The liturgical feast of the Chair of St Peter finds us gathered to celebrate the Jubilee of Mercy as the community of service of the Roman Curia, the Governorate and the institutions connected with the Holy See. We have passed through the Holy Door and we have come to the Tomb of the Apostle Peter in order to make our profession of faith. Today the Word of God illuminates our gestures in a special way.

At this moment, the Lord repeats his question to each of us: “who do you say that I am?” (Mt 16:15). A clear and direct question, which one cannot avoid or remain neutral to, nor can one remand it or delegate the response to someone else. In this question there is nothing inquisitional, but rather, it is full of love! The love of our One Master, who today calls us to renew our faith in him, recognizing him as the Son of God and Lord of our life. The first one called to renew his profession of faith is the Successor of Peter, who carries the responsibility to strengthen his brothers (cf. Lk 22:32).

Let us allow grace to shape our hearts anew in order to believe, and to open our mouths in order to profess the faith and obtain salvation (cf. Rom 10:10). Thus, let us make our own the words of Peter: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16). May our thought and our gaze be fixed on Jesus Christ, the beginning and the end of all actions of the Church. He is the foundation and no one may lay a different one (cf. 1 Cor 3:11). He is the “rock” upon which we must build. St Augustine recalls this with expressive words, when he writes that even if shaken and upset over historical events, the Church “will not fall, because she is founded on the rock, from which Peter’s name derives. It is not the rock that draws its name from Peter, but Peter who draws it from the rock; just as it is not the name Christ which derives from Christian, but the name Christian which derives from Christ.... The rock is Christ, upon which foundation Peter too was edified” (In Joh 124, 5: PL 35, 1972).

From this profession of faith derives for each of us the task of corresponding to the call of God. Pastors, first of all, are asked to have as a model God himself, who takes care of his flock. The prophet Ezekiel described God’s way of acting: He goes in search of the lost sheep, guides the stray back to the fold and cares for the sick (cf. 34:16). This behaviour is a sign of a love that knows no bounds. It is a faithful, constant, unconditional devotion, so that his mercy may reach all of the weakest. However, we must not forget that Ezekiel’s prophecy originates from the fact that Israel lacked shepherds. Thus it is good for us too, called to be Pastors in the Church, to allow the face of God the Good Shepherd to enlighten us, purify us, transform us and restore us fully renewed to our mission. That even in our work environments, we may feel, cultivate and practice a strong pastoral sense, especially toward the people we meet every day. May no one feel overlooked or mistreated, but may everyone experience, here first of all, the nurturing care of the Good Shepherd.

We are called to be God’s coworkers in an undertaking so basic and unique as that of witnessing by our existence to the strength of transforming grace and the renewing power of the Holy Spirit. Let us allow the Lord to free us from all temptation that separates us from what is essential in our mission, and let us rediscover the beauty of professing faith in the Lord Jesus. Faithfulness to the ministry combines well with the mercy that we want to make felt. In Sacred Scripture, after all, faithfulness and mercy are an inseparable binomial. Where there is one, there the other is also found, and it is precisely in their reciprocity and complementarity that the very presence of the Good Shepherd can be seen. The faithfulness that is asked of us is that of acting according to the heart of Christ. As we heard from the words of the Apostle Peter, we must tend to the flock with a “willing spirit” and become an “example” for all. In this way, “when the chief Shepherd is manifested” you may receive “the unfading crown of glory” (1 Pet 5:4).

[Pope Francis, homily at the Jubilee of the Roman Curia 22 February 2016]

Happy day under the Maternal Gaze of the B.V. of Lourdes.

Commentary on the readings for the VI Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C [16 February 2025].

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us.

*First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah (17, 5 - 8)

 The prophet Jeremiah begins solemnly: "Thus says the Lord" to warn that what we are about to hear is important and serious because it is the "Lord" - that is, the very God of the Sinai Covenant - who says: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man". Here, however, two questions arise: can God curse man? And why and in what sense is trusting a man wrong? There is no doubt about it: God cannot curse us, and the Hebrew expression translated 'cursed' in the prophets is 'arur' (אָרוּר), which appears frequently in the Hebrew Bible, and its meaning is not to be understood as a direct action of God cursing, but rather as a declaration of the state of ruin or disgrace into which those who turn away from Him fall. It is therefore a prophetic warning and 'cursed is the man who trusts in man' does not indicate an active action of God, but a warning of this kind: if you choose to trust only in men and not in God, you put yourself in a situation of insecurity and failure. In the biblical mentality, God is the source of life and blessing (berakha), and turning away from Him automatically leads to 'arur (ruin, barrenness, failure). So when the prophets use 'curse', they are saying: 'Beware, this road leads to your destruction'. It is not God who casts a curse as an arbitrary punishment, but it is a spiritual law: when you stray from the source of living water (God), you inevitably find yourself in the drought of the desert. Regarding the second question concerning man trusting in man, should we mistrust one another? Certainly not, because God wants mankind to become one, and therefore any distrust between men goes against his plan of love.  This is about those who turn away from God and trust, i.e. have faith in man. The key word is trusts/has "faith", a very strong term that indicates relying, leaning absolutely on men, as one does on a rock. Without God all security is fragile and one becomes like a shrub in the desert without water doomed to die. The message is clear: if you turn away from God you become spiritually dry and unstable, like a bush in the desert, whereas if you trust, have faith, your life will be like a tree that remains green because it has its roots in water.  It is easy to understand the importance of water for a people walking in the desert, and Jeremiah speaks from experience having before his eyes the road from Jerusalem to Jericho in a desert that is completely dry for much of the year. It only renews and flourishes with the spring rains, and so, drawing on examples and images from the daily lives of his listeners, the prophet offers wise advice on the spiritual life. Faith, then, is the foundation: trusting in God is like rooting oneself in a secure rock (Mt 7:24-25). Making life dependent only on human realities such as power, success, money, relationships, leads to becoming fragile. Moreover, placing one's faith in God does not spare you from difficulties and problems, but gives you the strength to overcome every obstacle. And so every day the believer is called upon to choose: to rely only on himself and live in fear, or to root his life in God and face the storms of existence without losing heart.

One note: Jeremiah is probably denouncing the two fatal errors/sins of kings, religious leaders and the entire people: idolatry and covenants. With regard to idolatry, many have introduced into Israel various idolatrous cults and offered sacrifices to idols, and Jeremiah stigmatises this: "My people have forgotten me in order to burn offerings to those who are nothing." ( 18,15). As for alliances, the prophet criticises the policy of the kings who, instead of counting on God's protection, multiplied diplomatic manoeuvres, allying themselves from time to time with each of the powers of the Middle East, gaining only war and misfortune. Such was the case with Sedecia who, relying on diplomatic manoeuvres and his military might, went bankrupt with massacres, humiliation for himself and the people (Gr 39:1-10).

*Responsorial Psalm (1) 

This psalm, the first one, very short where every detail is significant, constitutes the interpretative key of the whole Psalter and was chosen to introduce the prayer of Israel. It opens with this word: Blessed!  "Blessed is the man who does not enter into the council of the wicked, does not remain in the way of sinners, and is not in the company of the arrogant". The word 'blessed' in the Bible comes from the Hebrew 'ashré', which expresses a state of happiness and deep contentment, a condition of blessing and inner peace that God grants to those who live according to his will. This concept is similar to 'shalom', which indicates deep and complete peace. One who avoids negative influences and finds joy in the law of the Lord, meditating on it constantly, is compared to a tree planted along streams of water, which produces fruit at the right time and whose leaves do not wither. The psalmist understood that God wants our happiness, and this is the most important thing he wanted to tell us from the beginning. To understand the meaning of the word blessed in the Bible, we have to think of the felicitations exchanged on festive occasions wishing joy and prosperity. The expression 'blessed' etymologically means to recognise him as happy and to rejoice with him; it is first and foremost a statement (you are happy), but it is also a wish, an encouragement to grow in happiness every day. It is like saying: you are on the right path, continue to be happy. The biblical term 'blessed' ultimately expresses a double dimension: ascertainment and encouragement. For this reason, many scholars, such as André Chouraqui, translate blessed as 'on the way', an image that invites us to consider human history as a long journey, during which people are continually called upon to choose the road that leads to true happiness. 

A few notes to better enter the Word:

1. In the few verses of the psalm, we find a particular insistence on the word way: "way of sinners...way of the righteous...way of the wicked" and the theme of the two ways emerges: the right way and the wrong way, good and evil. The image is clear: our life is like a crossroads, where we have to decide which direction to take. If we take the right path, each step will bring us closer to the goal; if we choose the wrong direction, each step will take us further and further away from the goal.  The whole of biblical Revelation is meant to show humanity the path to happiness that God desires for us, and for this reason it offers many signs such as the expressions blessed/unhappy or happy/unhappy that are indicators of the path. When Jeremiah in the First Reading says "Cursed is the man who trusts in man... or Isaiah proclaims "Woe to those who enact iniquitous laws" (10:1), they are not judging or condemning people definitively, but are sounding an alarm, like someone shouting to warn a passer-by of the danger of a ravine. On the contrary, expressions such as 'Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord' (Jer 17:7) or 'Blessed is the man who does not enter into the council of sinners' (Ps 1) are an encouragement: you are on the right path!

