{"id":18744,"date":"2026-07-10T08:55:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/una-nuova-famiglia\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T08:55:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:55:38","slug":"a-new-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/a-new-family\/","title":{"rendered":"A new family"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SANCARLO<\/picture>
Celebration following the priestly and diaconate ordinations of the Fraternity of St. Charles. Rome, June 27, 2026.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Dear friends,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Church often gives us the gift of a Liturgy of the Word that reveals to our minds the profound significance not only of what we are celebrating but also of our entire existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is happening today, when, in the texts we have heard, we find an exemplary introduction to Christian life and, in particular, to priestly life. Above all, I will focus on the words of Jesus in the Gospel.
The words on love for family and on the loss and salvation of one\u2019s own life that open the pericope of this evening, upon first reading, and then every successive time we encounter them, appear to us particularly harsh. We would like to soften them thinking that they hide linguistic expressions particular to the Semitic world and therefore that we must contextualize them in their historical and cultural moment.
But, in the end, they remain there, in their apparent enigmaticness, as a sign of contradiction that challenges our worldly mentality and asks to be welcomed, penetrated and revealed in its true promise of happiness and love.
The passage of the Gospel that we heard proclaimed is the apex of a long discourse on mission that Jesus gives to his apostles. It is also a discourse about following.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two movements are interrelated.
You, dear brothers, are missionaries, called even in terms of geography to go far from your own homes, to exit from the customs and habits of your past life. This sacrifice becomes light only when it emerges from the love of Jesus and the love for Jesus. From the love of Jesus that, through you, is poured out on the world and from the love for Jesus contemplated in the Cross and in the Eucharist. The love of Jesus is a personal love, elective, of preference, which always astounds us when we consider our littleness and moves us as it is renewed in the face of our fragility and our falls.
But let us pause now, after these introductory considerations on the singular words of Jesus: He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me (Matt 10:37). Jesus does not intend here to contradict the fourth commandment. Our relationship of love and affection for our parents which were the first path of the gift of life and of faith not only remain unaltered but will grow as years pass, finding in God their origin and their horizon. Jesus simply wants to affirm the primacy of His love: without it, every love is deformed and loses hope in the future.
\u201cJesus […] places himself at the core of our affections and freedom\u2026he places his person at the core of these natural sentiments, the place he rightfully assumes is their true root.\u201d This is what Fr. Giussani writes in the sixth chapter of At the Origin of the Christian Claim. <\/em>Benedict XVI in a homily writes commenting on these words of Jesus that \u201cthe teacher does not destroy the family; on the contrary, he reveals its foundations and, at the same time, founds a new family.\u201d
We are the new family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Jesus simply wants to affirm the primacy of His love: without it, every love is deformed and loses hope in the future.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We enter now into the most difficult words: And he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me <\/em>(Matt 10:38). How can Jesus speak of the cross and, in particular, of our cross when his was still so far off? What meaning could these words have had? He undoubtedly saw from far off, and was already experiencing the horizon of obedience that would eventually ask his total gift of self, free but total. And so he continues saying: He who loses his life for my sake will find it <\/em>(Matt 10:39). Affirming yet again that the center of our life is not ourselves but Him, and that in following Him, we can find all sweetness. It is the only reason for obedience. Only if we know that we are obeying Christ does obedience to the authority of the Church become reasonable and an introduction to joy. Only love can explain obedience. And love is the gratuitous gift of self. The Paschal mystery is the original and authentic form of love, because God is love. Love, for God, is not a sentiment but His very reality. And He has infused in us, in Baptism, the capacity to love, giving us the gift of His Spirit and incorporating us into Jesus. Thus can we understand the words of St. Paul that we have heard: We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life <\/em>(Rm 6:4).
Don Giussani also noted this connection between obedience and love in the book I just mentioned. Echoing Guardini, he writes that \u201cThe one who listens must renounce himself; he must sacrifice the autonomy of his own judgment, in a way so profound that it can only happen in love.\u201d
Benedict XVI also notes: \u201cOnly by stepping outside ourselves can we find true life.\u201d Love is precisely this stepping outside of oneself, so that accepting to lose oneself is the condition for finding oneself.
The true dynamic of human life is thus revealed by the Cross. We cannot love Jesus above all else unless we accept this dynamic.
Pope Benedict continues: \u201cThe cross is not cruelty but a purification through suffering [\u2026] Only by losing ourselves, only by giving ourselves totally to the One who is true life and happiness, do we find true love. Only by losing ourselves in the great love of Christ do we truly fulfill this rule of love, which is the rule of life.\u201d
We must therefore never forget this \u201cfor my sake.\u201d
Herein lies the source of joy.
In fact, at this point, Jesus, after having used such dramatic words, reveals himself as a source of happiness: He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. He who receives a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet\u2019s reward, and he who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man\u2019s reward <\/em>(Matt 10:40-41).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, in the end, the most moving promise: \u201cAnd whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward\u201d (cfr. Matt 10:42).
Thus there is created a circle of communion between God the Father, the Son, the missionaries and the persons who welcome them. It will permit you all to taste a ray of the eternal in your present life. Dom Guillaume, a Trappist monk, wrote: \u201cEven if at times we must traverse arid and dark roads, even if often we are led where we do not want to go, it is always He who loves to be the victor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The homily of Msgr. Massimo Camisasca on the occasion of the diaconate and priestly ordinations of the Fraternity of St. Charles. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"A new family - Fraternity of St. Charles","description":"The homily of Msgr. Massimo Camisasca on the occasion of the diaconate and priestly ordinations of the Fraternity of St. Charles."},"footnotes":""},"categories":[374],"tags":[475,476,477],"writers":[199],"regions":[385],"cities":[437],"class_list":["post-18744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","tag-ordinazioni-en","tag-sacerdozio-en","tag-vocazione-en","writers-massimo-camisasca","regions-italy","cities-roma-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18746,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18744\/revisions\/18746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18744"},{"taxonomy":"writers","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writers?post=18744"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=18744"},{"taxonomy":"cities","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sancarlo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cities?post=18744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}