The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 32,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see it.

In 2010, there were 49 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 166 posts. There were 109 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 5mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was May 19th with 217 views. The most popular post that day was Catholic Tradition.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were blogger.com, wdtprs.com, britcat.blogspot.com, oknotizie.virgilio.it, and search.conduit.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for don bosco, gabriella’s blog, euthanasia, tu es sacerdos in aeternum, and maggio mese della madonna.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Catholic Tradition May 2010
15 comments

The worship of … nothing September 2009
43 comments

The best of FULTON J. SHEEN May 2009
10 comments

Their song fills the universe September 2009
23 comments

Tutto si paga! October 2009
61 comments

WordPress.com

Blog temporaneamente chiuso

Blog temporarily suspended

*****

Mio Dio, Trinità che adoro,

aiutatemi a dimenticarmi interamente,

per fissarmi in voi, immobile e quieta

come se la mia anima fosse già nell’eternità;

che nulla possa turbare la mia pace o farmi uscire da voi, mio immutabile Bene,

ma che ogni istante mi porti più addentro

nella profondità del vostro mistero …

(le prime righe dell’Elevazione alla Santissima Trinità della Beata Elisabetta della Trinità)

As soon as we begin to speak of morality, there are those who object on the grounds that each person’s opinion is his or her own and equal to that of anyone else. For some, there can be no objective and commonly agreed-upon moral norm. For such persons, morality is an illusion. How many times have we heard that morality is a completely personal and subjective choice? This position is probably the most widespread and pernicious challenge to morality that our society has ever faced. The issue today in much of our public discourse – and certainly on talk shows – is: ‘Do values have any value?’

As Catholics, we recognize that there is more to life and human action than fleeting personal preference. Human existence is not a meaningless show of smoke and mirrors. Each one of us knows deep down at the very core of our being that there is such a thing as right and wrong – that, while the wrong choice may be alluring at the moment, it is a choice with lasting consequences. While individually we may not know the answer to every moral question, we are aware that there are answers – answers that oblige all of us.

There is right and wrong, human freedom, and the choice that each of us makes. At the core of human freedom is knowing and doing what we ‘ought’ to do rather than what we ‘can’ do. It is the voice of conscience that keeps reminding us what we ought to do even though there are enticing reasons to do otherwise.

Catholic morality is not only for Catholics. It is for everyone, because all are called to follow God’s law manifest in the natural moral order, revealed in the Ten Commandments, and made complete in Christ. Catholic morality is the authentic, central, and integral form of morality. It is the fullness of teaching on the human condition before God. Apart from faith in Christ, the great questions about the reality of feedom, the rationality of conscience, and the value of pursuing human good unselfishly cannot be fully answered. It is for this reason that we look to Jesus and listen to his Church.

Where do we go to know right from wrong in all of the myriad forms that moral issues appear today? Jesus has not left us orphans. The pledge of the Holy Spirit in the fourteenth chapter of John’s gospel is verified today as it has been for twenty centuries in the teaching office of the Church. In the many issues before us today, when decisions are presented with a range of good attached to each of the multiple choices, we need to listen to the sure and Spirit-led voice of the teaching office. It guides us in issues as complex and emotional as artificial insemination, physician assisted suicide, the massacre of the powerless, and the range of social justice, bioethical, and medical-moral dilemmas that manifest the complexity of the human condition.

It is true that morality is rooted in the natural moral order, because that order follows from God’s creation. But it is equally true that God chose to reveal the moral order in the old covenant, through the Decalogue, and in the new covenant through Christ. When the Church calls the faithful to specific moral teaching, it does so with the full weight and authority of Christ, who has empowered his Church to speak for him. At the same time, the Church presents cogent and compelling reasons for her teaching based on an appeal to human nature and the natural moral order that we all share.

Life is complex. Moral decisions are difficult. But we need not fear, because we have a sure moral guide. Christ reveals to us the way. He sends the Holy Spirit to guide us and he enlightens his Church in a way that we can with confidence and trust follow its teaching in matters of faith and morals.

