Dear brothers and sisters, Fiat!

The Gospel teaches us to say a heartfelt thanks, to express our gratitude for the gifts we have received from God. Everything comes from Him. The Bible texts present  the theme of faith that has no racial, cultural and social boundaries. So, the  Samaritan leper and Naaman  arrive at true faith.

Ten lepers going to meet Jesus and they shout at a distance. Leprosy is a terrible and devastating disease, which spoils the body, spirit and relationships. One of the ten lepers is a foreigner, he is an enemy, a Samaritan.

But disease and sorrow compare all men, without distinction. Suffering is common to all. They shout their pain, their abandonment, their prayer. Jesus asks them to go to the priests to be healed.

Healing is not immediate, it requires a path by us and trust; God does not love the striking miracles, He always asks for awareness, walk, trust. The ten lepers walk and while they are walking, they realize they have been healed. Amazed, shocked, the lepers that have been healed fulfill the request of Jesus and go to the priest. Except one, he who has no temple, no priests, no official religion. Humanly, the Samaritan does not know where to go so he goes back . He comes back to Jesus.

Only one, full of faith, returns to thank. Jesus verify that ten were healed, but only one was saved. He speaks with sorrow. Once they have been healed, the differences adds up: nine go to the temple and the Samaritan, alone again, without a temple where he can be accepted, runs to the temple of the glory of God that is Jesus.

The Samaritan  comes back praising God in a loud voice. He can not remain silent, He shouts of joy: his loneliness and marginalization have finally stopped. Jesus asks: and the others?

Healing men from their ingratitude is more difficult than healing them from their diseases. Ingratitude means not to realize what the Lord gives to every man and it is a sign of man’s presumption.

January 6, 1928 Jesus, talking to Luisa about the immensity of living in the Divine Will, explains that the creature doesn’t Know how great is this gift and how ingratitude prevents the Divine Will from reigning in it.

God’s Will is immense and in bringing forth creatures to the light of day they remained in His same Will, as so many little residences formed in It, in which the Divine Volition by right should have the regime and the carrying out of Its life in each one of these little residences, but while for goodness and Its liberality It gave the space and all that which was necessary in order to form these little residences in It, creatures with horrendous ingratitude don’t want to give the right of letting the Divine Volition live in them, and with so many residences that It has formed in It, how many the creatures are, It holds the sorrow of remaining without residences, because they don’t give It entrance to live in them.

It happens for the Divine Will as it would happen if one might want to form so many residences in the sea, or else in the light of the Sun, and while the sea or the light of the Sun gives the space in order to form these residences in them, they would not like to make excel neither the water, nor the light of the Sun in these residences, neither to give the field to live nor to hold the first place of regime. If the sea and the light might have reason they would feel such sorrow, that the sea with its waves would have invested these residences, and knocking them down would have undone them and buried them in its bosom and the light of the Sun would have incinerated them with its heat, in order to empty itself of these unworthy and ungrateful residences that had denied them entrance.

And yet neither the sea, nor the sun has given them life, but only the space; instead the Divine Will has given life and space to these residences of creatures in It, because there is no point where one doesn’t find It, nor life that from It doesn’t go forth, hence the sorrow of God’s Will for who doesn’t let It dominate is immense and incalculable, to feel these lives in Itself throbbing, to form the heartbeat itself and to remain outside as estranged, as if they might not pertain to It, and the affront and monstrosity of those people that don’t let It reign, it is so very great, that it would merit a life sentence and destruction.. Not doing the Divine Will seems nothing to creatures, instead it is a very great evil and an ingratitude so black, that is there is no other evil that resembles it

Gratitude, feast, wonder, however, are attitudes that are natural to man, yet they are shown too little in our lives.

Gratitude is the key that allows us to open, as we like, the treasures that God contains.

We complain a lot and are always ready to highlight the negative. We take everything for granted: it is normal to exist, live, breathe and love; It is normal and owed to feed, wash, live, work … Our eyes, accustomed to expected and owed things, no longer Know how to open up to gratitude.

