Friday, July 31, 2020 - 17th week of Ordinary Time - Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St. Matthew 13, 54-58 - The word of the Lord abides forever; this is the good news that has been proclaimed to you.

Today the Church celebrates St. Ignatius of Loyola, who through all his deeds wanted to express the glory of God, and he even made it his motto.

In today's Gospel, Jesus declares that our humanity cannot be separated from us. Our outlook and our way of life are strongly linked to this humanity that encloses us and makes us unable to access God's nature and world. This is what leads us to become self-centred, proud and complacent, rejecting God and others. For jealousy comes naturally to us when we see the progress of others and their success. The reason is that we don't have the Spirit of God in us and we don't work with God. This is what happened in the Gospel we have come to hear, puffed up with pride and prejudice, Jesus' contemporaries see in Him only His human dimension. Our human pride conceals from us the greatness of God's work.

Therefore, if our heart wants to live with and possess God, let us accept any messenger or representative of God, without worrying about their faults linked to their human condition, but focusing on the message that God wants to transmit. Let us ask God, therefore, that in our family He deigns to choose one of His prophets. In these days of torment linked to this pandemic, many seek to depart from the call of God addressed to them; let us always pray that they persevere in their choice.