San Paolo ha indubbiamente scritto numerose Lettere nel corso della sua attività missionaria, ma soltanto tredici sono conservate nel canone degli scritti del Nuovo Testamento.

Abbiamo la tendenza oggi di immaginare che quella di Corinto fosse una comunità piuttosto turbolenta che procurava grossi grattacapi all’apostolo. Che gli abitanti della regione della Galazia fossero tipi che non si accontentavano di un solo Vangelo, subissero il fascino di tutti i predicatori di passaggio, e che avessero una spiccata tendenza a camminare all’indietro. Che Paolo avesse scelto Roma quale luogo privilegiato per istituirvi una specie di università personale che gli permettesse di esibire il meglio della sua teologia decisamente impervia … ma si verifica così un fenomeno di ‘estraneità’ anche a causa di parecchi preti i quali, nelle omelie, assorbiti quasi totalmente dal commento del brano evangelico, se la cavano – nel migliore dei casi – con cenni frettolosi a quei testi ‘che richiederebbero spiegazioni approfondite, ma non è questa la sede adatta’ (senza specificare quale sarebbe questa sede e cosa sono intenzionati a fare per allestirla).

Insomma, il piatto è già stracolmo, e non c’è spazio per il cibo, sia pure sostanzioso, approntato da San Paolo, che però richiederebbe una masticazione lenta, non alla portata dei dentini da latte di certi cristiani frettolosi della pratica domenicale.

Altri si giustificano affermando che non bisogna mettere troppa carne al fuoco e quella messa a disposizione da San Paolo è una carne che richiede una lunga fase di cottura per essere ammorbidita e non risultare indigesta per un pubblico di non elevata cultura teologica.

E ci sono pure quelli che trovano un facile alibi facendo osservare che certi brani andrebbero ‘contestualizzati’, il che dovrebbe essere fatto nel corso di una serie di conferenze e non negli spazi già di per sé angusti di un’omelia festiva.

E così San Paolo rimane largamente inutilizzato. Le sue Lettere sfruttate solo parzialmente. Una rapida scorsa, e via a parlare d’altro. Basterebbe invece soffermarsi su una sola frase per irrobustire la nostra fede.

Personalmente non accetto l’attuale stato di cose e questo relegare il messaggio di Paolo in un angolo della predicazione e, di conseguenza, anche della riflessione personale.

Quelle Lettere, al di là dei destinatari immediati, sono indirizzate a noi. Contengono notizie, provocazioni salutari, incoraggiamenti, osservazioni e reprimende che ci riguardano da vicino. Corinto, Tessalonica, Filippi, Roma, Efeso, sono le nostre comunità. I contenuti di quelle missive risultano di scottante attualità e non sono per nulla datati. Gli esperti si accaniscono a stabilire la data esatta di composizione delle singole Lettere, e non sempre si trovano d’accordo (anzi, quasi mai). Lasciamo tranquillamente che discutano tra loro. Per conto nostro dovremmo già aver risolto il problema: quella Lettera particolare è stata scritta oggi, reca la data precisa in cui io la prendo in mano.

This is an affirmation on their part that the Church is not infallible. What, according to them, happened to the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete? Had they believed that the Church is infallible, they would not have forgotten so soon the assistance promised to the Church by Christ.

They forgot that, strictly speaking, all Revelation, whether contained in the Scriptures or in other documents, on monuments, on the walls of the catacombs, in usages, and so on, were all written down and transmitted to posterity. The Apostles wrote that part of Revelation which is contained in the Scriptures, while their disciples wrote what the Apostles preached, taught or instituted in the Church, but which had not been written by the Apostles.

