Third Easter Sunday [4 May 2025]

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! In these days, as the prayer of the Church is intense in anticipation of the choice of Peter's successor, the proclamation of the Gospel (Jn 21:1-19) concerning Peter himself takes on great value.

*First Reading, from the Acts of the Apostles (5, 27b-32. 40b-41)

 After the apostles had been scourged for their preaching, St Luke writes that when they came out of the Sanhedrin they went away rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer outrages for the name of Jesus. After all, the Lord had foretold to them that they would be hated, banished, insulted, and reviled because of the Son of Man, and that precisely that would be the time to rejoice and even exult because great is the reward in heaven, since this was also the case with the prophets (cf. Lk 6:22-23). Besides, if they persecuted the Master, they will do the same to you (cf. Jn 15:20). Peter and John, after the healing of the cripple at the Porta Bella, a miracle that made much noise in the city, had been tried before the Sanhedrin, the Jerusalem tribunal, the same one that had condemned Jesus a few weeks earlier. As soon as they were released, they had resumed preaching and performing miracles. Arrested again and put in prison, during the night they were released by an angel and it is understood that this miraculous intervention made them even stronger; they resumed preaching. Today's passage situates us precisely at this moment: arrested once again and brought to court, Peter replies to the high priest who questions them that "one must obey God rather than men". He then speaks of the difference between the logic of God and the logic of men: that of men, that is, that of the Jewish court, considers that a wrongdoer who has been killed should certainly not be given publicity. And he argues thus: Jesus, in the eyes of the religious authorities, is an impostor crucified because he had to be prevented from deceiving the populace prone to give credence to any supposed messiah. A condemned man hung on the cross, according to the Torah, becomes cursed even by God. However, there is also God's logic: you crucified Jesus and yet, against all odds, he is not only not cursed by God but raised to the right hand of God who made him Prince and Saviour to grant Israel conversion and forgiveness of sins. Words that sound scandalous to the judges exasperated by the apostles' confidence, so many decide to eliminate them as they did Jesus. Gamaliel intervenes, however, who invites the Sanhedrin to prudence because if this work is of human origin it will destroy itself, but if it comes from God this will never happen; indeed he warns them so that "it will not happen to you to fight against God" (Acts 5:34-39). Today's liturgical reading skips the Gamaliel episode and directly narrates Peter's response to the tribunal determined to scourge the apostles and then free them. History shows that there have always been persecutions, scandals, and attacks of all kinds in the Church, and yet it continues to go on through the centuries. St Augustine writes: "The city of God advances through time, pilgrimaging between the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God." (De Civitate Dei, XIX, 26).

*Responsorial Psalm 29 (30), 3-4, 5-6ab, 6cd.12, 13

Psalm 29 (30) is very short, only thirteen verses (of which only eight are proposed in today's liturgy). Reading through the entire psalm one perceives the situation of a desperate person who has done everything to be saved, crying out, begging, asking for help. There are people who even enjoy seeing him suffer and mock him, but he continues to cry out for help until someone finally listens and frees him. It is God himself who intervenes and, freed from oppression, the desperate man explodes with joy. The opening of the psalm sets the tone for everything else: 'I exalt you, O Lord, for you have raised me up and not allowed my enemies to rejoice over me'. In every psalm there are two levels of reading: here too, the adventure of one who, despite having suffered an unexpected collapse in his life, continues to be certain that in the end he will be delivered, is an image of Israel exploding with joy after the Babylonian exile, just as it had exulted after the crossing of the Red Sea. In tragic moments, Israel trusts in God: "In my confidence I said: never shall I waver"; he cries out to the Lord: "Hear, Lord, have mercy on me, Lord come to my aid!" and uses every argument possible, going so far as to provoke God: "what good would it do you if I died, what good would my blood do you if I went down to the grave?"  And when the psalmist says: "Can the dust praise thee, proclaim thy faithfulness?" he makes us realise that in those days it was believed that after death there was nothingness, so useless before death were prayers, sacrifices, songs. God, however, listens and performs the miracle: "I cried out to you, my God, and you healed me; Lord you brought me up from the abyss and revived me when I was about to die". This psalm finds its fulfilment in the Easter cry of Alleluia because the Lord has delivered us from the bondage of evil. Among rabbinic commentaries I found this: "God has led us from slavery to freedom, from sorrow to joy, from mourning to the feast day, from darkness to shining light, from slavery to redemption. Therefore we sing Alleluia before him!"