2. The theme of the two ways reminds us that we are free and the desire for happiness is inscribed in every man's heart, but we often go in the wrong direction and God's law is nothing but a guide for our freedom, a help to choose the right way. Israel knows that the Torah is a gift from God, a sign of his desire for our happiness, and therefore "his law meditates day and night".

3. When the psalm speaks of the righteous and the wicked, it refers to behaviour, not to people because there are no perfectly righteous or completely wicked men and in truth both tendencies coexist within us. Every effort to listen to the Word of God is a step on the path to true goodness. That is why the psalm says: "Blessed is the man who finds his joy in the law of the Lord".  Finally, we understand that the very literary construction of the psalm emphasises the importance of the right choice: in fact, the psalm is not symmetrical and contrasts two attitudes, that of the righteous and that of sinners, but devotes most of its time to describing the happiness of the righteous to tell us that what deserves attention is the good, not the evil. This psalm is therefore an invitation to consciously choose the path of faithfulness to God, and it is no coincidence that the psalter begins with this very word: Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord!  

* Second Reading from the First Epistle of St Paul to the Corinthians (15:12 - 20)

We understand better what St Paul wants to tell us if we think of the funeral of a Christian whose ritual includes three 'signs' of high symbolic value. Firstly, the Paschal Candle beside the coffin burns throughout the celebration as a reminder of the presence of the risen Christ alive among us. In the farewell rite following the Mass, the celebrant and, according to some customs, also the faithful sprinkle the body of the deceased with blessed water to commemorate Baptism. In addition, the celebrant incenses the coffin and this for the Christians of the first centuries was a very daring gesture because in the Roman Empire incense was burnt in front of the statues of the gods and it seemed out of place to incense a lifeless human body reduced to nothing. But this gesture is very eloquent because a Christian, from his Baptism, is a temple of the Holy Spirit as St Paul reminds us, and by forgetting this, one ends up losing the sign and value of the resurrection of bodies. The Christians of Corinth, and perhaps quite a few today, even if they believe in the resurrection of Christ, struggle to draw the consequence that for Paul is self-evident: if Christ is risen, we too shall rise. And to explain this truth of faith to us, he proceeds in two stages. First he reaffirms that Jesus is truly risen and then he draws the consequences. Since Christ's resurrection is the foundation of the Christian faith, Paul affirms that "unless Christ is risen, vain is your faith".  Indeed, if one does not believe in Christ's resurrection, the edifice of Christian faith collapses: a risk that every community runs. Let us ask ourselves: do all Catholics believe in Christ's resurrection and our resurrection? 

From this premise, St Paul draws the following argument: since Christ is risen and many have seen him alive and can bear witness to him, he is indeed the Saviour of the world and all that he said and promised is true. Through baptism we have become a temple of the Spirit and this means that the Spirit lives in us, but if the Spirit of love is the opposite of sin, sin being a lack of love for God and others, the Holy Spirit frees us from sin and we are, like Christ, inhabited by the Spirit of God, so we shall rise like him. What has been the temple of the Spirit can be transformed, but cannot be destroyed. Biological death destroys our body, but Jesus will resurrect it. 

Notes to better understand the text

1.The apostle adds "Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have died". In the Greek text the term used means firstfruits in the sense of the beginning of a long series. In the Old Testament, the firstfruits were the first fruits of the earth that marked the beginning of the harvest. To say that Jesus is risen as the "firstfruits of those who died" is to affirm that he is the elder brother of mankind, the first born, as Paul says elsewhere: "He is the head of the body... He is the beginning, the firstborn of those who rise from the dead, so that he may have the preeminence over all things..." (Col 1:18).

2. Ultimately, we must always return to God's merciful plan, which is to reunite all mankind in Jesus Christ as we read in the Epistle to the Ephesians (cf. Eph 1:9-10). And God certainly did not plan to reunite the dead, but the living, and Jesus explained in his discussion with the Sadducees: "As for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what has been said to you by God: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Mt 22:31-32).

3. There is one aspect of the mystery of the Incarnation that must not be forgotten: God takes our humanity, our body, seriously because the Word became flesh, becoming in every way similar to men, so similar that his destiny became ours: if he rose, we too shall rise. Christ's resurrection is therefore not only the happy epilogue of his personal story but the dawn of humanity's victory over death. Death is no longer a wall, but a door - and we enter it behind him. Hence the irreconcilability of the Christian faith with any idea of reincarnation. The dignity of the human being goes so far: even if our body is sometimes fragile and marked by suffering, God never treats it as something to be thrown away and replaced; our person is a whole. It may happen that we despise ourselves, but in God's eyes, we are each unique and irreplaceable. Our whole being is called to live forever beside Him.

*From the Gospel according to Luke ( 6, 17......26)

In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah exhorted us not to rely on ourselves and material goods, but to rest our lives on God. The Gospel of the Beatitudes goes much further by stating: Blessed are you poor who put your trust in God, for he will fill you with his riches. But who are the poor according to the gospel? The term poor in the Old Testament has no connection with the bank account because in the biblical sense (anawim) poor are those who have neither a haughty heart nor a haughty look, called 'the backward-looking': they are the little ones, the humble, who, never satiated and complacent, feel that they lack something and for this very reason God can fill them. The prophets alternate in their preaching the stern and threatening tone when the people go astray and pursue wrong values, with the encouraging and consoling one when they go through moments of suffering and despair. Jesus tries to educate the disciples and the crowd by taking up the double language of the prophet in the first reading. Jeremiah says: you who put your trust in material riches, in your social position, you who are well regarded, soon they will no longer envy you, and for this you are not on the right path. If you were, you would not be so rich and so well regarded. A true prophet exposes himself to the risk of not being liked, and Jesus knows this well. A true prophet has neither the time nor the worry to accumulate money or look after his image. These four Beatitudes perfectly capture Jesus who is so poor that he had no stone on which to lay his head and died in total abandonment; he is the one who mourned the death of his friend Lazarus and knew anguish in the Garden of Olives, he mourned the fate of Jerusalem; he was hungry and thirsty in the desert and dramatically on the cross; he is the one who was despised, slandered, persecuted and finally eliminated in the name of the principles of the law and therefore of what was considered the true religion. In these Beatitudes, the promise of the Resurrection looms large and a sense of gratitude to God emerges because Jesus wants us to understand with what loving gaze the Father surrounds us, knowing that victory is already certain. He thus reveals to us God's gaze, his mercy: and we know that 'mercy' etymologically means bowels quivering with compassion. Ultimately, this is the message: man's gaze is quite different from God's; human admiration often runs the risk of mistaking the object of its enthusiasm and is directed towards the rich, the satiated, the privileged in life. God's gaze is quite different: "A poor man cries out, the Lord hears him," says the Psalm, and "A sorrowful and humiliated heart, you, O God, do not despise" (Ps 50/51). Isaiah even goes so far as to say: 'In the suffering that crushes his servant, God loves him with a love of predilection' (Isaiah 53:10). The poor, the persecuted, those who hunger and weep, God bows down to them with a predilection: not because of their merit, but because of their very condition. And so Jesus opens our eyes to another dimension of happiness: true happiness is God's gaze upon us. Certain of this gaze of God, the poor, those who weep, those who hunger, will find the strength to take their destiny into their own hands. 

A note to better enter the Word: 

I recall that André Chouraqui states that the word 'blessed' also means 'on the way'. He cites the example of the people led by Moses who found the strength to face the long march in the desert in the certainty of God's constant presence. Once again, the contrast between beatitudes and curses does not divide humanity into two distinct groups: on the one hand those who deserve words of comfort, on the other those who deserve only reproaches. All of us, depending on the moments in our lives, can find ourselves in one or the other group. And to each of us Christ says: "On the way ... you will be filled, comforted, rejoice and exult".  All this was already present in the language of the Old Testament to describe the happiness that the Messiah would bring. The disciples knew these expressions well and immediately understood what Jesus was announcing to them: You who came out of the crowd to follow me, did not do so to gather honours or riches, but you made the right choice, because you recognised the Messiah in me.

Short Commentary:

*First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah (17:5 - 8)

 The prophet Jeremiah begins solemnly: "Thus says the Lord" to warn us that what we are about to hear is important and serious because it is the "Lord" - that is, the very God of the Sinai Covenant - who says: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man". Here, however, two questions arise: can God curse man? And why and in what sense is trusting a man wrong? There is no doubt about it: God cannot curse us, and the Hebrew expression often appears in the Bible and its meaning is not to be understood as a direct action of God cursing, but rather as a declaration of the state of ruin or disgrace into which those who turn away from Him fall. It is therefore a prophetic warning and 'cursed is the man who trusts in man' does not indicate an active action of God, but a warning of this kind: if you choose to trust only in men and not in God, you put yourself in a situation of insecurity and failure. So when the prophets use 'curse', they are saying: 'Beware, this road leads to your destruction'. It is not God who issues a curse as an arbitrary punishment, but it is a spiritual law: when you stray from the source of living water (God), you inevitably find yourself in a desert drought. Regarding the second question concerning man trusting in man, should we mistrust one another? Certainly not, because God wants mankind to become one, and therefore any distrust between men goes against his plan of love.  Here it is a question of those who turn away from God and trust, that is, put all their trust in man, leaning absolutely on men. Without God all security is fragile and one becomes like a shrub in the desert without water doomed to die. The message is clear: if you turn away from God you become spiritually dry and unstable, like a bush in the desert, while if you trust, have faith, your life will be like a tree that remains green because it has its roots in water. Faith therefore is the foundation: trusting in God is like being rooted in a secure rock (Mt 7:24-25). Making life dependent only on human realities such as power, success, money, relationships, leads to becoming fragile. Moreover, placing one's faith in God does not spare you from difficulties and problems, but gives you the strength to overcome every obstacle. And so every day The believer is called to choose: to rely only on himself and live in fear, or to root his life in God and face the storms of existence without losing heart.