It is a mistake to speak only of an oral tradition carried on from generation to generation through the help of word of mouth. For Tradition, in the first place, is not ‘oral’ in the sense that it is maintained and propagated ‘only’ through man’s lips. It is oral in the sense that in the beginning it was received by the Faithful from the Apostles themselves, not in writing, but through their preaching, teaching or institutions, established in the Church by the same Apostles. What the apostles did not write, but preached, taught or instituted, was afterwards written by their immediate disciples, and sometimes by the disciples of these immediate Apostolic disciples (the Church Fathers). Therefore Tradition is ‘oral’ not in the sense that it was never written, but in the sense that ‘what in the beginning was not written’ by the inspired authors was written ‘afterwards’ by their disciples. What the disciples heard or were taught by the Apostles and not committed to the Scriptures, they afterwards laid down in writing. Tradition is ‘oral’ as distinguished from that part of Revelation which was written by the Apostles – namely, Scripture. For what the Apostolic disciples afterwards wrote, as heard, learned or as instituted by the Apostles, is what we call, properly speaking, Tradition.

The Apostles, who were the ‘ancients’ and legislators of the Church, instituted certain days of the week or certain seasons of the year as time of penance, of joy or of rest, to be observed by all. Abstinence from meat on Friday, fasting in Lent, the Sunday observance instead of Saturday, Easter Joys, the ceremonies of Holy Mass, etc., were instituted by the Apostles as a help to the Christian to save his soul and as an ornament to divine worship. All these things were a part of the routine of the Church. All accepted them as a matter of course and as a part of the daily life of the Church. Hence, there was no necessity on their part to write them down – they preached and taught the Faithful what they must do as members of the Church of Jesus Christ. It was therefore natural that what the Apostles did not write, their disciples, in order to refresh their memories, as well as to transmit it to other generations, did write,  according to the warning of St. Paul, ‘to teach others also’ (2 Tim 2:2). ‘Hold the traditions, which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle’ (2 Thess 2:14).

Traditions, therefore, according to St. Paul, are of two kinds, written and unwritten. The written are the Scriptures, because tradition means anything that is delivered or transmitted to others. In this case, the Scriptures are traditions, although improperly so called. The unwritten are all those other Traditions which are not contained in the Scriptures, but which, as the Apostle says, his disciples received through his preaching. They are properly called ‘Traditions’.

As both kinds of Traditions – received, as the Apostle says, ‘through my preaching’ (properly called Traditions) ‘and through my Epistle’ (The Scriptures, improperly called Traditions) – come to us from the Apostles, both are to be accepted, both are to be believed, both must be lived up to because, according to the command of the Apostle, we must hold both.

The written Traditions, or the Scriptures, contain the greater part of Revelation. But it is not less true that what the Apostles preached, taught or instituted in the Church, but did not write, are a very important part of the Deposit of Faith. They were written by their disciples.

Therefore, the objection collapses, that Traditions, being oral, become corrupted in the course of time. Tradition, strictly speaking, is not oral. It was only such in its first proclamation. All Traditions have been written, if not by the Apostles, certainly by the  Church. As pastors and doctors, or as writers of the Church, the first Christians wrote what they heard or learned from the Apostles, or what was practiced in the Church. They wrote not as inspired writers, but simply as common teachers or believers who had nothing else in view but to defend and protect the Deposit of Faith. God, in His Providence, induced those men to write, to be witnesses of that Faith which is always old and always new, feeble and still strong. Although written in the documents of old, Tradition is still better written in the hearts of the Faithful and deeply engraved in the religious practices and belief of the Church.

What a presumption it was on the part of the Protestant Reformers (and still is on the part of many Christian denominations and sects) to claim that they knew better than the Fathers what the government and doctrine of the Church had been during the first three centuries! The Fathers were men of great learning and piety. They enlightened the Church and glorified the Faith with their great works. They were the great men of their times, writing first-hand about their contemporaries. And they testify that, besides the Scriptures, which they saved from oblivion and total loss, there is also in the Church another ‘Rule of Faith’ and that is the Church herself, to which Christ and the Apostles delivered the Deposit of Faith.

‘… Il miracolo più grande, però, è quello che riguarda la libera volontà dell’uomo (che può opporsi, benché, suo malgrado, anche al suo Signore e Dio). Eppure anche questo miracolo avviene.