* Second Reading: From the Book of Revelation of Saint John the Apostle (5, 11-14)

The book of Revelation is a hymn to victory narrated with many visions. In today's text, millions and millions of angels shout at the top of their voices in heaven: "long live the King!" while on land, sea, and under the earth, every breathing creature praises the new King, Jesus Christ: the immolated Lamb, acclaimed as he receives "power and riches, wisdom and strength, honour, glory, and blessing". To describe the kingship of Christ, the vision uses a language of images and numbers; a rich text, therefore, because only symbolic language can introduce us into the ineffable and lindicable world of God. It is, at the same time, a difficult text because it uses recurring images, colours and numbers that are not easy to interpret. It is difficult to grasp the hidden meaning of a passage such as the expression "the four living creatures", which in the previous chapter are four winged beings: the first with the face of a man, the other three of animals - a lion, an eagle, a bull - and we are used to seeing them in many paintings, sculptures and mosaics, believing we know without hesitation to whom they refer. St Irenaeus, in the 2nd century, proposed a symbolic reading: for him, the four living ones are the four evangelists; St Augustine took up the same idea, modifying it slightly, and his interpretation has remained in the tradition: according to him, Matthew is the living one with the face of a man, Mark the lion, Luke the bull and John the eagle. Modern biblical scholars do not seem to agree because for them the author of Revelation has taken an image from Ezekiel, where the four beings support the throne of God and simply represent the created world. The numbers are also difficult to interpret. According to many, the number 3 symbolises God; 4 the world the created world by reason of the four cardinal points; 7 (3+4) evokes both God and the created world in its fullness and perfection, while 6 (7-1) stands for incompleteness, imperfection. Of singular interest is this acclamation: 'The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength, honour, glory and praise': power and riches, wisdom and strength refer to earthly success, honour, glory and praise are reserved for God. It is a total of seven words: this is to say that the immolated Lamb, that is, Jesus is fully God and fully man, all expressed with the suggestive power of symbolic language. All creatures in heaven, on earth, under the earth and on the sea thus proclaim their submission to God who sits on the Throne and to the Lamb: "To him who sits on the Throne and to the Lamb, praise, honour, glory and power for ever and ever". John's insistence aims to exalt the victory of the immolated Lamb: defeated in the eyes of men, he is the great victor. Let us contemplate here the mystery that lies at the heart of the New Testament, which is at the same time its paradox: the Lord of the world is made the least, the Judge of the living and the dead is judged as an evildoer; he who is God is accused of blasphemy and rejected precisely in the name of God. All this happens because God has allowed it. By using this language, St John has a twofold objective: on the one hand, he offers the community a response to the scandal of the cross by providing arguments to Christians who were arguing bitterly with the Jews about the death of Christ. For the Jews it was clear that he was not the Messiah because it is written in Deuteronomy that "anyone condemned to death under the law, executed and hung on a tree, is a curse of God" (Deut 21:22). For Christians, on the other hand, in the light of the resurrection, his death is the work of God and the cross constitutes the place of the exaltation of the Son, as Jesus himself had announced: "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, you will know that 'I am'" (Jn 8:28). That is, you will recognise my divinity: "I Am" is exactly the name of God (Ex 3:14). In a condemned wretch the glory of God shines forth, and in John's vision the Lamb receives the same honours and acclamations as he who sits on the Throne. Secondly, with Revelation John wanted to support Christians in the hour of trial because on the cross Love conquered hatred and, after all, this is precisely the message of Revelation in support of persecuted Christians

*From the Gospel according to John (21, 1-19)

John specifies in this text the presence of seven apostles (21,2). Since the seven Churches of Revelation represent the whole Church, it can be assumed that the seven apostles indicate the disciples of all times, i.e. the whole Christian world. This chapter, as is often the case in the Fourth Gospel, is all symbolic. Let us look at just a few examples. 

1. When the boat touches the shore, despite the fact that the disciples find an embers fire with some fish and bread, Jesus asks them to bring the fish caught by them. Probably this is the message: in the work of evangelisation, since he called Peter "fisher of men", Jesus goes ahead of us (here is the fish already placed on the fire before the disciples arrive), but he always asks for our collaboration.