*Responsorial Psalm (1) 

This psalm, the first one, very short where every detail is significant, constitutes the interpretative key of the whole Psalter and was chosen to introduce the prayer of Israel. It opens with this word: Blessed!  "Blessed is the man who does not enter into the council of the wicked, does not remain in the way of sinners, and is not in the company of the arrogant". The term 'blessed' in the Bible expresses a state of happiness and deep contentment, a condition of blessing and inner peace that God grants to those who live according to his will. This concept is similar to 'shalom', which indicates deep and complete peace. One who avoids negative influences and finds joy in the law of the Lord, meditating on it constantly, is compared to a tree planted along streams of water, which produces fruit at the right time and whose leaves do not wither. The psalmist understood that God wants our happiness, and this is the most important thing he wanted to tell us from the beginning. To understand the meaning of the word blessed in the Bible, we have to think of the felicitations exchanged on festive occasions wishing joy and prosperity. The expression 'blessed' etymologically means to recognise him as happy and to rejoice with him; it is first and foremost a statement (you are happy), but it is also a wish, an encouragement to grow in happiness every day. It is like saying: you are on the right path, continue to be happy. The biblical term 'blessed' ultimately expresses a twofold dimension: ascertainment and encouragement.

* Second Reading from the First Epistle of St Paul to the Corinthians (15:12 - 20)

We understand better what St Paul wants to tell us if we think of the funeral of a Christian whose ritual includes three 'signs' of high symbolic value. Firstly, the Paschal Candle beside the coffin burns throughout the celebration as a reminder of the presence of the risen Christ alive among us. In the farewell rite following the Mass, the celebrant and, according to some customs, also the faithful sprinkle the body of the deceased with blessed water to commemorate Baptism. In addition, the celebrant incenses the coffin and this for the Christians of the first centuries was a very daring gesture because in the Roman Empire incense was burnt in front of the statues of the gods and it seemed out of place to incense a lifeless human body reduced to nothing. But this gesture is very eloquent because a Christian, from his Baptism, is a temple of the Holy Spirit, as St Paul reminds us, and by forgetting this, one ends up losing the sign and value of the resurrection of bodies. The Christians of Corinth, and perhaps quite a few today, even if they believe in the resurrection of Christ, struggle to draw the consequence that for Paul is self-evident: if Christ is risen, we too shall rise. And to explain this truth of faith to us, he proceeds in two stages. First he reaffirms that Jesus is truly risen and then he draws the consequences. Since Christ's resurrection is the foundation of the Christian faith.  In truth, if one does not believe in the resurrection of Christ, the edifice of the Christian faith collapses: a risk that every community runs. Let us ask ourselves: do all Catholics believe in Christ's resurrection and our resurrection?  From this premise, St Paul draws the conclusion that, if through baptism we are, like Christ, indwelt by the Spirit of God, we will rise like him. Biological death destroys our body, but Jesus will resurrect it. 

*From the Gospel according to Luke ( 6, 17......26)

 In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah exhorted us not to trust in ourselves and material goods, but to rest our lives on God. The Gospel of the Beatitudes goes much further by stating: Blessed are you poor who put your trust in God, for he will fill you with his riches. But who are the poor according to the gospel? The term poor in the Old Testament has no connection with the bank account because in the biblical sense (anawim) poor are those who have neither a haughty heart nor a haughty look, called 'the backward-looking': they are the little ones, the humble, who, never satiated and complacent, feel that they lack something and for this very reason God can fill them. The prophets alternate in their preaching the stern and threatening tone when the people go astray and pursue wrong values, with the encouraging and consoling one when they go through moments of suffering and despair. These four Beatitudes perfectly portray Jesus who is so poor that he had no stone on which to lay his head and died in total abandonment; he is the one who mourned the death of his friend Lazarus and knew anguish in the Garden of Olives, he mourned the fate of Jerusalem; he was hungry and thirsty in the desert and dramatically on the cross; he is the one who was despised, slandered, persecuted and finally eliminated in the name of the principles of the law and therefore of what was considered the true religion. In these Beatitudes, the promise of the Resurrection looms large and a sense of gratitude to God emerges because Jesus wants us to understand with what loving gaze the Father surrounds us, knowing that victory is already certain. He thus reveals to us God's gaze, his mercy. Man's gaze is quite different from God's; human admiration often runs the risk of mistaking the object of its enthusiasm and is directed towards the rich, the satiated, the privileged in life. God's gaze is quite different: 'A poor man cries out, the Lord hears him,' says the Psalm, and 'A sorrowful and humiliated heart, you, O God, do not despise' (Ps 50/51). And so Jesus opens our eyes to another dimension of happiness: true happiness is God's gaze upon us. Certain of this gaze of God, the poor, those who weep, those who hunger, will find the strength to take their destiny into their own hands.

Bad reputation is common among Prophets

(Mk 8:34-9,1)

The Cross is normal among Prophets, who certainly do not have a great response from crowds, in building their own limpid ‘city’.

It never remains at the size of easy idols. But this is the paradoxical form of «communion» that mysteriously attracts the human.

Conviviality that draws hearts together, despite the clashes for ambition or the game of opportunisms do not fade around.

Even today, the reversals chaos doesn’t seem to subside, while crises and mingling appear, even in the positive intertweaving of cultural paradigms.

What is to be done?

To «lift» (v.34 Greek text) the horizontal arm of the scafford and load it on one's shoulders meant losing one's reputation.

It’s a capital problem, inseparable from a motivated and responsible attitude.

Indeed, if a disciple aspired to glory, cherished his own honour, didn’t accept solitude... he could not make himself an authentic witness of Christ.

He would be a piece of prolonged worldliness.

Instead, the Master’s fate also involves that of the disciples.

It’s valid all times, and for us: the gift to the end doesn’t come on earth by passing through fame, success, consideration; being constantly accompanied, approved and supported.

Simon was waiting not for a problematic, edgy outcome, but for easy consensus: a release, as between friends patting each other on the back.

He dreamed of an acclaimed discipleship, hence a future of recognitions - and he was disoriented.

Not understanding the project, Peter [«took Him with»] grabs Jesus as if he were his hostage.

And «he began to exorcise Him» (v.32 Greek text) so that the Master himself would finally put his head on straight and get behind him.

Here the historical basis of this "gesture" of the boss of the apostles transpires - namely the long-standing attempt by the first Jerusalem community to compromise with the priestly and political power of the time.

Well, this isn’t «saving life» (v.35): in the biblical sense, achieving human fullness and resemblance to the divine condition.

The subsequent cheap mysticism, influenced by cerebral philosophies, on this expression has bracketed the adventure of Faith and invented a sharp contrast between bodily and spiritual life.

Trivial conviction, which has as it were vivisected unsuspecting people themselves, sometimes driven to masochism.

But here Jesus does not speak of artificial punishments to be borne, nor did he ever impose any mortification. Least of all capable of producing some ‘salvation of the soul’ detached from reality.

«Lifting up positively the Cross»: so that different energies take over, other relationships, unpredictable situations, that make us shift our gaze and activities.

Not with a view to some just remuneration, but for the irreducible core of every believer (or non-believer) and for any matter.

Hence the need not to alienate oneself from the Gospels, for self-completion, for a living testimony, and the solution of problems - crossed ‘from within'.

In short, we can announce Jesus' proposal, criteria, and Presence itself... in facts and in the integrity of life - not who knows when after death (Mk 8:38-9:1).

Different Definitiveness.

[Friday 6th wk. in O.T.  February 21, 2025]

(Mk 8:27-9:1)

The affluent life and not

True God, nature, and authentic man

(Mk 8:27-33)

Jesus guides his intimates away from the territory of power ideology and the sacred centre of the official religious institution.

The environment of the land of Judah was all conditioned, now devoid of life-wave, already normalised in its constituent lines; it had become a sort of fortress, refractory to any surprise.

In comparison, towards the north, the land of Caesarea Philippi was less artificial, more natural and almost sublime; enchanting, famous for fertility and lush pastures - an area famous for the fecundity of flocks and herds.

That sort of earthly paradise at the source of the Jordan was so humanly attractive that Alexander the Great considered it to be the home of the god Pan and the Nymphs.

The disciples too were fascinated by the landscape and the affluent life of the region's inhabitants; not to mention the magnificence of the palaces.

But here an almost unpleasant question burst into the group.

Christ asks the apostles - basically - what the people expected of Him. And the reminder of the context alludes to the comforts that pagan religion offered.

Moved by curiosity and eager for temporal fulfilment, the crowd of astonished people around the Son of God created a great noise, only apparent.