E’ forse facile vivere casto e vergine, ognuno secondo il proprio stato di vita, secondo la Legge di Dio, per tutta la vita? Non c’è forse in noi, come una forza di gravità che trascina, a tutte le età, verso il basso come su una china sdrucciolevole e melmosa? Con piena sincerità lo riconoscevano il poeta pagano Ovidio (‘vedo il bene e l’approvo e tuttavia faccio il male’), l’ardente apostolo San Paolo, il convertito Sant’Agostino e mille altri, con umiltà e verità.

Eppure, nella Chiesa di ieri e di oggi, ci sono i Santi, uomini e donne di carne come noi, i Santi che sono vissuti vergini e casti, secondo la loro condizione di vita, lasciando brillare in loro lo stupefacente fascino del Cielo calato sulla terra delle loro esistenze, della limpida acqua di sorgente che scorre piena di luce anche nella ‘pianura’ della quotidianità e dei detriti di ogni genere.

Possibile a forze soltanto umane? No, possibile a Gesù vivo, il Vergine per eccellenza che opera in loro, in noi, se lo lasciamo operare, e ci fa dono della sua bellezza divina. Pensa, ai vergini e ai puri di cuore dell’antico impero putrescente di Roma e nel corrotto e corruttore di oggi.

Ma c’è di più ancora tra i Santi. Forse che è facile donare il proprio denaro, togliersi il pane dai denti per darlo agli altri che ne hanno bisogno? Forse che si può fare, come bere un bicchier d’acqua, il dono della propria esistenza, rinunciando a tutto – famiglia, posizione economica, carriera, affetti personali, comodità – per dedicarsi completamente alla preghiera e a Dio solo in un monastero o sacrificarsi per il prossimo, vicino e lontano, fino a rischiare la propria vita e a immolarla, magari sotto i colpi incoscienti o malvagi di chi si è beneficato? E tutto questo per amore a Gesù solo?

Eppure, nella Chiesa, dai primi dodici Apostoli, fino a San Damiano de Veuster, a San Massimiliano Kolbe, a San Pio, per citare i vertici più illustri, senza dimenticare le umili suore, i veri missionari rotti a tutte le fatiche per Gesù, questo miracolo incomparabile di vite donate in continua oblazione di carità, esiste a milioni.

Un giovane di 20 anni, scosso dentro, mi faceva notare: ‘Gli illuministi, i laicisti, gli atei che combattono la Chiesa e predicano la filantropia (l’amore all’uomo, i diritti dell’uomo, senza Dio), fuggono quando c’è il colera, mentre a morire in servizio agli ‘appestati’ di ogni genere vanno le suore, i sacerdoti e i vescovi della Chiesa’ e, dico io, con loro i cristiani migliori!

Forse che questo è possibile a forze soltanto umane? Chi ha convinto quella bella ragazza di Trofarello (Torino), Modesta Ravazzo, a partire missionaria tra i lebbrosi della Colombia e poi a chiedere a Dio che la rendesse lebbrosa per condividere in tutto la vita delle bambine colpite dal medesimo terribile morbo e lasciate sole? Chi può fare di un uomo geniale e affascinante come Re Baldovino del Belgio (1830-1993), un grande statista e insieme un monaco sul trono, con una forza di donazione a Gesù che incantava persino i dirigenti atei dell’Est Europeo? Chi gli ha dato la luce e la forza di abdicare al trono ‘disposto ad andare e mendicare, io e la regina Fabiola, piuttosto che firmare la legge che permette l’aborto’?

