BUT TO THEM IT HAS NOT BEEN GRANTED

Jer 2,1 – 3.7- 8.12-13; Ps 35; Mt 13,10-17
26 JULY
Thinking according to the Gospel is penetrating the mystery of the heart of God and of man. What by God is given to man – everything is given by God – is his most pure grace. It is a gift of his mercy. Creation itself is the work of the eternal love of the Lord. Nothing exists except by God and nothing is given except through most pure charity. The vocation to the kingdom is also a fruit of the Father’s benevolence and mercy.

Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be. “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks (Lk 12,32-36).

The will of God is of universal salvation. The rules for the gift of God to reach the heart of man are established by him, the Lord and not by the creature. God has established in his eternal benevolence that there is neither gift in creation, nor in redemption, nor in justification and sanctification and nor in eternal life, except through Christ, in Christ and with Christ. This law is eternal. It is before creation and it is also after the end of time. God gives himself only in his Son.

At that time Jesus said in reply, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him. “Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Mt 11,25-30).

If the Son is not received, God does not give his gifts, because they have been placed by him in his Gift. Everything is in the Son and everything comes for the Son and with the Son. The Son is refused, one is excluded from every other gift. We know that the Father always invites every man to welcome Christ and never will He stop inviting. But there is a moment in which the limits of evil are overcome with sin against the Holy Spirit and God might do nothing any more.

The disciples approached him and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He said to them in reply, “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because ‘they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.’ Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says: ‘You shall indeed hear but not understand you shall indeed look but never see. Gross is the heart of this people, they will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and be converted, and I heal them.’ “But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

Saint Paul reminds the Philippians that suffering for the Gospel is also a gift from the Father.

Only, conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear news of you, that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind struggling together for the faith of the gospel, not intimidated in any way by your opponents. This is proof to them of destruction, but of your salvation. And this is God’s doing. For to you has been granted, for the sake of Christ, not only to believe in him but also to suffer for him. Yours is the same struggle as you saw in me and now hear about me (Phil 1,27-30).

Most Pure Virgin, Angels and Saints, make us disciples of Jesus with a pure, true and just faith.