Functions’ Dance

The descent of the modernists

Who have never thought about making that during a complex math test ?

 

How to write a good code

Gianna Jessen: An abortion survivor

Let’s clear the dust of our hearts

Last Saturday, I was helping to clear the church when I faced a lateral door that seemed abandoned. It was completely dusty, but it was possible to note its beauty despite the dirt. I knew, once cleaned, the door will recover its beauty. Perhaps none could notice this beauty in a lateral door but for me it was important.

While I was cleaning the door I started to imagine what the bystanders used to think when seeing the church door in such bad condition and I worried about the bad impression made on them by the parish community.

It’s incredible how God talks to us using anything, including a door. In this moment, I have in my mind a stranger analogy and I started to think: “If the parishioners’ hearts condition is the same of the door, the situation is critical.”

I know how stranger is to compare the heart to a door, but the conclusion is overwhelming. How many times have we abandoned our hearts and we left them dusty, losing its beauty? Sometimes it is in the smaller and more hidden part of our being where we leave the dust cumulating and the spiderwebs taking over. How great and fatal negligence, that takes out the life beauty.

The reconciliation sacrament is the tool offered by the Church to clean our lives. But make attention to the little things, because the little hidden sins are like dust grains cumulating in our hearts and separating us from God.

Certainly, it was not a torn or an incident that lets that door in such bad condition, but it was after many neglecting years, cumulating one dust grain at time, then the door finished dusty. For our souls is the same, the grace is lost one little sin at time. So, we need to be careful in our quotidian life.

Do you know Pope Benedict XVI?

Justice and Mercy

The three mercy parables of this Sunday, as also some facts happen recently in my life make me think about the divine justice and mercy, and how apply that to our quotidian life.

How could God stoop so low?

At Christmas, we contemplate the incarnation of the Divine Word, who leaves the Father’s splendor and becomes flesh, coming to dwell among us. Looking at the crib, the first question in my mind is: “How could God stoop so low?”

God, all powerful, come us so weak and powerless as a child. He, self-sufficient, make himself dependent on the care of a father and a mother. He, to whom everything belongs, was born poor in a lowly manger, without even a place to lay his head. He, the king of the kings, submits himself to the authority of Caesar and has to be registered in Bethlehem with his family. The Lord of all submits himself to the authority of a father and a mother. How could God stoop so low?

I could not find a better answer than that proposed by Saint Paul in his letter to the Philippians: “Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are; and being in every way like a human being.” (Ph 2,6-7)

The Word Incarnation represented in the crib has much to teach us. While we are trying to be the center of attention, and we sorrow so soon when ignored or left in the background, God has chosen to hide himself for nine months in the Virgin Mary’s womb, and even after born, would rather hide in the cave of Bethlehem. If there are not the eastern star and the angels to annunciate the good news, his birth gone unnoticed.

In the nativity scene, we still noticed the shepherds, who responded promptly to the announcement of the angels, leaving their flocks, and they flock to Bethlehem. There are also the kings who left their land, their country to follow the hope start. And we? What have we done?  We left our ”flock” to follow Jesus or is there something binding us yet?

What is the “flock” binding us? What are the things, people, dreams and projects binding us and preventing us from following Christ and making God’s will fully in our lives? This is a very personal question that only each one can answer.

We need to follow the example of the incarnated Word, who emptied himself of everything, including his “being” God, to be among us. We need to let go our pride, our grudges, our little pet sins. Let go our ”I think it’s good”, ”I think it’s better.” We need to lower ourselves, and recognize that we are nothing, and so making the God’s will, we will be much more.

This is the actual Christmas spirit.

I wish you a holly and merry Christmas!