2. Another point is the dialogue between Jesus and Peter of which the Italian translation has tried to render in some way the subtlety of the Greek verb used for love. Commenting on verses 15-17 in the catechesis of 24 May 2006, Benedict XVI notes the use of the two verbs agapaō and phileō.  In Greek, phileō expresses the love of friendship, affectionate but not all-encompassing; agapaō, love without reserve. The first time Jesus asks Peter: "Simon... do you 'agapā̄s me'?" (21:15), i.e. "Do you love me with that total and unconditional love?", Peter however does not answer with agapaō but with phileō, saying: "Lord, I love you (phileō) as I know how to love". Jesus repeats the verb agapaō in the second question, but Peter insists with phileō. Finally, the third time, Jesus only asks "phileîs me?" and Simon understands that his poor love is enough for Jesus. One can say that Jesus adapted himself to Peter, rather than Peter to Jesus, and it is this adaptation of God that gives hope to the disciple, who has experienced the suffering of infidelity. As in the night between Thursday and Friday, Peter denied three times that he knew the man, now Jesus questions him three times: infinite delicacy to allow him to erase his threefold denial. Hence the confidence that will enable him to follow Christ to the end. 

3. Each time Jesus bases his demand on this adherence of Peter to entrust him with the ministry of shepherding the community: "Shepherd my sheep". Our relationship with Christ has meaning and truth if it fulfils a mission in the service of others. Jesus indeed specifies 'my' sheep: Peter is invited to share the 'burden' of Christ. He does not own the flock, but the care he devotes to Christ's flock will be the test of his love for Christ himself. When Jesus asks him if he loves me more than them, this is not to be understood as 'because you love me more than the others, I entrust the flock to you', but quite the opposite. Precisely because I entrust you with this task, you must love me more, and remember that in any ecclesial context, accepting a pastoral assignment entails a lot of gratuitous love. St Augustine comments: "If you love me, do not think that you are the shepherd; but shepherd my sheep as my own, not as your own."

4. We also have here an account of an apparition of the Risen One, but the term apparition should not mislead us because Jesus does not come from elsewhere and then disappear; on the contrary, he is permanently present with his disciples, with us as he had promised: "I am with you always, until the end of the world" (Mt 28:20). That is why it is better than apparition to use the term manifestation. Christ is Invisible, but not absent, and in the apparitions of then and of all times He makes Himself visible (in Greek: "He gives Himself to, He makes Himself seen"). These manifestations of Christ's presence are a support to strengthen our faith: full of concrete details, sometimes surprising, but with high symbolic value. 

5. What is the significance of the 153 fish? Apparently, exactly one hundred and fifty-three species of fish were known then. For St Eusebius of Caesarea, it is a symbolic way of indicating a maximum yield fishing. And later it becomes the theological symbol of the fullness of salvation wrought by Christ through the Church over the centuries that gathers all, Jews and Gentiles, into one faith.

NOTE: Chapter 20 of the Fourth Gospel concludes by saying that Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book because we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing we have life in his name (20:30-31). It is therefore a good ending and why chapter 21? For many it was added later, almost as a postscriptum to clarify the issue of Peter's pre-eminence, already felt in the early Christian communities. Put another way, Peter's role in an account of Christ's appearance under the pen of St John may come as a surprise, and this points to one of the problems of the early Christian communities. This is why it seemed useful to remind the community linked to the memory of John that, by Christ's will, the pastor of the universal Church is Peter and not John. "When thou art old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall clothe thee, and bring thee whither thou wilt not" (v.18), a phrase that immediately follows the delivery to Peter: "shepherd my sheep" and seems to clearly indicate that the mission entrusted to Peter is one of service and not of domination. At the time, the belt was worn by travellers and servants: here is a double sign for the itinerant servants of the gospel. Peter died faithful in the service of the gospel; this is why John explains: Jesus "said this to indicate by what death he would glorify God"(v.19) and this suggests that this chapter is after Peter's death (during Nero's persecution in 66 or 67). It is generally thought that John's gospel was written very late and some even speculate (starting with Jn 21:23-24) that the final draft was written after his own death.

+Giovanni D'Ercole

Bread of the Life. Mysticism of Vision and Faith

(Jn 6:35-40)

At the end of the first century, churches felt the risk of collapse. The obtuse gaze of the environment around the first fraternities tended to close the Mystery.

But contrary to the First Testament (Ex 33:22-23) by Faith one now ‘sees’ God ‘and’ lives, without fear (Ex 3:6).

He who «sees» the Son «has» the same Life as the Eternal (v.40).

The Vision of Faith, the Vision of the Son, the Vision of the glorious outcome of the One who was rejected by the religious authorities and considered accursed by God, makes one become One with Him.

