Saved while saving

Dear friends,

Wouldn't be nice and according to the Gospel should a Bishop or a new Pastor introduce himself to the Congregation and say: "Hello! I am Michael and I will be you waiter for the day"?

Amazing how honest the apostles were when Jesus asked them: "What were you discussing on the way? They fell silent because they were ashamed to admit what had been the subject of their discussion on the way. The had been doing what is done in each Parish or Dioceses of this world: they had been discussing who had been the best, the most successful . In the church circles seems that everybody tries to climb to the top. In Italy those in charge of a vale service will great a priest with "Good morning, Monsignor!" and if a Monsignor:"Good morning Bishop!" knowing that a smile and a fat tip will follow.
How often we try to shove ourselves in a good light, whether consciously or not, and cast others in the shadow.

The honesty of the apostles amazes me. For me is a strong argument in favor of the credibility and reliability of the Gospels. We are not offered a sugar-coated story; they show men of flesh and blood like ourselves while telling us how we can find a way out, how to overcome this ingrown attitude. Among human if you make yourself inconspicuous people will trample you underfoot, they will you as a door-mat; one has to show its teeth. One needs to elbow his way to success.

In reality this is not true because the best leader is the who is genuinely concerned for his people.

Jesus pointed the way out of our pompousness setting a child in the midst of everyone as if he were saying: "Forget your own importance; look at the children and grow simpler.

But who are these children?

We fail to be surprised by the Gospel because we don't understand it fully.

Jesus is quite a strange person: when he was born he had been announced as a king and was born in a stable. The first who came to congratulate him were the shepherds, people who were considered brigands, dirty, ignorant and depraved because of bestiality. When he dies he dies between two thieves and when he raises He appears first to women. We know that women didn't count in the mentality of the time. They were nor credible witnesses in courts.

As an example to imitate He gives us a child. We are not aware that in antiquity childhood was a time of terror. Infant mortality reached thirty percent of the children and that sixty percent were dead before the age of sixteen. Whereas we tend to place children first, in the ancient Middle Easter culture they were places last. The child had next to no status. It was an "ït" neither man nor woman. Only after reaching maturity a child became a free person with rights. This doesn't mean that children were not love or appreciated. They were the "social security" of those days who would have taken care of their parents.

Against this background, Jesus' statements in today's Gospel take a fresh meaning: one has to humble.

While in Italy I had the opportunity to pray at the shrine where Michal the archangel had appeared. We know that the name Michael means: "Who is like God?" and fought against Lucifer. We represent the archangel with a sword in his hand and the devil chained up at his feet. In reality Michael represents not the power of God, but the humility of God. Only the humility of God could defeat the pride of Satan.

We know that Lucifer can take different shapes and turn himself into an angel of light. He can mystify all virtues unless one: humility. We learn that God is so powerful to became powerless as a child.

I have learned in life that pride is twined with lust: to humble us, God permits that we fall in this vice.

The only safe way is to become and remain humble, little, small as a child. In Greek the word "child" is translated with "pais" which means also "servant. So the Bishop was right: "Hello! I am Michael and I will be your servant for the day!

The whole notion of greatness is in this way redefined. New categories are established for determining success and failure, winning and losing. Introducing the child into our midst. it is not the child's naïveté or innocence, trustfulness or playfulness that is highlighted here, but the child's lowly status, as one always under the authority of another and without rights.
The child is an apt symbol for powerlessness and total reliance on others. Mark teaches us to welcome the powerless and the disenfranchised.

The disciples become mirrors in which we see ourselves all too clearly. Their inability to understand typify the patterns of us who are also slow to understand the radical message of Jesus. Next Sunday, September 27th, I will celebrate my 39th anniversary in the priesthood.
The dignity of the priest has always, for some reason I find hard to explain, worried mean. I mean as to why God has called me, putting this burden on my shoulders. I am a priest for you and this frightens me in case I don't discharge my duty as a "good shepherd". With you I am a Christian, and this consoles me because all of us are carried on the shoulders of our common Good Shepherd While carrying out the duties of my office, I find rest in the service of you all. If it delights me that I have been redeemed with you that that I have been placed over you as your Pastor, then, I shall be all the more your servant, lest I forget the great love that redeemed us for I ought to love the one who loved us first. The return I make for this gratuitous love and the mercy shown me is that I should serve and "feed" His sheep, that is the Parish. Make our ministry a fruitful one; listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd speaking in your hart while I am speaking to your ears. Welcome his promptings and help me by your prayers so that may joy in serving you might be complete