WEEKLY E-MAGAZINE VOLUME: X/2020 June 14-20,2020 Carlo Voice A weekly E-Magazine, published in view of fostering True Teachings of Catholic Church Chief Editors- Bro. Ephrem Kunnappally and Bro. John Kanayankal Contributing Editors Rev. Fr. Sunny Kuttikkattu CMI Rev.Fr. Shanti Chacko Puthusserry PIME Rev. Bro. Philip Kunnumpurath Patron Dr. Nicola Ghori, Postulator Cause of Carlo Acutis and Editor of L’Osservatore Romano Guiding Lights and Patrons of Great Honour HE Luis Antonia Tagle, Prefect of Propaganda Fide HB Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, Patriarch of Marionite Church HB Louis Raphael I Cardinal Sako, Patriarch of Chaldean Church HB Ibrahim Issac Sedrak, Patriarch of Coptic Church HB Ignace Joseph III Younana, Patriarch of Syriac Catholics HB Joseph Absi, Patriarch of Melkite Church HB Gregoire Pierrie XX Ghabroyan of Cilicia, Patriarch of Armenian Church HB Pierbattista Pizzabala, Patriarch of Jerusalem HB Mar George Alencherry, Major ArchBishop of Syro-Malabar HE Mar Prince Antony Panengadan, Bishop of Adilabad HE Mar George Madathikandathil, Bishop of Kothamangalam HE Mar Thomas Dabre, Bishop of Poone HE Mar Mathew Arackal, Bishop-Emeritus of Kanjirappally HE Sebastian Theketecheril, Bishop of Vijayapuram HE Chacko Thottumarickal, Bishop of Indore HE Philiopose Mar Stephanose, Syro- Malankara Bishop of Canada Design and Layout: Ephrem Kunnappally Published on the Behalf of Association of Amici di Carlo Acutis and Brother of India Charitable Trust, Upputhara Editorial Office Carlo Voice Upputhara PO Idukki, 6855505, 7879788105, 790795829 Manuscripts for Publication, reviews should be addressed to Email : [email protected] Website: carlovoice.com Homily of His Beatitude Patriarch-Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa June 11, 2020 Corpus Christ, Year A Last Sunday, we saw, that “God so loved the world that He gave his only-begotten Son” (John 2:16), and therefore the Son, Jesus, came into the world so that nothing may be lost, so that the world would be saved through Him. Today’s solemnity speaks to us again of this love, the one with which God so loved the world as to give His Son. And it tells us, above all, that love is something very concrete, we could say corporal. Johnthe Evangelist has this theme very much at heart. He repeats it in his first letter, where he says that we cannot love with words, with language, but only with deeds and in truth (1John 3:18). But we could say that the entire Gospel of John revolves around astonishment at this God who, for love of us, took a body, took our flesh. Therefore, John says, we were able to see, hear, touch … (1John 1:1-3). God did not love with words but made himself flesh, He “needed” a body to give himself to humanity, to save it. In today’s Gospel passage (John 6:51-58) we are brought to the heart of this mystery of salvation. We are in Chapter 6 of John, the great discourse on the bread of life. The chapter begins with Jesus who, looking up, sees a great crowd and asks Philip where bread could ever be bought for all these people. And Philip simply notes what is a given reality: we do not have sufficient means so that everyone can receive a piece a bread (John 6:5-7). Then Jesus takes what a boy makes available, gives thanks, distributes the loaves, and feeds the entire multitude. After this sign, Jesus retires to pray, and then gathers His disciples who are trying in vain, on account of the strong contrary wind, to reach the other side of the lake. And, reaching Kfar Nahum, He speaks at length in the synagogue about the real bread, which feeds the deep hunger of man. In the verses that we hear today, the terms that recur most often are those that refer to the semantic ofliving,of life: Jesus says He is thelivingbread, so whoever eats him will havelife. With that, the evangelist tells us that Jesus possesses a quality of life different from that which is simply biological, natural. The latter bears the signs of death and is destined to end. It must nourish, but the nourishment is not sufficient to avoid death. The life Jesus gives, on the contrary, knows not death. It also needs to feed on something, on someone, because every life needs to be nourished, needs nutrition. Life bears within itself signs of this fundamental truth, the life given to us, and continuallylived by gift. So, Jesus feeds on the relationship with the Father and lives on Him (John 6:57). And we need the relationship with Christ, to feed on Him. God’s love for us comes this far. Not only did He make Himself close, but He also became a brother who walks with us. Much more. He offered Himself to us as nourishment for life, and through the symbol of nourishment invites us to become one thing only with Him, to makeHisvery life ours, to live with Him, as He lives with the Father. Why this, for what purpose? We often find, in the writings of the Old Testament, expressions