Now there is a change: the atmosphere changes, opposition increases and questions accumulate; the crowd thins out and the Master finds himself increasingly alone.

While the gods were showing that they knew how to fill their devotees with goods - and a sumptuous court life that beguiled everyone - what was the Lord offering?

In short, the apostles continued to be influenced by the propaganda of the political and religious government, which ensured prosperity.

Jesus 'instructed' them, so that they could overcome the blindness and crisis produced by his Cross, a commitment required from the perspective of self-giving.

[The Son of God is not just a continuer of the Baptist's limpid attitude, never inclined to compromise with the courts and opulence; nor one of the many restorers of the law of Moses... with the zeal of Elijah].

On some fundamental issues, in the early Christian communities there were lively distances with paganism, but there were also particular contrasts with the world of the synagogues.

Frictions of no small importance were those that arose between Jews converted to the Lord and traditionally observant Semites.

Indeed, the sacred books of late Judaism spoke of great figures who had left their mark on the history of Israel, and were to reappear to usher in the Messianic times.

But in all there was a lack of understanding. And difficulty in being able to embrace the new proposal, which seemed to guarantee neither glory nor material goals.

Faith does not easily accord with early human impulses: it is bewildering in its obvious views and drives.

Thus in the Gospel passage, the Master contradicts Peter himself, whose opinion remained tied to the conformist and popular idea of "the" (v.29: "that") expected Messiah.

The leader of the apostles must stop showing Christ which way to go "behind" (v.33) him!

Simon can start being a pupil again; stop plotting roads, hijacking God in the name of God!

In fact, all the Twelve - still plagued by ideas deeply rooted in the ancient mentality - were waiting for a ruler ["political Messiah"], king of Israel of the house of David.

Or they were waiting for a high priest ["Messiah of Aaron"] finally faithful to the role and capable of discovering the genuine meaning of the Word.

For some he was to be a great thaumaturge, a doctor; for others a guerrilla leader, or a judge ["Master of Justice"]; a Prophet, of equal calibre to the ancients.

But the Person of Christ is not that of an ordinary forerunner - great or minor, as long as he is recognisable - an established leader.

Hence the "messianic secret" imposed on those who preach him in that equivocal manner (v.30).

The Son of God does not assure us worldly success, absence of conflict, and a comfortable life, nor does he assure us the mere purification of places of worship or the mending of the ancient practice of devotions.

Only guarantees freedom from all ties to power, and Love that regenerates.

Depth also of natural wisdom:

Says the Tao Tê Ching (xxviii): 'He who knows he is male and keeps himself female is the strength of the world'. Master Wang Pi comments: "He who knows he is first in the world must put himself last".

To internalise and live the message:

Who is Jesus and how much does he matter to you?

Lifting the Cross, Son of Man and Church in Integrity of Life

Bad reputation is normal among the Prophets

(Mk 8:34-9:1)

The Cross is normal among the Prophets, who certainly do not have a great response of hymning crowds, in building their own limpid 'city'.It never remains at the size of easy idols. But this is the paradoxical form of 'communion' that mysteriously attracts the human.

Conviviality that draws hearts together, despite the fact that clashes of ambition or the game of opportunism do not subside around it.

Even today, the chaos of reversals does not seem to subside, while crises and mingling appear, even in the positive interweaving of cultural paradigms.

What is to be done?

"Lifting" [v.34 Greek text] the horizontal arm of the gallows and carrying it on one's shoulders meant losing one's reputation.

This is a capital problem, inseparable from a motivated and responsible attitude.

Indeed, if a follower aspired to glory, cherished his own honour, did not accept solitude... he could not make himself an authentic witness to Christ.

He would be a piece of prolonged worldliness.

Instead, the Master's fate also involves that of the disciples.

It is true at all times, and for us: the gift to the end does not come on earth by passing through fame, success, consideration; being constantly accompanied, approved and supported.

Simon (vv. 32-33) was waiting not for a problematic, sharp outcome, but for easy approval: a release, as between friends patting each other on the back.

He was dreaming of an acclaimed following, hence a future of recognition - and he was bewildered.

But the spirit of giving that Jesus asks of him comes from welcoming, not conquering.

Resigned empathy, starting from one's opposite sides: it does not exist without an intimate alliance.

Of course, the world of tables around unleashes the belligerent aspect, rather than the harmonious, integrated repudiation of the instincts of affirmation: to command, to dominate, to subjugate.

But in the typical language of those who seriously love, Christ speaks clearly - so that his Mystery is also realised in us.

Not to accommodate us in social opinion, but to make every shaky and insecure person a complete being, and to make us all blessed and saviours, with Him.

Peter does not understand the figure of the "Son of Man" (v.38), the main designation used by the evangelists and a crucial theme for understanding the Lord.

He still comes to make present the inherent divine, and its generative energies.

"Son of Man" stands for the eminent goal of the Father: to humanise us and improve existence.

It is the sense of a holiness that is possible and transmissible, not erratic or already formulated, nor tied to concatenations in the regime of externality.

While common religion often convinces of inadequacy and blocks all development, God in His own is direct communication, a drive for life, for a humanising totality.

An innate quintessence that precisely coincides and merges with the supreme condition: in an accentuated capacity to evolve, to affect, to communicate fullness of being.

Not understanding Heaven's plan, Peter ["took him with"] grabs Jesus as if he were his hostage....

And "began to exorcise him" (v.32 Greek text) so that the Master himself would finally put his head on straight, and stand behind him.

Here the historical basis of such a 'gesture' by the leader of the apostles transpires - that is, the long-standing attempt by the first Jerusalem community to compromise with the priestly and political power of the time.

Thus Judeo-Christian Messianism was born. A theology of compromise with the Temple and the Traditions of the fathers, still very much alive in the second-third generation fraternities [those of Mk].

The fact is: the tension that separates us from the heights of official devotion does not stand by chance.

Unfortunately, there exists a deviant and 'enemy' Christology - represented here precisely by Peter ranting (v.33) - which imagines and transmits Christ as a powerful priest and ally of hegemonic power.

This is the reason why today even the pontiff-bishop of Rome does not miss the root of the ecclesial problem: clericalism.

In essence, a soul-destroying ecclesiology can correspond to aberrant Christology.

It presents the community of children under the caricature of a pyramidal institution compromised with those who accentuate exhibitionism, attribute titles, and distribute favours.

All this is not "saving life" (v.35): in the biblical sense, achieving human fullness and resemblance to the divine condition.

Subsequent cheap mysticism, influenced by cerebral philosophies, on this expression has bracketed the adventure of Faith and invented a sharp contrast between bodily and spiritual life.

A banal conviction, which has as it were vivisected unsuspecting people themselves, sometimes directed to masochism.

But here Jesus does not speak of artificial punishments to be meted out, nor did he ever impose any mortification. Neither is it able to produce any 'salvation of the soul' detached from reality - or standing 'in the grace of God' (motionless) intimidated by everlasting punishment.

The Christ story leads in an entirely different direction: the sacred signs do not fit the directives of the established power; they are all liberating in the concrete, not found in an inert and vague detachment.

His reminders in the Church make it clear that the essential characteristics of the disciple are: love that risks and detachment from reputation

as well as lack of attachment to some successful, more or less concealed political function or direction.

To follow the Lord is not to prepare oneself for an office [and earn money on it: v.36], but to correspond to the raw Call.

A call that invests each person following, as well as the Son of Man himself, and the people of God.

"Lift up the Cross positively": so that different energies, other relationships, unpredictable situations, which cause us to shift our gaze and activities, may arise.

Not in view of some just retribution, but for the irreducible core of every believer (or non-believer) and of any issue.

Hence the need not to alienate oneself from the Gospels, for the fulfilment of self, a living testimony, and the solution of problems - crossed from 'within'.

In short, we can announce Jesus' proposal, criteria, and Presence itself... in facts and in the integrity of life - not who knows when after death (Mk 8:38-9:1).

Other definitiveness.

To internalise and live the message:

What kind of call do you hear resonating in you?

Starting from the centre

6. How should we concretely configure this path of ascent and purification? How must love be lived, so that its human and divine promise is fully realised? A first important indication can be found in the Song of Songs, one of the books of the Old Testament well known to the mystics. According to the interpretation prevalent today, the poems contained in this book are originally love songs, perhaps intended for an Israelite wedding feast, in which they were to extol conjugal love. In this context, it is very instructive that, throughout the book, we find two different words for 'love'. First there is the word 'dodim' - a plural expressing love that is still insecure, in a situation of indeterminate search. This word is then replaced by the word " ahabà ", which in the Greek translation of the Old Testament is rendered with the similar-sounding term " agape ", which, as we have seen, became the characteristic expression for the biblical conception of love. In opposition to the indeterminate and still searching love, this word expresses the experience of love that now truly becomes a discovery of the other, overcoming the selfish character that was previously clearly dominant. Love now becomes care of the other and for the other. It no longer seeks self, immersion in the intoxication of happiness; instead, it seeks the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation, it is ready for sacrifice, indeed it seeks it.

