesus lived. And let him guide us, teach us. For this reason we listen to the Gospel, and for this reason we listen to the homily. The great father of the Church “Origen” said: The Church is a school… a school of prayer. And the Church is also a clinic, a spiritual clinic. Yes, a clinic and we can be healed. Jesus, with his word, with his body can heal us. I am a clinical psychologist and many times I have thought: why is Jesus’ clinic so little frequented? because it’s free… we prefer to pay… and not let ourselves be healed by Jesus.

The context of the narration of the Gospel of St. Matthew that we have heard is a period of great crisis. Many did not want to listen to Jesus. The inhabitants of Nazareth were not happy with Jesus’ preaching. The disciples were not so enthusiastic… in a nutshell: Jesus was in a moment of difficulty… of crisis, of misunderstandings, of disappointments. Situations that we understand well… someone tells me: Father Bruno, the Cypriots have decreased in their attendance at Mass. There are no young people in our Churches… people no longer want to hear the Gospel… our people are suffering: many of our Catholics have had their residence permit denied. And even worse: sects, Protestants on the island are increasing, even in Northern Cyprus. In Nicosia near my house there are two Protestant churches…

Yes, a moment of crisis… and what did Jesus do in the moment of crisis, in the most difficult moments? He prayed… and praised God… “I glorify you oh Father, Lord of heaven and earth”. Yes, brothers and sisters, in these moments of crisis, of difficulty, of challenges… we must pray… praise and thank the Father. Today we are experiencing the crisis of prayer, of praising God. And we confuse prayer with repetition… with appearances. Brothers and sisters, the Christian life is not only morality, but it is faith. Praying, praising God means having experience with the Fatherhood of God. Jesus reveals the face of the Father to us… Praying means getting in tune with God’s thought. “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”… prayer it leads to seeing beyond… Those who pray begin to see things from another point of view. From above… from how God sees. Jesus addresses the Father in the Gospels 182 times… and he teaches us that the Father is the Lord of heaven and earth. He is the Lord of all… he knows everything, he knows everything. And he loves us. And he says to us: come to me all of you who are weary, tired… Because He truly is a father… he is a father (Abba)…

And the question arises: how to have this experience of prayer? How to have this experience of the fatherhood of God? And I would like to tell a story: a monk retired to the forest to pray. And he wanted to meet God… he wanted to experience God. And for a month he prayed and said: God, I want to see you, I want to meet you. And after a month a little dove appeared and he asked: Monk, there is a hawk that wants to eat me. Can I hide under your dress? And he, wanting to save the dove, said: sure, come. After 10 minutes, a hawk appeared, thin, deep eyes and asked: Monk, have you seen a dove? I’m hungry, and if I don’t eat that little dove, I’ll die. The monk didn’t know who to save… and he asked the falcon: listen, if I give you the same amount of meat that that little dove has, is that good for you? and the hawk replied: of course, I’m hungry, that’s all I care about. And the monk took a scale, set the dove aside, and cut off a piece of his own body and got in the scale. But the balance has not shifted. He cut off another piece of meat, put it on the scale, and nothing… and finally he put his whole self on the scale. And in that moment the hawk transformed into Jesus and said: now you have met God, now he has met me, because you have given yourself completely.

Yes, brothers and sisters…. Praying, believing in God is giving life, our time. And let us not remain in pessimism, in problems, in crises. And in the questions: why do few people come to the Church, or with the question: where are the young people… but let us begin today to love our young people, to love the Church, to give a little more of ourselves, and we will be witnesses of the goodness , of the Father’s love… and we will begin to love as He has loved us….amen…