E’ solo Gesù vivo che compie dei miracoli vivi così. E’ solo Lui, il Crocifisso per amore di Dio e dei fratelli, il Risorto che opera nelle anime, a poter continuare a vivere la sua medesima avventura di dedizione nella Chiesa e nei suoi Santi, proprio secondo la sua promessa: ‘Chi crede in me, compirà le mie opere, anzi ne farà di maggiori’ (Gv 14:12)

Sono soltanto alcuni esempi. La Chiesa, soltanto la Chiesa Cattolica, ne possiede a migliaia, a milioni anche oggi. Chi scrive si è addentrato un po’ (bagnandosi appena la punta delle mani!) tra questa folla immensa che nessuno può contare, di ogni razza, popolo e lingua che sono i Santi, e ogni volta che ne incontra uno tocca che sono essi i miracoli più grandi di Dio, i ‘documenti vivi’, più veri e più significativi di Gesù Cristo Crocifisso e Risorto.  …’

We have a special duty to everyone even in our thoughts. Rash judgments and suspicion, envy and ill-will against one’s neighbour, have no place in the deliberate thoughts of the true Catholic. Nearly all avoidance of evil and all practice of virtue must begin in our thoughts. If we deliberately allow ourselves to think evil, we shall soon find ourselves speaking evil and doing evil. Even in our thoughts and imagination we must apply the principles and ideals which we wish to be dominant in our daily life.

The faults of the tongue are innumerable, and it is noteworthy that even in people who are otherwise quite virtuous one often finds an uncharitable tongue. There is a wide field here for the practice of virtue and quest of holiness. So much so that the Holy Spirit tells us by pen of St. James: ‘If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man’ (James 3:2). Let us remember that every word we utter or every insinuation we make to the detriment of our neighbour is an injury done to Christ. There are occasions when one must speak unpleasant truths about one’s neighbour – for example, in a law court, or to avoid greater evil – but, normally, we are not allowed to speak evil of him, even when what we say is true.

A Catholic does his best to hide the faults of others, and will not listen to detraction. If detraction is wrong, calumny is still worse. And even quite good people do not seem to realize the responsibility they have for every single word they say about anyone else. Our neighbour’s honour and good name, his professional reputation and his personal character, should be as safe in our mouth as in our Lord’s. And it must be remembered that this is true even though we know that his private behaviour does not justify his public reputation. There are, however, circumstances in which we may have to give someone a charitable warning. But all tale-bearing and mischief-making, all imprudent revelations of another’s secret, all sowing of discord or exciting of suspicion are quite wrong, and are altogether incompatible with a true life in Christ. Not only do we separate ourselves from Him in the doing of these injuries, but we widen the breach inasmuch as these injuries are done to Him. We make public the very sins of which He has taken the shame upon Himself.

The really spiritual man is known by the kindness of his speech and still more by the kindness of his silence. He is always ready to find pity and sympathy for everyone. ‘To understand all is to forgive all’, and no man who knows his own weakness and his complete dependence upon God’s grace in the avoiding of sin, can ever be harsh with the faults of his neighbour. Even as human beings we should have a ‘fellow-feeling’ for one another, but as Catholics and members of  His Church, our mutual  sympathy should be much deeper.

La festa di oggi ci invita a guardare il cielo come la nostra stabile dimora – ma anche a testimoniare con sacrificio la gioia di essere uniti a Gesù.  Una ‘struggente nostalgia’ deve invadere il nostro cuore, come leggiamo nelle vite dei santi:  il pensiero del cielo deve affascinare la nostra esistenza. Là siano fissi i nostri cuori dov’è la vera gioia.  Dove là?  Nel cielo ossia in Dio che è nel nostro cuore e che un giorno ci comunicherà la sua stessa gioia, che è il paradiso.  Gesù ostia è qui con noi.  Lui è il paradiso.

Dovremmo ripetere continuamente come i santi:  ‘Paradiso, paradiso, sei il mio grande sospiro, molto più delle nozze, della laurea, di ogni promozione, di ogni ricchezza, grandezza, onorificenza …’

La felicità del paradiso è partecipare allo stesso amore di Dio che ama (Padre), che è amato (Figlio) e che è Amore (Spirito Santo).

