Sunday homily in the cathedral of Milan, September 2004
Apr 04, 2005
Nowadays we live in a world where, unfortunately, new and by all means no gentler forms of slavery have developed: slavery due to misery and war, social injustice and the abuses of the powerful, slavery due to the myths of success and the manipulation of consent. By Dionigi Tettamanzi, Cardinal-Archbishop of di Milan.
Wisdom 9,13-18
Philemon 1,9-10.12-17
Luke 14, 25-33
Beloved brothers and sisters,
the Spirit of God, has gathered us to celebrate the Holy Liturgy of the Day of the Lord, it has enabled us to listen to the Word, and it makes us part of God’s Easter. We live this event of grace at the beginning of days in which, we believe, the Spirit shall be present, as the protagonist of our meeting – of men and women of different religions and cultures – with the common purpose to invoke and seek ways of peace for the whole humankind.
This same Spirit rouses and directs our hearts to pray for the children and all those people who were killed by the useless, vile and merciless slaughter of Beslan. This very Spirit constantly generates in us the hope that even the most hardened heart may open up to conversion and the barbarousness of terror will stop shedding blood on earth.
1. We now become disciples of the word of God, which is a lamp to our steps (cf. Psalm 119, 105), alive and effective, and reveals our hearts, because it is sharper than any two-edged sword (cf. Hebrews 4, 12-13).
The word of today’s Gospel (cf. Luke 14, 25-33) strongly and unequivocally questions our authenticity in following Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master. It is not possible to be his disciples if we love someone or something - even the people dearest to us, even life itself - more than him. Here, then, is the most serious problem for our faith: to know what is the place the Lord really occupies in our hearts and in our lives. He is not the Lord of our lives if we prefer others to him!
This very word warns us against two risks: firstly, the risk of forgetting that Jesus Christ is the one and universal mediator of salvation for the whole human family. Secondly, the risk of preferring our little visions to the far-reaching thought of God. The ways and the thoughts of God, indeed surpass our own thoughts and ways, the way the heavens surpass the earth (see Isaiah 55,9). And the Spirit of God works powerfully, unforeseeable and hidden, in ways and places we would never imagine.
The Spirit, therefore, can transfigure every sincere search for truth and make it a chance for an experience of faith that should be heeded and considered with respect. As a result, the disciples of the Lord must listen to single persons and different religious traditions with evangelical discernment. Then, besides the limits bred by our human frailty, it shall find the fruits coming from the action of the Spirit.
Sunday homily in the cathedral of Milan, September 2004