Dear brothers and sisters, Fiat!
There are great words in today's liturgy: joy and love, joy and commitment; the commitment and love that give true joy.
What are the reasons for joy? The Lord forgives our sins. He wants to forgive everyone by calling us to conversion, to a new life, to a good life.
"The Lord is in your midst, he is a mighty savior". The true reason for joy: the Lord is near!.
"Be happy, always, I repeat it, be happy: the Lord is near".
The important thing is to face the situations and problems of life with the light of faith! It is important to be peaceful, to trust, not to be discouraged. The Lord is near, the Lord is with us, He knows what we need. Even in the most difficult times, we want to believe and experience that He is a powerful Savior and will do everything for us, even beyond our expectations.
The message of the Gospel shows us the path of joy that consists in love of our neighbor and fidelity to our duties. The gospel speaks of concrete gestures of conversion.
Even people outside the Jewish law, publicans, soldiers turn to John because he says a practical word for everyone.
John the Baptist tells us how we should live Advent, how we should live before the Lord, waiting for Him, how we should live life, in the choice of fundamental values. To the question: What should we do? He replies: "if you have two coats, give one to someone who doesn't have any. ... one who doesn't have any, and the person who has food must do the same ".
It’s a concrete example for us, if we want to live the conversion of heart and life, if we want to live justice and give dignity and possibility of existence to our neighbor, wherever he is! "I own what I have given", someone wrote.
On earth I possess what I have put into the bank; for eternal life, I will possess what I put into the bank of God, which is my neighbor: the family (the healthy care of the family), the others (the situations I meet and in which I can intervene), the poor and those who suffer (specific presence of Christ).
It is a current and necessary call in today's world, in many situations near and far!
The world experiences the most serious forms of injustice: the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer (or impoverished, due to the waste of the rich).
We, as Christians, are the first to be called to conversion, that is, to serve the truth and the dignity of each life, of every person. We are called to live sobriety, not to allow ourselves to slip into the logic of consumerism and waste; we are called to share with others what we have.
We also have the duty to denounce, reprimand, testify, so that the world may change course, even if it may seem impossible (but nothing is impossible for God and men of good will). We can do this also with small concrete actions: only in this way we can be good men and good Christians.
" It is giving that we receive..." the prayer of St. Francis says.
Everyone should do his own duty well. John says to the publicans: " Don't make people pay more than they owe".
Jesus asks us to use a gift He gave us and that, too often, we do not use for the good of all: reason.
On February 24, 1935 Luisa was thinking to herself that all the value, all the good, it seems to her that it is all of the Divine Will, and nothing is left for her. But while she was thinking this, Jesus, told her that: God endowed the creature with reason, that she might know the good or the evil she would do; and in each act that she would do, if good, she might be endowed with new merit, new grace, new beauty and greater union with her Creator; if evil, she would suffer the penalty for it, a pain that would make her feel her weakness and her detaching herself from the One who had created her. Reason is the eye of the soul, and the light which, while leading the creature, makes her know the beauty of her good works, the fruits of her sacrifices; and which knows how to torment her when she does evil. Reason possesses this virtue: if the creature does what is good, her reason feels at its place of honor, and as king of the creature, it maintains the order, and by virtue of the merit she acquires, the creature feels strength and peace; while if she does evil, she feels all distraught, and the slave of her own evils.
If the creature does her good acts in the Divine Will, by virtue of the reason she possesses, God gives her the merit of the divine acts. Merit is given to her according to her knowledge, and depending on how her human will wants to operate. If it wants to operate in the Divine Will, it rises so high, leaving down below the plane of the human actions, however good; but rather, coming into the Divine Volition, like a sponge it plunges itself into It, and remains soaked with Its acts of light, of sanctity, of love, in such a way that its act disappears within God’s act, while His divine act appears anew. Therefore, by justice, divine merit must flow in it, and since all human prestige is lost in the Divine Will, it may seem that the creature has done nothing; but that is not true: if the Will operates, it is by virtue of the thread of the human will It has received into Its hands, which forms Its triumph and Its conquests over the act of the creature; as well as by virtue of the human reason, which voluntarily comes to surrender the rights received, as homage and submission to the One from whom it had received. And this is more than doing, because God has received the requital of the most beautiful gifts He gave to the creature – that is, reason and the will. With these the creature gives God everything she can give Him, she recognizes Him, she strips herself of herself, she loves God with pure love; and God’s love is so great that He clothes her with Himself, He gives her His works, in such a way that He and she can say: ‘Let us do this together’.