Word of the day

A reading from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles
Acts 5:27-33

When the court officers had brought the Apostles in
and made them stand before the Sanhedrin,
the high priest questioned them,
“We gave you strict orders did we not,
to stop teaching in that name.
Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching
and want to bring this man’s blood upon us.”
But Peter and the Apostles said in reply,
“We must obey God rather than men.
The God of our ancestors raised Jesus,
though you had him killed by hanging him on a tree.
God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior
to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins.
We are witnesses of these things,
as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

When they heard this,
they became infuriated and wanted to put them to death.

From the Gospel according to John
Jn 3:31-36

The one who comes from above is above all.
The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things.
But the one who comes from heaven is above all.
He testifies to what he has seen and heard,
but no one accepts his testimony.
Whoever does accept his testimony certifies that God is trustworthy.
For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God.
He does not ration his gift of the Spirit.
The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life,
but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life,
but the wrath of God remains upon him.

A Christian without a memory is not a true Christian: they are a man or a woman who, as a prisoner of conjecture, of the moment, have no history. They have it, but do not know how to interpret that history. It is precisely the Spirit who teaches us how to interpret history. The memory of the history… The memory of our lives, of our personal history, the memory of the moment in which we received the grace of meeting Jesus; the memory of all that Jesus said.
And when vanity comes a bit, and someone believes they are the Nobel Prize of Holiness, to remember is good for us: “But…remember where I took you from – from the back of the flock. You were in the back of the flock.” Memory is a huge grace, and when a Christian has no memory – this is difficult, but it is the truth – he or she is not a Christian but an idolater. Because he or she has placed themselves before a god who has no path, does not know how to make a path. Our God walks along the way with us, he is in our midst, he walks with us. He saves us. He makes history with us. Remembering all this makes life more fruitful, with this grace of memory. (Homily, Santa Marta, 13 May 2013)