It is part of love's development towards higher levels, towards its intimate purifications, that it now seeks definitiveness, and this in a twofold sense: in the sense of exclusivity - 'only this one person' - and in the sense of 'forever'. Love encompasses the totality of existence in all its dimensions, including that of time. It could not be otherwise, because its promise aims at the definitive: love aims at eternity. Yes, love is "ecstasy", but ecstasy not in the sense of a moment of intoxication, but ecstasy as a journey, as a permanent exodus from the ego closed within itself towards its liberation in the gift of self, and precisely in this way towards the rediscovery of self, indeed towards the discovery of God: "Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, whoever loses it will save it" (Lk 17:33), says Jesus - a statement of his that is found in the Gospels in different variants (cf. Mt 10:39; 16:25; Mk 8:35; Lk 9:24; Jn 12:25). Jesus thereby describes his personal path, which through the cross leads him to resurrection: the path of the grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies and thus bears much fruit. Starting from the centre of his personal sacrifice and the love that reaches its fulfilment in it, he also describes with these words the essence of love and of human existence in general.

[Pope Benedict, Deus Caritas est].

From Son of David to Son of Man

The Church is Catholic because Christ embraces all humanity in his mission of salvation. While Jesus' mission in his earthly life was limited to the Jewish people, "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt 15:24), it was nevertheless oriented from the beginning to bring the light of the Gospel to all peoples and to bring all nations into the Kingdom of God. Confronted with the faith of the Centurion in Capernaum, Jesus exclaims: "Now I tell you that many will come from the east and the west and sit down at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 8:11). This universalistic perspective emerges, among other things, from the presentation Jesus made of himself not only as "Son of David", but as "son of man" (Mk 10:33), as we also heard in the Gospel passage just proclaimed. The title "Son of Man", in the language of the Jewish apocalyptic literature inspired by the vision of history in the Book of the Prophet Daniel (cf. 7:13-14), recalls the person who comes "with the clouds of heaven" (v. 13) and is an image that heralds an entirely new kingdom, a kingdom supported not by human powers, but by the true power that comes from God. Jesus uses this rich and complex expression and refers it to Himself to manifest the true character of His messianism, as a mission destined for the whole man and every man, overcoming all ethnic, national and religious particularism. And it is precisely in following Jesus, in allowing oneself to be drawn into his humanity and thus into communion with God, that one enters into this new kingdom, which the Church announces and anticipates, and which overcomes fragmentation and dispersion.

[Pope Benedict, address to the Consistory 24 November 2012].

6. Concretely, what does this path of ascent and purification entail? How might love be experienced so that it can fully realize its human and divine promise? Here we can find a first, important indication in the Song of Songs, an Old Testament book well known to the mystics. According to the interpretation generally held today, the poems contained in this book were originally love-songs, perhaps intended for a Jewish wedding feast and meant to exalt conjugal love. In this context it is highly instructive to note that in the course of the book two different Hebrew words are used to indicate “love”. First there is the word dodim, a plural form suggesting a love that is still insecure, indeterminate and searching. This comes to be replaced by the word ahabà, which the Greek version of the Old Testament translates with the similar-sounding agape, which, as we have seen, becomes the typical expression for the biblical notion of love. By contrast with an indeterminate, “searching” love, this word expresses the experience of a love which involves a real discovery of the other, moving beyond the selfish character that prevailed earlier. Love now becomes concern and care for the other. No longer is it self-seeking, a sinking in the intoxication of happiness; instead it seeks the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice.

It is part of love's growth towards higher levels and inward purification that it now seeks to become definitive, and it does so in a twofold sense: both in the sense of exclusivity (this particular person alone) and in the sense of being “for ever”. Love embraces the whole of existence in each of its dimensions, including the dimension of time. It could hardly be otherwise, since its promise looks towards its definitive goal: love looks to the eternal. Love is indeed “ecstasy”, not in the sense of a moment of intoxication, but rather as a journey, an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self towards its liberation through self-giving, and thus towards authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God: “Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it” (Lk 17:33), as Jesus says throughout the Gospels (cf. Mt 10:39; 16:25; Mk 8:35; Lk 9:24; Jn 12:25). In these words, Jesus portrays his own path, which leads through the Cross to the Resurrection: the path of the grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies, and in this way bears much fruit. Starting from the depths of his own sacrifice and of the love that reaches fulfilment therein, he also portrays in these words the essence of love and indeed of human life itself.

[Pope Benedict, Deus Caritas est]

1. Adoration of the Cross.

In the afternoon we approached the wood on which Christ, Saviour of the world, hung: Ecce lignum Crucis. There was a profound silence in the great Basilica of St. Peter's; a strong recollection reigned in the hearts of those present.

The Cross was being worshipped!

2. We then came to the Colosseum to retrace the Way of the Cross. Christ said: "Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me" (Mt 10:38). He said this not only for his disciples then, but also for those who would come later. He repeats it to us his disciples today. We have come to the Colosseum, which speaks to us of ancient Rome. Then the Cross entered into the life and death of the first Christians, who were called to bear witness to Christ with the sacrifice of their existence. The Cross filled their death with the death of Christ; it filled their death with the inexpressible Life: his Life. "Whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel's will save it" (Mk 8:35). They immolated life, and saved it in Christ. Hail Crux!

3. The adoration of the Cross endures throughout the centuries, in the succession of generations. Even our century - this 20th century - has known the bitter experience of religious persecution in the modern 'coliseums' of Europe and the world, in East and West. Centuries later, here are still people who, like the Christians in ancient pagan Rome, knew how to adore the Cross with the sacrifice of their lives, knew how to embrace the Cross with the supreme witness of martyrdom. Christians who went to their deaths shouting: Ave Crux! Their death, thanks to the Cross of Christ, becomes a seed of new life.

Ecce lignum Crucis.

4. Dear brothers and sisters, we have come to the Colosseum this evening to participate in the Way of the Cross. The Cross is also the way. Christ said: "If anyone wishes to come after me... let him take up his cross daily and follow me" (Lk 9:23). The Cross therefore is the way, the way of daily life. It is, in a way, the companion of this life. In how many forms does the experience of taking up the "cross each day" also present itself for each one of us! It is called by different ways and names. Often, indeed, man trembles, he does not want to pronounce this name: "the cross". He looks for other definitions, other appellations. Yet this name is full of content and meaning. Cross is the saving word, by which the Son of God reveals to every man the total truth about himself and his own vocation (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 22). It reveals this truth to every man and woman, and particularly to those in suffering.

To the suffering person the word "cross" reveals that he or she is not alone, but walks with the One who first accepted the cross and, through the cross, redeemed the world.

5. Ecce lignum Crucis... Here is the wood of the Cross, on which Christ, Saviour of the world, hung. Venite adoremus.

Today, Good Friday, the Church asks everyone to accept the salvific message of the Cross of Christ. A message that is the power of God and the wisdom of God - as St Paul proclaims. Message that encloses the history of man on earth, of each and of all: it encloses the hope of Life and Immortality.

Christ reiterates to every creature, to each one of us: "I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself" (Jn 12:32).

Ave Crux!
Ave verum Corpus natum de Maria Virgine,
vere passum,
immolatum in Cruce pro homine...
Esto nobis praegustatum mortis in examine.
Amen!

[Pope John Paul II, Way of the Cross at the Colosseum 9 April 1993]

Today’s Gospel presents us Jesus who, on his way towards Caesarea Philippi, asks the disciples: “Who do men say that I am?” (Mk 8:27). They respond with what the people are saying: some believe he is John the Baptist reborn, others Elijah or one of the great Prophets. The people appreciated Jesus, they considered him “God’s emissary”, but still were unable to recognize him as the foretold Messiah, awaited by all. Jesus looks at the Apostles and asks again: “But who do you say that I am?” (v. 29). This is the most important question, which Jesus directly addresses to those who have followed him, to verify their faith. Peter, in the name of all, exclaims candidly: “You are the Christ” (v. 29). Jesus is struck by Peter’s faith, and recognizes that it is the fruit of grace, a special grace of God the Father. Then he openly reveals to the disciples what awaits him in Jerusalem, which is that “the Son of man must suffer many things... be killed, and after three days rise again” (v. 31).

On hearing this, Peter, who had just professed his faith in Jesus as Messiah, is shocked. He takes the Master aside and rebukes him. And how does Jesus react? He in turn rebukes Peter, with very harsh words: “Get behind me, Satan!” — he calls him Satan! — “You think not as God does, but as men do” (cf. v. 33). Jesus sees in Peter, as in the other disciples — and in each one of us! — that temptation by the Evil One opposes the grace of the Father, that he wants to deter us from the will of God. Announcing that he must suffer, be put to death in order to then rise, Jesus wants his followers to understand that he is a humble Messiah, a servant. He is the Servant obedient to the word and the will of the Father, until the complete sacrifice of his own life. For this reason, turning toward the whole crowd there, He declares that one who wishes to become his disciple must accept being a servant, as He has made himself a servant, and cautions: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (v. 34).

To undertake the discipleship of Jesus means to take up your cross — we all have one — to accompany him on his path, an uncomfortable path that is not of success or of fleeting glory, but one which takes us to true freedom, to that which frees us from selfishness and sin. It is necessary to clearly reject that worldly mentality which places one’s “I” and one’s own interests at the centre of existence. That is not what Jesus wants from us! Instead Jesus invites us to lose our life for him and for the Gospel, to receive it renewed, fulfilled and authentic. We are certain, thanks to Jesus, that this path leads us to the resurrection, to the full and definitive life with God. Choosing to follow him, our Master and Lord who made himself the Servant of all, one to walk behind and to listen attentively to his Word — remember to read a passage from the Gospel every day — and in the Sacraments. 