It is resurrection today, even in the fast and heavy experience of dispersive existence.

The Image that was considered impossible and could not be held, gives way to a process of interpretation, action, rearrangement, which attracts the future.

It gives path to the completeness of God's humanizing and diverse world.

The shift in gaze breaks the web of appearances, of banal, inherited or à la page beliefs.

In short: ‘grasping’ Him becomes the engine of salvation, the foundation that surpasses the pre-human.

Perceiving Him becomes Encounter; in the proper and perennial dimension. Principle of blissful eternity.

According to believers in Jesus, the Source of full and indestructible life [«Life of the Eternal»: v.40 Greek text] is not material bread.

Already on this earth, for each one all-encompassing Food does not lie in any trivial certainty.

Rather, it’s necessary to «See the Son» (v.40): to grasp in the Master a story that does not end in failure.

Despite the rejection of the leaders, the outcome of His-our story is the indestructible Glory.

And «Believing in Him» ​​(v.40) does not depend on a shared cultural background or social standing, but on an unrepeatable elaboration.

‘Seeing’ and having Faith is to trust in the luminous [it seems absurd] Vision that is communicated in the most intimate fibres and from the very first 'Birth'. Certain of the full attunement and realisation in that super-eminent Figure.

It is a Faith-Vision that reads the meaning and enables direct appropriation: it flies over insurmountable obstacles.

A Faith-Gesture that gushes out, a Faith-Action that becomes a ferment of expansion, because it has already aroused acumen, global attention, intimate consensus.

We do not adhere because of enthusiasm or initiatives [the “Church of events”].

Life of the Eternal within us begins in the eye of the soul; an echo of primordial Dream.

It enters into grasping the Father's trajectory. He wants for His minimums a fullness of imprint and character, without conformity.

Only thanks to the Gift in which we recognize ourselves from our roots and in essence, we perceive joyful consonances that identify desires, words, actions and the journey’s type of the Risen One Himself, pulsating inside us.

The Person of Christ is the only Food without homologation.

Sustained by the Bread-Person we can avoid both the search for false security and the craving for supports, preferring Broken Bread.

The nourishment of the earth preserves physical life, but it cannot make us revive through uniques personal Genesis, nor open a way trough death.

This gives value to each moment.

To internalize and live the message:

What does it mean for you ‘to see’ the Son and ‘believe’ in Him?

[Wednesday 3rd wk. in Easter, May 7, 2025]

That which gives value to every moment

(Jn 6:35-40)

Jesus' words imply the clear dissimilarity between ordinary food and Bread that does not perish.

The distinction is taken from Deut 8:3 - with reference to the Manna-Word of the Lord (wisdom food that liberates and imparts life).

Wis 16:20-21, 26 recognises the manna of the wilderness to be food prepared by angels, but what really keeps one alive is the Word.

Those heavenly fruits, though delicious and able to satisfy every taste, do not satiate - they do not nourish completely.

Cultural paradigms that identified manna with wisdom also enter into the symbolic language used by Christ.

He thus reveals himself in the discourse on the Bread of Life.

Coming to the Lord is not within our reach. Doing the works of the law, perhaps yes - with effort - but doing the Work of God is not unnatural.

It does not depend on a thought, a choice or a disciplinary practice.

In short, the Subject of the walk in the Spirit is God Himself, working in us. 

Human action is at every juncture a response to his self-revelation and his own action [cosmic and in one's soul; convergent or not].

The Coming from above is critical: it arouses the relationship of Faith. Personal relationship, which is not mere assent and fulfilment, but reading and seeing.

Forward action and the discovery of resurrection - in particular, of shadow sides that become resources.

Thus Faith-love expands life, because it has its input from divine generosity, from Grace.

It thus becomes decision, occupation, responsibility; inescapable and diriment duty - despite this, personal.

Christ is Food that must be eaten, minced, by means of Faith.

The evocation becomes Eucharistic, realisation of the "Life of the Eternal" (v.40 Greek text), even apart from sought-after manners; here and now.

By dying, without any delay Jesus delivers the Spirit (Jn 19:30) that suddenly arouses the sacramental experience (Jn 19:34).

The Life of the Eternal is not a pious hope in the afterlife: the term designates God's own intimate life, which unfolds and bursts into history [sometimes unceremoniously] in a multifaceted manner.

Energy, Food, New Lucidity: it reaches women and men who see and believe in the Son.