Santa Teresa d’Avila  racconta nelle sue opere:  ‘Mentre partecipavo a Messa vidi il corpo glorioso di Gesù.  Era di una bellezza e di una maestà incomparabili.  Se in cielo ci fosse solo il godimento della bellezza dei corpi gloriosi, se ne avrebbe una beatitudine immensa.  Gesù si mostrò a me adattandosi alle mie misere condizioni terrene.  Che cosa sarà in cielo dove si gode il corpo glorioso in tutto il suo splendore?  Io parlo solo del corpo di Gesù, ma che cosa sarà l’anima e che cosa la sua divinità?’ Continua santa Teresa:  ‘Ho visto meraviglie che non so descrivere.  Erano e sono inimmaginabili: la più piccola di esse mi colmava di gioia e mi faceva vedere la vanità e la ridicolezza di tutte le cose terrene.  Un immenso gaudio mi inondava anima e corpo.  Il Signore mi disse:  Vedi, figlia mia, che cosa perde chi si fa mio nemico? Dillo a tutti perché nessuno abbia a ripetere che nessuno mai ha visto il paradiso. Avrei voluto stare sempre lassù.  Le cose della terra mi sembravano spazzatura …  Mi scomparve quella paura strana e istintiva del pensiero della morte.  E’ felicissimo di morire chi serve e ama Dio: in un attimo, e neanche un attimo, si esce da un carcere per andare alla gioia, alla vita, alla soavità, all’amore senza fine.  Là si trova la nostra casa paterna.  In terra siamo in esilio.’

(The Church has always celebrated Ascension Day on the 40th day after Easter Sunday and it always falls on a Thursday. It marks the end of Rogationtide.
Ten days after Ascension Day is Pentecost which marks the coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples in prayer with Our Lady).

Human nature is and always will be the same. Man is inclined to be independent in his views and tries to force his ideas on others, until he is shown to be evidently wrong. Nor does he sometimes stop even then. He persists in his error and resists the known truth, thus sinning against the Holy Spirit.

There will always be scandals in the Church, but Christ said ‘Woe to the world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals come, but nevertheless, woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh’ (Matt 18:7). God, however, permits this evil, that the faith of the elect may be strengthened. ‘Power is made perfect in infirmity’ (2 Cor 12:9).

This is especially true of our own times. All manner of literature floods the world. There are too many people who consider themselves the judges of everyone and of everything. Teachers of all kinds raise their chair of pestilence in every corner of our cities and villages. Perhaps the grand old Church is still there, or it has just made its appearance. Its doors are open. But most people pass by and go to hear those who suit their passions and inclinations. New fads are the order of the day. Wind and pride are sown in their hearts. Very little is left of the old and eternal truths, which Christ and the Apostles proclaimed to the world. ‘For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine – but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables’ (2 Tim 4:3).

Thus is Christianity divided and subdivided. The books of Revelation are made the anvil of centuries, on which every Christian is allowed to pound at his own pleasure. Should not such a condition of things open the eyes of all Christians and make them realize the necessity of a living tribunal, to which Christ has committed the sacred right and duty of keeping intact, at any cost, the Deposit of Faith? ‘Preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke, in all patience and doctrine’ (2 Tim 4:2).

But the world does not want Christ. Nations and societies are governed by their own laws. Living judges are appointed to interpret a dead-letter code of laws or by-laws, and their decisions are final and binding. The same treatment is not accorded the Church by those same children of the world. Are not perhaps the Scriptures and the laws made by man equally a dead letter in themselves? The Scriptures are indeed the Word of God but at the same time, they need living interpreters. If the laws of man, made by man and for man, need living and authoritative inter-preters for their enforce-ment, how much more does the Word of God need interpreters to explain it without error and enforce it with authority?

If the Scriptures are clear to understand, why did Martin Luther and his imitators make new catechisms of Christian doctrine? Why are libraries filled with innumerable books of interpretations, explanations and commentaries? Above all, why are there any churches where the Scriptures are explained, if the Scriptures are sufficient? And if there should be a church, why so many churches, of so many denominations, in every city and in every town?