There are young people here in the Square, young men and women. I want to ask you: do you feel the desire to follow Jesus more closely? Think. Pray, and allow the Lord to speak to you.

May the Virgin Mary, who followed Jesus to Calvary, help us to always purify our faith of false images of God, in order to adhere fully to Christ and his Gospel.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 13 September 2015].

In this [...] Gospel resound some of Jesus’ most incisive words: “Whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it” (Lk 9:24).

This is a synthesis of Christ’s message, and it is expressed very effectively in a paradox, which shows us his way of speaking, almost lets us hear his voice.... But what does it mean “to lose one’s life for the sake of Jesus”? This can happen in two ways: explicitly by confessing the faith, or implicitly by defending the truth. Martyrs are the greatest example of losing one’s life for Christ. In 2,000 years, a vast host of men and women have sacrificed their lives to remain faithful to Jesus Christ and his Gospel. And today, in many parts of the world, there are many, many — more than in the first centuries — so many martyrs, who give up their lives for Christ, who are brought to death because they do not deny Jesus Christ. This is our Church. Today we have more martyrs than in the first centuries! However, there is also daily martyrdom, which may not entail death but is still a “loss of life” for Christ, by doing one’s duty with love, according to the logic of Jesus, the logic of gift, of sacrifice. Let us think: how many dads and moms every day put their faith into practice by offering up their own lives in a concrete way for the good of the family! Think about this! How many priests, brothers and sisters carry out their service generously for the Kingdom of God! How many young people renounce their own interests in order to dedicate themselves to children, the disabled, the elderly.... They are martyrs too! Daily martyrs, martyrs of everyday life!

And then there are many people, Christians and non-Christians alike, who “lose their lives” for truth. And Christ said “I am the truth”, therefore whoever serves the truth serves Christ. One of those who gave his life for the truth is John the Baptist: tomorrow, 24 June, is his great feast, the Solemnity of his birth. John was chosen by God to prepare the way for Jesus, and he revealed him to the people of Israel as the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (cf. Jn 1:29). John consecrated himself entirely to God and to his envoy, Jesus. But, in the end, what happened? He died for the sake of the truth, when he denounced the adultery of King Herod and Herodias. How many people pay dearly for their commitment to truth! Upright people who are not afraid to go against the current! How many just men prefer to go against the current, so as not to deny the voice of conscience, the voice of truth! And we, we must not be afraid! Among you are many young people. To you young people I say: Do not be afraid to go against the current, when they want to rob us of hope, when they propose rotten values, values like food gone bad — and when food has gone bad, it harms us; these values harm us. We must go against the current! And you young people, are the first: Go against the tide and have the daring to move precisely against the current. Forward, be brave and go against the tide! And be proud of doing so.

Dear friends, let us welcome Jesus’s words with joy. They are a rule of life proposed to everyone. And may St John the Baptist help us put that rule into practice. On this path, as always, our Mother, Mary Most Holy, precedes us: she lost her life for Jesus, at the Cross, and received it in fullness, with all the light and the beauty of the Resurrection. May Mary help us to make ever more our own the logic of the Gospel.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 23 June 2013]

9 February 2025 V Sunday Ordinary Time Year C

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! 

I add at the end of the commentary on the Readings some notes that help to better enter into the text and are also useful for lectio divina or catechesis. 

*First Reading From the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (6, 1- 8)

 In the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C (this year replaced by the liturgy of the Presentation of the Lord) we read the account of Jeremiah's vocation, today instead that of Isaiah: both great prophets and yet both confess their littleness. Jeremiah proclaims that he is unable to speak, but since it is God who has chosen him, it is God himself who will give him the necessary strength. Isaiah, for his part, is seized by a sense of unworthiness but it is always God who makes him 'pure'. The prophets' vocation is always a personal choice on God's part that demands complete adherence, the result of decisive awareness: "To send and to go" are the terms of every vocation and Isaiah too responds in full. If Jeremiah is a priest but it is not known where he received the divine call, Isaiah, on the other hand, who was not a priest, places his vocation in the temple of Jerusalem: "In the year that King Ozias died, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne". When Isaiah says: I saw, he is communicating a vision to us, and since the prophetic books are studded with visions, we must be able to decode this language. Isaiah gives us a valuable clue and states that all this happened in the year of the death of King Ozias who reigned in Jerusalem from 781 to 740 B.C. When King Solomon died (in 933 B.C., almost two centuries earlier), the kingdom of David and Solomon was divided: there were two kingdoms with two kings and two capitals. In the South, Oziah reigned over Jerusalem; in the North, Menaem reigned over Samaria. Ozias was leprous and died of this disease in Jerusalem in 740 B.C. It was therefore in that year that Isaiah received his prophetic calling. Subsequently, he preached for about forty years and died a martyr's death under King Manasseh of Judah, according to an accredited tradition, sawn in two with a wooden saw. He remains in Israel's collective memory as a great prophet, particularly as the prophet of God's holiness. 'Holy! Holy! Holy is the Lord of hosts! The whole earth is full of his glory': the Sanctus of our Eucharistic celebrations thus goes back to the prophet Isaiah, although perhaps this acclamation was already part of the temple liturgy in Jerusalem. God is 'Holy': in the biblical sense this means that He is totally Other than man (Qadosh), that is, He is not in the image of man, but as the Bible states, it is man who is created in the image of God. In Isaiah's vision God is seated on a lofty throne, smoke spreads and fills all space, a voice thunders so loudly that the places tremble: "All the earth is full of your glory". The prophet thinks of what happened to Moses on Mount Sinai, when God made a covenant with his people and gave them the Tablets of the Law. The book of Exodus recounts: "Mount Sinai was all smoking, because the Lord had descended there in fire; the smoke rose like that of a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled greatly..." (Ex 19:18-19). Isaiah, in his littleness, feels a reverential awe: "Oh alas! I am lost, for a man of unclean lips am I... yet mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts'.  Isaiah's fear is above all an awareness of our smallness and the unbridgeable gap that separates us from God. God, however, does not stop and says: "Do not fear". In Isaiah's vision, the word is replaced by gesture: 'One of the seraphim flew towards me, he held a burning coal in his hand... he touched my mouth'. It purifies him because the prophet is purified by the Word that enables him to enter into a relationship with God. Calling God "The Holy One of Israel" also affirms that He is the Totally Other and at the same time close to His people, so that His people can feel Him as their God.  Throughout the Bible God appears as the one who wants to become the 'Holy One' for the whole of humanity, the God who loves us and wants to remain with us all. 

Three additional notes: 

1.The book of Isaiah comprises sixty-six chapters: however, it is not by a single author because it is a collection of three collections. Chapters 1 to 39 are largely the work of the prophet who here recounts his vocation (within these 39 chapters, some pages are probably later); chapters 40 to 55 are the work of a prophet who preached during his exile in Babylon (in the 6th century BC); chapters 56 to 66 record the preaching of a third prophet, a contemporary of those who had returned from exile in Babylon.

2.Holiness is not a moral concept, nor an attribute of God, but is the very nature of God; in fact, the adjective divine does not exist in Hebrew and is replaced by the term holy, which means Totally Other than man: we cannot reach him by our own strength because he infinitely exceeds us, to the point that we have no power over him. The prophet Hosea writes: "I am God and not man; in your midst I am the holy God" (Hos 11:9). Therefore in the Bible no human being is ever considered holy, at most one can be 'sanctified' by God and thus reflect his image, which has always been our calling. 

3.In some language translations, the expression 'The Lord of hosts' is rendered as 'the Lord of the universe', probably to appeal to a sensibility that resents the idea of a God of hosts and at the same time to express a universalistic sense of God's action. 

*Responsorial Psalm (137 /138,1-5.7c-8)

