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Fr. Grassi said reality invites us to change our attitude

"Mercy, love and charity allow an approach to man"

The Spiritual Father of Felices Los Niños said that the Year 2002 Jesus walks toward the recovery of the poor and forsaken. "Those who win by oppression and by forgetting those who are in need are not always the ones who will win the Kingdom of Heaven", he remarked.

Buenos Aires, Sunday, September 22, 2002. Father Julio Grassi, founder and Spiritual Father of the Felices Los Niños Foundation, stated tonight glossing today's Gospel according to St. Matthew that "Jesus comes to tell us Argentinians that those who are the 'first' because they are powerful and famous will be the last sometime because He put the poor, the ignorant and the sinners in the first place."

In his weekly column in the "La Manga" broadcasting which he conducts for ten years now at Radio Rivadavia (AM 630 kHz, Sundays from 02:00 to 05:00), Father Grassi said that reality "invites us to change our attitude, to soften and to understand that in our society those who win by opression and by forgetting those who are in need are not always the ones who will win the Kingdom of Heaven."

In today's Gospel Jesus tells us that "the first will be the last and the last will be the first". A parable tells us how a man who owned a vineyard summoned people to work at different hours of the day, eventually paying each and everyone a denarius. Those who came in early complained because they said that those who came first deserved more money.

"In the days of Jesus the first were Pharisees, which were religious and powerful men who had the chance of getting to God's heart because they worried about the word-for-word compliance with the Law, and made people know they did so. They had the Law written on their clothes but not in their heart."

"Jesus came to change this order of things completely because he approached those who were considered the 'last'. Jesus ate with them, the sinners, the ignorant, the poor, the sick who suffered from what were called 'curses of God', like leprosy, blindness, or palsy", explained Father Grassi.

"Jesus stayed with them because the way to approach men is through mercy and not through judgement."

"Who is the first in today's society? It's the winner, no matter if he wins by cheating, the lucky one, the one who has more money or power."

Talking about the marginalization many suffer, the priest asked himself "how many sinners are despised by those who say 'I'm Catholic", hiding behind some sort of club Catholicism, like the adhesion expressed by a sports fan. On the contrary, the words 'I'm Catholic" imply compliance with the mercy and the charity shown by Jesus towards the 'last'."

"Mercy is having a tender heart with those who are wrong. On the other hand, charity means sharing and converting each one's life into a soft bread for sharing".

"The way of approaching man is through charity, love, and mercy. If by chance we feel like the first ones in a Pharisaical style, let's ask God for mercy for our sins and for the gift of charity. Being last is better, like that poor man who from the back of the church asked for forgiveness of his sins because he was not worthy to be in the front seats."

"Surely Mary was held for one of the last women, one who covertly did God's will and ended up being most great."

For Father Grassi there are present-time cases which show a reflexion of what is the object of reflection of today's Scriptures.

"Ezequiel Demonty, the young man whose body was found yesterday in Riachuelo River was tossed by a bad man, not by a police officer. No one can understand how a barbarian act like this could happen. One cannot understand what's going on with this very cruel punishment which our most tender youth must suffer."

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