If there is a clear statement in the Scriptures which all Christians should endeavor to put into execution, it is certainly the desire which Christ expressed in His prayer to the Eternal Father on the eve of His Passion and Death, ‘That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee – that they also may be one in us’ (John 17:21).

What else do such words mean than that all Christ’s followers should first of all have the same faith? – ‘One Lord, one faith, one baptism’ (Eph 4:5).

Unfortunately, there are too many controversies which agitate and divide Christianity. How are they to be settled? If there must be a judge, can it be the Scriptures? Can the Scriptures speak and pronounce the sentence in such unmistakable terms that both litigants know who is right and who is wrong? Well did the old Roman wisdom proclaim more than 2000 years ago: ‘No one is judge in his own case’. Hence, it was not to the Scriptures, but to Peter and his successors that Christ said ‘confirm thy brethren’ (Like 22:32). Tertullian declared that ‘Religious controversies should not and cannot be settled only by the Scriptures because, not only does the Apostle forbid such disputes among Christians, but also because they bear no fruit. Avoid foolish questions (Titus 3:9) and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law. For they are unprofitable and vain. What good will it do if what you will defend shall be denied – or on the contrary, what you will deny shall be defended? You will certainly lose nothing but your voice in the contention – you will gain nothing but bile from the blasphemy ‘ (Tertull. Prescript, XV). And he comes to the following unanswerable conclusion: ‘We must not have recourse to, nor constitute a fight on the Scriptures, in which victory is uncertain or none at all but the order of things required to be first proposed, and what is now only to be disputed: To whom belongs the Faith itself, whose are the Scriptures? By whom, and through whom, and when, and to whom was the authority to teach delivered, by which men are made Christians? For where the true Christian discipline and doctrine are shown to be, there will also be the truth of the Scriptures and of their interpretation and of all Christian Tradition’ (Tertull. C. XIX).

A living, infallible tribunal is therefore essential and necessary to keep intact, not only the Deposit of Faith and to propose it without error, but also to keep everywhere and at all times the Unity of the Faith, which is so essential in the Religion of Christ.

Dio è Padre. In queste tre parole è contenuta tutta la grandezza della divina misericordia. Per essere più precisi: Dio non è solo un padre, ma un padre e una madre allo stesso tempo.

L’amore paterno è quello che si destina a chi non esiste ancora, desiderando ardentemente di dargli la vita. E’ l’amore che avvolge il bambino con la sua forza, dopo averlo generato – l’amore che veglia in tutti gli istanti del giorno e della notte, previene tutti i pericoli, appoggia tutti i piccoli passi di questo essere fragile che tenta di camminare, lo dirige, lo sostiene, si fa piccolo con questo piccolo, in attesa del momento di farsi eroico e di immolarsi, se necessario – l’amore che a volte punisce, molto più spesso perdona, e non punisce se non per far meritare il perdono – l’amore che ama fino all’ultimo e che, disprezzato, insultato, maledetto, accompagna, nonostante tutto, fino all’estremo e con uno sguardo di tenero affetto, il figlio cattivo e colpevole – l’amore, infine, ultimo tocco che conclude il quadro, che dimentica il proprio onore di padre oltraggiato, i propri diritti profanati con la più nera ingratitudine, con la più indegna condotta, per correre, lui, l’offeso, verso l’offensore, se vede da lontano il figliol prodigo che torna da lui pentito.

Ecco l’amore paterno, tale quale la natura lo concede ai veri cuori di padre su questa terra.

Ma Dio ha la sua maniera di essere padre e madre nel contempo, che eccede infinitamente tutto questo. Nemo tam pater, tam mater nemo: nessuno è padre, nessuno è madre come Lui. Egli stesso ci dice, per mezzo della più brillante voce dei profeti dell’Antico Testamento, Isaia: ‘Si dimentica forse una donna del suo bambino, così da non commuoversi per il figlio delle sue viscere? Anche se queste donne si dimenticassero, io invece non ti dimenticherò mai’ (Is 49:15).