This psalm conveys a feeling of deep joy and from the very first verse everything is said. The expression 'give thanks' is in fact repeated several times: 'I give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart... I give thanks to your name'. The believer is the one who lives in God's grace and simply acknowledges it, with a heart full of gratitude. Here the believer is the people of Israel who, as always in the psalms, speak and give thanks for the covenant God has offered them. This is understood from the repetition of the name 'Lord', which returns several times in these verses. "Lord" is the Name of God, the so-called "tetragrammaton", consisting of four consonants (YHWH), revealed to Moses at Sinai in the episode of the burning bush (Ex. 3). The four Hebrew letters are: yod, he, vav, he and the exact pronunciation has been lost over time, as the original vowels are not indicated in the Hebrew text. We generally say 'Yahweh', a sacred name that is rarely pronounced out of respect. It is almost always replaced by Adonai ("Lord") or HaShem ("The Name") during the reading. God revealed himself to Moses during the Exodus on Sinai, also under the name 'Love and Loyalty', and we hear it here too: 'I give thanks to your name for your love and faithfulness'. This same expression "Love and Faithfulness" recurs several times in other psalms and throughout the Bible, a precious discovery of Israel, thanks to the Spirit of God: "I am the Lord, the merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness" (Ex 34:6). It is no coincidence that the revelation of God's tenderness occurs after the episode of the golden calf, i.e. at a time of severe infidelity of the people because it was in their repeated infidelities that Israel experienced God's mercy. God's faithfulness sung unceasingly in the temple of Jerusalem: "I prostrate myself towards your holy temple" (v.2) and the psalm continues: "I give thanks to your name for your love and your faithfulness". As it appears in the life of the prophet Isaiah, the gap that separates us from God, unbridgeable by meritorious deeds, is bridged by God himself by inviting us into his intimacy. And in this psalm we discover what God's holiness consists of: Love and faithfulness. At the end of the psalm we read "your love" is forever and "your right hand saves me", a further reference to the Exodus where it is said that He has delivered us "with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm" (Deut 4:34). Israel knows that it is the recipient of Revelation, the confidant of God, but it also realises that it must become His prophet by proclaiming His Love and Faithfulness to all mankind. This is the meaning of the verse: 'All the kings of the earth shall give thanks to thee, O Lord, ... when they hear the words of thy mouth' (v.4). Only when Israel has fulfilled its mission as a witness of God, then can one truly sing: 'I thank thee, O Lord, with all my heart' and... 'All the kings of the earth will thank thee, O Lord'. The psalm ends with a prayer: 'Do not forsake the work of your hands', which means: Continue despite our infidelities. The two phrases should be read together: 'Lord, your love is forever ... do not forsake the work of your hands. His everlasting love gives us assurance that he will never forsake the work of his hands, and for this we do not cease to give thanks: "The Lord will do all things for me" (v.8).

Additional note. The Italian translation bears: "All the kings of the earth will give thanks to you, Lord" (v.4). Exegetes point out that here we are dealing with an unaccomplished or imperfect Hebrew verb that can indicate either future actions, habitual and repeated actions or continuous or incomplete actions in the past or present. Thus it could be validly translated with the present tense: 'May all the kings of the earth give thanks to you' or with a subjunctive: 'May all the kings of the earth give thanks to you' and it is obvious that in each choice the meaning changes somewhat.*Second Reading From the Epistle of St Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (15:1-11)

If today we reread what St Paul writes, it is because over these millennia, from generation to generation, the gospel has been passed on as in an uninterrupted relay race where, along the way, the 'witness' is handed on to the next person who in turn will hand it on to the next.  The Church is called upon to faithfully transmit the gospel. Paul, apart from the apparition on the road to Damascus, did not know and witness the life of Jesus of Nazareth; his sources are the Apostles of the first generation and for him, in particular, Ananias, Barnabas and the Christian community of Antioch of Syria. Thanks to them, he received the Gospel, which he transmits by summarising it in two sentences: Christ died for our sins and rose again on the third day, which can be summarised in just two words: died/resurrected, which constitute the two pillars of the Christian faith, and this is in accordance with the Scriptures, i.e. also with the Old Testament where, however, no explicit statements on the death and resurrection of the Messiah are found. The formula 'according to the Scriptures' does not therefore mean that everything was written in advance, but that everything that happened is in conformity with God's merciful plan. One could then replace the expression 'according to the Scriptures' with 'according to God's plan and promise'. Christ by dying on the cross wiped out our sins and, according to his own promise, rose again: death was conquered and it is easy to see that the entire Old Testament is filled with promises of forgiveness of sins, salvation and life. For example, in the Old Testament, the expression 'on the third day' evoked a promise of salvation and deliverance because to say that there will be a third day was equivalent to saying: 'God will intervene'. On the third day on Mount Moria, God rescued Isaac from death (Gen 22:8); On the third day, Joseph in Egypt restored freedom to his brothers (Gen 42:18); On the third day, the Lord appeared to his people gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai (Ex 19:11- 16); On the third day, Jonah, finally converted, returned to the land and to his mission (Gen 2:1). This is how the word of Hosea was interpreted: "He will restore us to life after two days; on the third day he will raise us up and we will live before him" (Hos 6:2). The third day is therefore not a chronological datum, but the expression of a hope: that of the triumph of life over death. To proclaim that Christ is risen on the third day according to the Scriptures is therefore to affirm that salvation is universal: the triumph of life and salvation are for all times and for all men, since Christ lives forever. Grafted into him we are already part of the new humanity made alive by the Holy Spirit. Paul recounts that he personally experienced this salvation by being a persecutor forgiven, converted and transformed into a pillar of the Church, and he will never forget this by testifying to the wonder of God's love for humanity: a love that is unconditional and continually offered. Paul, like Isaiah, like Peter, is deeply aware of his own sin; but he allows God's grace to work in him: 'By God's grace, however, I am what I am, and his grace in me has not been in vain. Indeed I have laboured more than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God which is me' (v.10). From a persecutor God made him an apostle, the most ardent, as from a timid youth, he made Jeremiah a courageous prophet and Isaiah, from a man with unclean lips, made him the 'mouth of God' and Peter, from a renegade, made him the foundation of his Church. The gospel to be shouted from the rooftops of humanity is precisely God's Love and Mercy for all.

.

*From the Gospel according to Luke (5:1-11)

 The first reading almost always recalls the gospel, and we perceive it very well today. We are not used to comparing the apostle Peter to the prophet Isaiah, yet the liturgy texts help us to do so by offering us the stories of their vocation. The scenarios are different: for Isaiah, everything takes place during a vision in the temple in Jerusalem; for Peter, on Lake Tiberias. Both, however, suddenly find themselves in the presence of God: Isaiah in his vision, Peter witnessing a miracle after a night out. The details provided by Luke leave no doubt. Peter says to Jesus: "Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing" and Jesus invites them to cast their nets again.  Then something extraordinary happens against all expectations and human experience. If, in fact, nothing was caught during the night, it is certainly even worse during the day, and all the fishermen who work at night know this. The miracle, however, takes place because at the simple word of Jesus, Peter, an experienced fisherman shows humble and boundless trust and obeys. the result was such an enormous quantity of fish that he risked breaking his nets. Both Peter and Isaiah react in the same way to God's irruption in their lives; both perceive his holiness and the gulf that separates them from him. Their expressions are similar: 'Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinner', exclaims Peter, while Isaiah says: 'Alas! I am lost, for a man of unclean lips I am'.  The teaching is clear: our sins, our unworthiness, do not stop God because he is content for us to become aware of them and present ourselves to him in truth. Only when we acknowledge our poverty, however, can God fill us with his grace. Peter and Isaiah are seized by a reverential fear before his presence: Isaiah sees a burning coal touching his mouth, Peter hears Jesus' words: 'Do not fear', and in the end both are called to the service of the same project of God, the salvation of mankind. Isaiah as prophet, Peter will become fisherman of men for their salvation. To the words of Jesus: "Fear not, thou shalt henceforth be a fisher of men" Peter does not respond directly, but together with the others performs a gesture of impressive simplicity: "And having pulled the boats ashore, they left everything and followed him". The disciples become Christ's co-operators even if the enterprise seems doomed to failure according to human judgement and they must always continue to cast their nets. This is the mystery of our collaboration in God's work: we can do nothing without him, and God does not want to do anything without us. As Paul says in the second reading, it is his grace that does everything: 'By God's grace I am what I am, and his grace in me was not in vain'. On closer inspection, the only cooperation that is asked of us is a trusting willingness as Peter does who courageously risks a new fishing attempt. And after the miracle he no longer calls Jesus Master, but Lord, the name reserved for God: he prostrates himself at his feet ready now to do whatever he says. Ultimately, it is thanks to the yes of Isaiah, of Peter and his companions, and of Paul, that we too are here today. The word of Jesus still resounds for us: "Put out into the deep and cast your nets for fishing" and it is our turn to respond: on your word we will cast our nets. For a miraculous catch, the secret is always to trust Christ, which is not easy but possible for everyone.

Additional note. In verse 6, the verb 'they caught a quantity of fish' is συνεκλεισαν (synekleisan), derived from the verb συγκλείω (synkleió), which means 'to enclose', 'to trap' or 'to enclose together' and means to catch the fish with the net by pulling them out of the sea in order to kill them. In his works, St Augustine often uses the image of fishermen to describe the work of the Apostles, especially Peter and Andrew, called by Jesus to become "fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19). Thus he notes in his Commentary on the Psalms (Psalm 91, Discourse 2): "They fish men, not to kill them but to vivify them; they fish, but to lead them to the light of truth, not to death. So when it comes to men, snatching them from the sea (symbol of evil) means saving them: taking men alive means preventing them from drowning, that is, saving them from the whirlpools of death: bringing them to breath, to Light, to Life.

+Giovanni D'Ercole

*Synthesis 9 February 2025 V Sunday Ordinary Time Year C

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! 

I add at the end of the commentary on the Readings some notes that help to better enter into the text and are also useful for lectio divina or catechesis. 

