20 October 2020 Tuesday of week 29 in Ordinary Time
Ephesians 2:12-22
Brothers and sisters: You were at that time without Christ, alienated from the community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have become near by the Blood of Christ. For he is our peace, he made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his Flesh, abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims, that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile both with God, in one Body, through the cross, putting that enmity to death by it. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.
Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Psalm 84 The Lord speaks of peace to his people. Il Signore annuncia la pace al suo popolo.
Luke 12:36-38
Jesus said to his disciples: “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,
have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants.”
+ Dal Vangelo secondo Luca
In quel tempo, Gesù disse ai suoi discepoli: «Siate pronti, con le vesti strette ai fianchi e le lampade accese; siate simili a quelli che aspettano il loro padrone quando torna dalle nozze, in modo che, quando arriva e bussa, gli aprano subito. Beati quei servi che il padrone al suo ritorno troverà ancora svegli; in verità io vi dico, si stringerà le vesti ai fianchi, li farà mettere a tavola e passerà a servirli. E se, giungendo nel mezzo della notte o prima dell’alba, li troverà così, beati loro!».
Parola del Signore
Reflection:
The psalmist expresses a wonderful unity;
“The Lord speaks peace to his people. Mercy and faithfulness have met; justice and peace have embraced. Faithfulness shall spring from the earth and justice look down from heaven.”
Heaven and earth meet in union.
The peace comes with the experience of bringing together what has become divided. We know this peace in ourselves when what was separated and in opposition, within us and between us, find a place in communion.
We humans have a tendency to create dichotomies, but these are only manifestations of what is split within our own hearts.
I stand on this side and tell that side it is wrong.
While on the other side I reject what is not with me on this side.
In God there is no split, no division. God stands in the middle holding both sides. God holds all things in being and no one and no thing is beyond the sphere of God’s embrace.
And all this is beautifully summed up in the reconciling action of God in the person of Jesus in Ephesians; “For he is the peace between us and has made the two into one and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart, actually destroying in his own person the hostility caused by the rules and decrees of the Law. This was to create one single new person in himself out of the two of them and by restoring peace through the cross, to unite them both in a single Body and reconcile them with God: in his own person he killed the hostility.”
In the Eucharist we stand in the middle with God and celebrate our communion as one body.
Riflessione (italiano):
Il salmista esprime una meravigliosa unità;
“Il Signore parla di pace al suo popolo. Misericordia e fedeltà si sono incontrate; giustizia e pace si sono abbracciate. La fedeltà scaturirà dalla terra e la giustizia guarderà dal cielo”.
Cielo e terra si incontrano in unione.
La pace viene con l’esperienza di riunire ciò che è diventato diviso. Conosciamo questa pace in noi stessi quando ciò che è stato separato e in opposizione, dentro di noi e tra di noi, trova un posto nella comunione.
Noi umani abbiamo la tendenza a creare dicotomie, ma queste sono solo manifestazioni di ciò che è diviso nel nostro cuore.
Io sto da questa parte e dico che è sbagliato.
Mentre dall’altra parte rifiuto ciò che non è con me da questa parte.
In Dio non c’è scissione, non c’è divisione. Dio sta nel mezzo tenendo entrambi i lati. Dio tiene tutte le cose nell’essere e nessuna e nessuna cosa è al di fuori della sfera dell’abbraccio di Dio.
E tutto questo è ben riassunto nell’azione riconciliatrice di Dio nella persona di Gesù in Efesini: “Egli infatti è la pace tra noi, ha fatto i due in uno e ha abbattuto la barriera che li teneva separati, distruggendo di fatto nella sua persona l’ostilità causata dalle regole e dai decreti della Legge”. Questo per creare un’unica persona nuova in se stessa a partire da loro due e per ristabilire la pace attraverso la croce, per unirli entrambi in un unico Corpo e riconciliarli con Dio: nella sua stessa persona ha ucciso l’ostilità”.
Nell’Eucaristia ci mettiamo in mezzo a Dio e celebriamo la nostra comunione come un unico corpo.