It is a Faith-Vision that reads the meaning, and enables direct appropriation: it overcomes insurmountable obstacles.

A Faith-Gesture that gushes forth; a Faith-Action that becomes a ferment of dilation, because it has already aroused acumen, global attention, and intimate consent.

It sharpens and expands the transformative resources of souls and events themselves.

It bestows in the first person overall generative abilities - external and internal, indestructible; which lose nothing [no longer doomed to death: v.39].

The dull gaze around the first fraternities already sealed the Mystery.

But contrary to the First Testament (Ex 33:22-23), by Faith one now sees God and lives, without fear (Ex 3:6).

He who "sees" the Son "has" the same Life as the Eternal (v.40).

The Vision of Faith, the Vision of the Son, the Vision of the glorious outcome of the one who was rejected by the religious authorities and considered cursed by God, makes one become One with Him.

It is actual resurrection, even in the swift and heavy experience of dispersive existence.

The Image considered impossible and which could not be held, gives way to a process of interpretation, action, rearrangement, which attracts future.

It gives way to the completeness of God's humanising and different world.

The shift of gaze breaks the web of appearances, of banal, inherited or à la page convictions.

In short: perceiving Him becomes an engine of salvation, a foundation that surpasses the pre-human.

Perceiving it becomes Encounter; in its own and perennial dimension. Principle of blissful eternity.

At the end of the first century, the churches feel the risk of collapse.

The gradual departure from pagan religion in general, and Judaizing devotion in particular, entailed a wide-ranging debate with customary and internal, even liturgical implications.

The battle with Pharisaic purism sparked all kinds of controversies, even about whether or not foreigners should be segregated.

Differences of opinion even arose over the canon of Scripture itself (for Christians, already long since in Hellenistic Greek).

According to believers in Jesus, the Source of full and indestructible life ["Life of the Eternal": v.40 Greek text] is not material bread.

Already on this earth, the all-embracing Food does not lie in any trivial certainty.

One must rather "See the Son" (v.40).

It means grasping in the Master a story that does not end in failure, because despite the rejection of the leaders, the outcome of his-our story is the divine condition. Indestructible glory.

And "Believing in Him" (v.40) does not depend on cultural background or social position, but on an unrepeatable elaboration.To see and have Faith is to trust in the luminous [seemingly absurd] Vision that is communicated in the most intimate fibres and from the very first 'Birth'. Certain of full harmony and realisation in that sovereign Figure.

We do not adhere out of enthusiasm or initiative [the "Church of events", as Pope Francis says].

The life of the Eternal in us begins in the eye of the soul; an echo of the primordial Dream.

It comes in grasping the Father's trajectory. He wants for His least ones a fullness of imprint and character, without conformity.

Only thanks to the Gift in which we recognise ourselves from our roots and in essence, do we perceive joyful consonances that identify desires, words, actions and the kind of path of the Risen One Himself, pulsating within us.

The Person of Christ is the only Food without homologation.

Supported by the Father-Person, we can avoid both the search for false security and the craving for support. E.g. acquaintances, financial backers, notable institutions that guarantee privileges; and so on.

He prefers the broken Bread.

The nourishment of the earth preserves physical life, but cannot revive us through unique personal Genesis, nor open a way through death.

This gives value to every moment.

To internalise and live the message:

What does it mean for you to see the Son and believe in Him?

Do not project onto God the image of the servant-master relationship

The multiplication of the loaves and fishes is a sign of the great gift that the Father has given to humanity and that is Jesus himself!

He, the true "bread of life" (v. 35), wants to satiate not only bodies but also souls, giving the spiritual food that can satisfy a deep hunger. This is why he invites the crowd to get not the food that does not last, but the food that remains for eternal life (cf. v. 27). It is a food that Jesus gives us every day: his Word, his Body, his Blood. The crowd listens to the Lord's invitation, but does not understand its meaning - as happens so often to us too - and asks him: "What must we do to do the works of God?" (v. 28). Jesus' listeners think that He asks them to observe the precepts in order to obtain other miracles such as the multiplication of the loaves. It is a common temptation, this, to reduce religion only to the practice of laws, projecting onto our relationship with God the image of the relationship between servants and their master: servants must perform the tasks the master has assigned, in order to have his benevolence. This we all know. So the crowd wants to know from Jesus what actions they must do to please God. But Jesus gives an unexpected answer: "This is the work of God: that you believe in him whom he has sent" (v. 29). These words are also addressed to us today: God's work does not consist so much in 'doing' things, but in 'believing' in Him whom He has sent. This means that faith in Jesus enables us to do the works of God. If we allow ourselves to be involved in this relationship of love and trust with Jesus, we will be able to do good works that smell of the Gospel, for the good and needs of our brothers and sisters.