A writer said, echoing a bit the words of Pope Francis: “How I wish I could see someone that comes out of churches – at least occasionally – praising God in a loud voice … How I wish I could see more smiles on the lips of Christians, more praises in their prayers, more gratitude in the acts of those who, healed from their inner loneliness and leprosy, that is sin, are also saved and made Children of God. “

To be healed doen’t mean to be saved. The nine ungrateful are the perfect icon of a popular Christianity, that turns to God as to a powerful healer to be invoked in times of trouble. Those who turn to God when they need invent a sad picture; they leave God far from their choices, their family, but then they get angry and talk about Him when something goes wrong in their projects.

Nine were healed: they got what they asked for, but they have not been saved. They remained locked in their partial and distorted view of God, though they have been healed of leprosy on the skin, they don’t see the leprosy in their hearts. It ‘s important to come to the true faith, we must not stop at a relationship with God on matters that concern material things or health.

Jesus tells us that health, although it is important, is not all. Salvation is far more than health.

Happiness is to open our heart to gratitude of a God who heals us in the soul from all loneliness and suffering. Healing reaches the Samaritan in body and soul: he, grateful, has been saved. ” Stand up and go; your faith has saved you”.

don Marco

Dear brothers and sisters, Fiat!

“Lord, increase our faith!” Faith is a gift from God, and at the same time it’s our response, our commitment, our trust in the Lord who fills all things. We have received the gift of Faith in Baptism (remember the lighted candle), Faith that we have learned by our parents and grandparents, by Priests and catechists, in various situations of our Christian growth.

Jesus speaks of a mustard seed … If we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we could transform our whole life. That converted St. Paul. When he wrote to his disciple , through the Word of God, he spoke also to us. ” I remind you, to stir into flame the gift of God.” ” God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.” ” Do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord “. ” Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.” On each of these expressions we can feed the good will to build our human and Christian life with faithfulness and true joy.

Jesus then concluded by inviting us to true humility which is full generosity in simplicity: ” When you have done all you have been commanded to do, say, ‘We are useless servants. We have done no more than our duty. “

So, we can see and indicate the model for the Christian, he is called to give witness to his faith, to profess before the world that Jesus is Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. So St. Paul proclaimed his faith in Jesus Christ before the authorities of his time, at the cost of his life.

To bear witness to the Divinity and Jesus Christ’s love for men, it is necessary that the Lord grants us the gift of fortitude. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God gives us the gift of fortitude with which we can overcome the difficulties and trials of life and  give witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We need a gift that makes up for the weakness of human nature and that may enable us to resist and persevere.

The Christian life is based on the fundamental decision to adhere to Christ, to follow and imitate Him in spiritual communion with Him, our brother, the Lord and Savior of all men.

In all circumstances of our life, amidst joys and sacrifices, at work and at rest, in the risk and temptation, and even in the painful point of death, the Christian knows that Jesus Christ preceded him and taught him how to go to God.

Luisa, in her spiritual experience, needed so much fortitude especially to face all the difficulties that her path  had. A fortitude whose Luisa understood its origin: from obedience and meditation on the Passion of Jesus.

Obedience is an unshakable wall, and such it renders the soul. Not only this, but in order to be unshakable, it is necessary for one to be strong and robust, and obedience communicates divine strength, in such a way that, in the face of the divine strength it possesses, all things are weak; so much so, that while obedience can move anything, nothing can move it.

The virtues and the merits Jesus acquired for man in His Passion, are as many towers of fortitude on which everyone can lean along the journey on the way to Eternity. But man, ungrateful, running away from these towers of fortitude, leans on mud and conducts himself along the way of perdition.

The Church can not neglect the duty of its testimony. The task of witnessing is undertaken  by every Christian who is disciple of Christ, by reason of the gifts that he received; he is a witness and a living instrument of the mission of the Church; he is called to bear witness to God’s plan in Christ over the entire universe; he must be a prophet of the joy of living and must proclaim with his life, “the admirable works of God.”

Through the testimony of Christians, the Lord Jesus continues to live among men on the path of history, even in our days and forever.

don Marco