as “I am the Lord, your God”, or “You will love the Lord, your God”, … Here, the entire history of salvation bears within it a great promise: the promise by which God becomes your God, our God, the God of our life. Not an external reality, to adhere to, but Someone who lives within us, the fountain of our very life that, from within, enlivens and transforms us. The promise of having the very life of God in us. Jesus fulfills this promise, this great expectation of man, our deepest desire. He does it in the only possible way, that of offering Himself as food to us, asking us to recognize our real hunger and to believe that, in this hunger, we are given, daily and freely, a living bread. VOX FIDEI WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH IN POLITICS? Many Christians in the present society have questioned so much the active participation of the Holy Catholic Church in socio-political and economic issues. However, what is the clear role being played by the Church in politics? First of all, the Holy Bible and biblical history are physical evidences to support the very vital place that the Church have in temporal matters. For instance, Daniel becomes a leader in Babylon (cf. Daniel 2:48), Amos and other prophets speak into political and social matters in Israel, Judah and the other nations (e.g. Amos 2:6- 7), and both John the Baptist (cf. Matthew 14:3) and Jesus Christ (cf. Mark 12:13- 17) themselves refer to the political concerns of their days. Hence, in the fulfillment of her divine mission to lead all peoples to Christ by making them “… disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mathew 28:19-20), the Church contributes to the right ordering of temporal realities so that these may help all of men attain their ultimate end and not lead them astray. Thus, the Church has set forth her social doctrine and moral norms to ensure promotion of the common good and protection of human rights. The Cathechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) states: “Human society can be neither well-ordered nor prosperous unless it has some people invested with legitimate authority to preserve its institutions and to devote themselves as far as is necessary to work and care for the good of all … Every human community needs an authority to govern it … Its role is to ensure as far as is possible the common good of the society” (nos. 1897-1898). CCC further teaches that: “Regimes whose nature is contrary to the natural law, to the public order, and to the fundamental rights of persons cannot achieve the common good of the nations on which they have been imposed” (no. 1901). Moreover, in line with the mission Christ entrusted to His Holy Church, she is to teach and promote obedience to the universal moral law — the natural law — which essence is expressed in the Ten Commandments. Therefore, the Church teaches that: “The Church, the ‘pillar and bulwark of the truth,’ ‘has received this solemn command of Christ from the apostles to announce the saving truth.’ ‘To the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles, including those pertaining to the social order, and to make judgments on any human affairs to the extent that they are required by the fundamental rights of the human person or the salvation of souls” (CCC no. 2032). It is in this reality that the Second Vatican Council, inApostolicam Actuositatem, has promulgated: “Christ’s redemptive work, while of itself directed toward the salvation of all, involves the renewal of the temporal order. Hence, the mission of the Church is not only to bring to everyone the message of grace of Christ, but also to penetrate and perfect the temporal sphere with the spirit of the Gospel.” Politics is part of the said temporal order; hence, the Church cannot therefore exempt politics in the work of salvation. Nevertheless, with this active role in political realm, the Church must still not meddle in partisan politics, i.e. not to tell people whom or what party to vote for, unless the party in question has an intrinsically evil ideology, such as Communism, Socialism or Nazism, AND may neither support a particular candidate nor a party. Finally, participation in politics does not separate from religion; certainly, a religion that is not related to politics is a shallow spirituality. Rev. Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino OP, a Peruvian philosopher and theologian, writes in his A Theology of Liberation, “the annunciation of the Gospel, precisely insofar as it is a message of total love, has an inescapable political dimension, because it is addressed to people who live within a fabric of social relationships, which, in our case, keep them in a subhuman condition.” HOW DID THE CELEBRATION OF MARY’S BIRTH BEGIN? Although the celebration of the Nativity of the Mother of God is not explicitly recorded in the Holy Bible, history shows it otherwise.