*First Reading From the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (6, 1- 8)

 In the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C (this year replaced by the liturgy of the Presentation of the Lord) we read the account of Jeremiah's vocation, today instead that of Isaiah: both great prophets and yet both confess their littleness. Jeremiah proclaims that he is unable to speak, but since it is God who has chosen him, it is God himself who will give him the necessary strength. Isaiah, for his part, is seized by a sense of unworthiness but it is always God who makes him 'pure'. The prophets' vocation is always a personal choice on God's part that demands complete adherence, the result of decisive awareness: "To send and to go" are the terms of every vocation and Isaiah too responds in full. If Jeremiah is a priest but it is not known where he received the divine call, Isaiah, on the other hand, who was not a priest, places his vocation in the temple of Jerusalem: "In the year that King Ozias died, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne". Isaiah gives us a valuable indication and states that this happened in the year of the death of King Ozias, who reigned in Jerusalem from 781 to 740 B.C. When King Solomon died (in 933 B.C., almost two centuries earlier), the kingdom of David and Solomon was divided: there were two kingdoms with two kings and two capitals. In the South, Oziah reigned over Jerusalem; in the North, Menaem reigned over Samaria. Ozias was leprous and died of this disease in Jerusalem in 740 B.C. It was therefore in that year that Isaiah received his prophetic calling. Subsequently, he preached for about forty years and died a martyr's death under King Manasseh of Judah, according to an accredited tradition, sawn in two with a wooden saw. He remains in Israel's collective memory as a great prophet, particularly as the prophet of God's holiness. 'Holy! Holy! Holy is the Lord of hosts! The whole earth is full of his glory': the Sanctus of our Eucharistic celebrations thus goes back to the prophet Isaiah, although perhaps this acclamation was already part of the temple liturgy in Jerusalem. God is 'Holy': in the biblical sense this means that He is totally Other than man (Qadosh), that is, He is not in the image of man, but as the Bible states, it is man who is created in the image of God. Calling God "The Holy One of Israel" also affirms that He is the Totally Other and at the same time close to His people, so that His people can feel Him as their God.  Throughout the Bible God appears as the one who wants to become the 'Holy One' for the whole of humanity, the God who loves us and wants to remain with us all. 

Three additional notes: 

1.The book of Isaiah comprises sixty-six chapters: however, it is not by a single author because it is a collection of three collections. Chapters 1 to 39 are largely the work of the prophet who here recounts his vocation (within these 39 chapters, some pages are probably later); chapters 40 to 55 are the work of a prophet who preached during his exile in Babylon (in the 6th century BC); chapters 56 to 66 record the preaching of a third prophet, a contemporary of those who had returned from exile in Babylon.

2.Holiness is not a moral concept, nor an attribute of God, but is the very nature of God; in fact, the adjective divine does not exist in Hebrew and is replaced by the term holy, which means Totally Other than man: we cannot reach him by our own strength because he infinitely exceeds us, to the point that we have no power over him. The prophet Hosea writes: "I am God and not man; in your midst I am the holy God" (Hos 11:9). Therefore in the Bible no human being is ever considered holy, at most one can be 'sanctified' by God and thus reflect his image, which has always been our calling. 

3.In some language translations, the expression 'The Lord of hosts' is rendered as 'the Lord of the universe', probably to appeal to a sensibility that resents the idea of a God of hosts and at the same time to express a universalistic sense of God's action. 

*Responsorial Psalm (137 /138,1-5.7c-8)

This psalm conveys a feeling of deep joy and from the very first verse everything is said. The expression 'give thanks' is in fact repeated several times: 'I give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart... I give thanks to your name'. The believer is the one who lives in God's grace and simply acknowledges it, with a heart full of gratitude. Here the believer is the people of Israel who, as always in the psalms, speak and give thanks for the covenant God has offered them. This is understood from the repetition of the name "Lord", which returns several times in these verses. "Lord" is the Name of God, the so-called "tetragrammaton", consisting of four consonants (YHWH), revealed to Moses at Sinai in the episode of the burning bush (Ex. 3). We generally say 'Yahweh', a sacred name that is rarely pronounced out of respect. God revealed himself to Moses during the Exodus at Sinai, also under the name 'Love and Loyalty' and we hear it here too: 'I give thanks to your name for your love and faithfulness'. This same expression "Love and Faithfulness" recurs several times in other psalms and throughout the Bible: "I am the Lord, the merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness" (Ex 34:6). In this psalm, we discover that God's holiness consists in Love and faithfulness. Israel realises that it must become His prophet by proclaiming His Love and Faithfulness to all mankind. It is only when Israel has fulfilled this mission that one can truly sing: 'I thank Thee, Lord, with all my heart' and... 'All the kings of the earth will thank Thee, Lord'. 

Additional note. The Italian translation reads: "They will give thanks to you, Lord, all the kings of the earth" (v.4). Exegetes point out that here we are dealing with an unaccomplished or imperfect Hebrew verb that can indicate either future actions, habitual and repeated actions, or continuous or incomplete actions in the past or present. Thus it could be validly translated with the present tense: 'May all the kings of the earth give thanks to you' or with a subjunctive: 'May all the kings of the earth give thanks to you' and it is obvious that in each choice the meaning changes somewhat.

*Second Reading From the Epistle of St Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (15:1-11)

Paul, apart from the apparition on the road to Damascus, did not know or witness the life of Jesus of Nazareth; his sources are the Apostles of the first generation and thanks to them, he received the Gospel, which he in turn transmits by summarising it in two sentences: Christ died for our sins and rose again on the third day, which can be summarised in just two words: died/rose which constitute the two pillars of the Christian faith and this is in accordance with the Scriptures, i.e. also the Old Testament where, however, no explicit statements on the death and resurrection of the Messiah are found. The formula 'according to the Scriptures' does not therefore mean that everything was written in advance, but that everything that happened is in conformity with God's merciful plan. One could then replace the expression 'according to the Scriptures' with 'according to God's plan and promise'. Christ by dying on the cross wiped out our sins and, according to his own promise, rose again: death was conquered and it is easy to see that the entire Old Testament is filled with promises of forgiveness of sins, salvation and life. For example, in the Old Testament, the expression 'on the third day' evoked a promise of salvation and deliverance because to say that there will be a third day was equivalent to saying: 'God will intervene'. On the third day on Mount Moria, God rescued Isaac from death (Gen 22:8); On the third day, Joseph in Egypt restored freedom to his brothers (Gen 42:18); On the third day, the Lord appeared to his people gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai (Ex 19:11- 16); On the third day, Jonah, finally converted, returned to the land and to his mission (Gen 2:1). This is how the word of Hosea was interpreted: "He will restore us to life after two days; on the third day he will raise us up and we will live before him" (Hos 6:2). The third day is therefore not a chronological datum, but the expression of a hope: that of the triumph of life over death. To proclaim that Christ is risen on the third day according to the Scriptures is therefore to affirm that salvation is for all times and for all men, since Christ lives forever. As a persecutor, God made St Paul an apostle, as a timid youth, he made Jeremiah a courageous prophet, and Isaiah, as a man with unclean lips, made him the 'mouth of God', and Peter, as a renegade, made him the foundation of his Church. 

*From the Gospel according to Luke (5, 1-11)

 The first reading almost always recalls the gospel, and we perceive this very well today. We are not used to comparing the apostle Peter to the prophet Isaiah, yet the texts of the liturgy help us to do so by offering us the stories of their vocation. The scenarios are different: for Isaiah, everything takes place during a vision in the temple in Jerusalem; for Peter, on Lake Tiberias. Both, however, suddenly find themselves in the presence of God: Isaiah in his vision, Peter witnessing a miracle after a night out. The details provided by Luke leave no doubt. Peter says to Jesus: 'Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing' and Jesus invites them to cast their nets again.  Then something extraordinary happens against all expectations and human experience. If, in fact, nothing was caught during the night, it is certainly even worse during the day, and all the fishermen who work at night know this. The miracle, however, takes place because, at the simple word of Jesus, Peter, an experienced fisherman shows humble and boundless trust and obeys. the result was such an enormous quantity of fish that he risked breaking his nets. Both Peter and Isaiah react in the same way to the irruption of God in their lives; both perceive his holiness and the gulf that separates them from him. Their expressions are similar: 'Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinner', exclaims Peter, while Isaiah says: 'Alas! I am lost, for a man of unclean lips I am'.  The teaching is clear: our sins, our unworthiness do not stop God because he is content for us to become aware of them and present ourselves to him in truth, and when we recognise our poverty, God can fill us with his grace. To the words of Jesus: "Fear not, thou shalt now be a fisher of men" Peter does not respond directly, but together with the others he performs a gesture of impressive simplicity: "And having pulled the boats ashore, they left everything and followed him". The disciples become Christ's co-operators even if the enterprise seems doomed to failure according to human judgement and they must always continue to cast their nets. It is the mystery of our collaboration in God's work: we can do nothing without him, and God does not want to do anything without us. The word of Jesus still resounds for us: 'Put out into the deep and cast your nets for fishing' and it is up to us to respond: at your word we will cast our nets. 

Supplementary note. In verse 6, the verb "they caught a quantity of fish" is derived from the Greek verb synkleió, which means "to enclose", "to trap" or "to enclose together" and means to catch fish with a net by snatching them out of the sea in order to kill them. St Augustine often uses the image of fishermen to describe the work of the Apostles, particularly Peter and Andrew, who were called by Jesus to become "fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19). In his Commentary on the Psalms (Psalm 91, Sermon 2) he writes: "They fish men, not to kill them but to make them alive; they fish, but to lead them to the light of truth, not to death. So when it comes to men, snatching them from the sea (symbol of evil) means saving them: taking men alive means preventing them from drowning, that is, saving them from the whirlpools of death: bringing them to breath, to Light, to Life.

+Giovanni D'Ercole