Mc 10,28-31 – Saint Philip Neri, Presbyter – Memory
The Holy Spirit has given the Church, throughout more than two thousand years of history, extraordinary men and women. Among these there is certainly one of the most original, joyful and luminous figures that Christianity has known: Saint Philip Neri, whom we remember today. His life seems to be a concrete explanation of the Gospel we heard today. Peter says to Jesus: «Behold, we have left everything and followed you».
Ultimately, behind this statement, there is a very human question: what will we receive in return? And Jesus responds by speaking of a life increased a hundredfold. It does not simply promise a future reward, but a life that already becomes bigger, fuller, more intense. When you truly say “yes” to God, everything expands. The joy becomes deeper, but the trials also take on a different weight. Nothing remains superficial. Life changes perspective. Yet the real reversal of the Gospel is another: “Many who are first will be last and the last will be first”.
He who loves according to the Gospel no longer reasons with the logic of the world. He does not seek first place, success or prestige. Instead, learn to give priority to those who need it most. Saint Philip Neri lived exactly like this. In a Rome often marked by worldliness and inequalities, he was able to put the least, the abandoned young people, the poor, the forgotten people at the centre. And he did it with a contagious joy. Because holiness does not make you sad. When it is true, it makes us profoundly human and surprisingly happy.
Filippo Neri teaches us that the Gospel is not lived with heaviness, but with freedom. And that true joy comes when we stop living only for ourselves and learn to look at the world with the eyes of Christ. This is the great revolution of the Gospel: making those who the world considers last first, remembering that true joy in a person’s life comes only when they feel loved.
Tuesday 26 May 2026 – (St. Philip Neri, Presbyter – Memory)