The Lord invites us not to forget that if it is necessary to worry about bread, it is even more important to cultivate a relationship with Him, to strengthen our faith in Him who is the "bread of life", who came to satisfy our hunger for truth, our hunger for justice, our hunger for love.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 5 August 2018].

The Gospel that has been proclaimed at this celebration helps us to live more intensely the sad moment of our Brother's departure from earthly life. Our sorrow at losing him is mitigated by hope in the Resurrection, based on the very words of Jesus:  "For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day" (Jn 6: 40). In the face of the mystery of death, for the person who has no faith everything would seem to be irreparably lost. It is then Christ's word that lights up life's journey and gives every moment of it value. Jesus Christ is the Lord of life, he came to raise on the last day all that the Father gave him (cf. Jn 6: 39). This is also the message that Peter proclaims very forcefully on the Day of Pentecost (cf. Acts 2: 14, 22b-28). He shows that death could not hold Jesus back. God freed him from anguish because it was not possible for him to be held in its power. On the Cross Christ won the victory that was to be made manifest with his triumph over death, namely, his Resurrection.

[Pope Benedict, funeral homily Cardinal Poggi 7 May 2010]

Jesus links belief in the resurrection to his own person: “I am the Resurrection and the Life” (Jn 11:25). In him, through the mystery of his Death and Resurrection, the divine promise of the gift of “eternal life” is fulfilled. This life implies total victory over death: “The hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear the voice [of the Son] and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life ...” (Jn 5:28-29). “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn 6:40).

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 28 October 1998]

He exhorts: “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you” (v. 27). That is to say, seek salvation, the encounter with God.

With these words, he seeks to make us understand that, in addition to physical hunger man carries within him another hunger — all of us have this hunger — a more important hunger, which cannot be satisfied with ordinary food. It is a hunger for life, a hunger for eternity which He alone can satisfy, as he is “the bread of life” (v. 35). Jesus does not eliminate the concern and search for daily food. No, he does not remove the concern for all that can make life more progressive. But Jesus reminds us that the true meaning of our earthly existence lies at the end, in eternity, it lies in the encounter with Him, who is gift and giver. He also reminds us that human history with its suffering and joy must be seen in a horizon of eternity, that is, in that horizon of the definitive encounter with Him. And this encounter illuminates all the days of our life. If we think of this encounter, of this great gift, the small gifts of life, even the suffering, the worries will be illuminated by the hope of this encounter. “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst” (v. 35). This refers to the Eucharist, the greatest gift that satisfies the soul and the body. Meeting and welcoming within us Jesus, “Bread of Life”, gives meaning and hope to the often winding journey of life. This “Bread of Life” is given to us with a task, namely, that we in our turn satisfy the spiritual and material hunger of our brothers, proclaiming the Gospel the world over. With the witness of our brotherly and solidary attitude toward our neighbour, we render Christ and his love present amid mankind.

May the Blessed Virgin sustain us in the search and sequela of her Son Jesus, the true bread, the living bread which does not spoil, but which endures for eternal life.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 2 August 2015]

(Jn 6:30-35)

What the term «Bread» used by Jesus in this pericope alludes to is derived from the Hebrew term «Lechem», whose root [consonants «l-h-m»] evokes his «being ground» and «sifted» in the Passion of love; thus, it relates in filigree to the complete gift on the Cross.

According to a Jewish belief, the coming of the Messiah would be accompanied by a shower of Manna from heaven - called Manna of the Second Redeemer - to satisfy material appetites.

Bread that does not last.

There were also rabbinic speculations that reflected other claims, not of physical necessity; and they told of the «bread» descended from above in a sapiential figure (Deut 8:3: «man does not live by bread alone, but by what comes from the mouth of the Lord»; cf. Wis 16:26).

In order to satisfy existential needs and great questions of meaning, Jesus reveals and presents Himself as the indestructible Bread of Life.

There are questions we cannot answer: why the pain and humiliation, why there are fortunate people and others who through no fault of their own live unhappily; for what great task we were born and why despite the comforts we still do not feel fulfilled.

Our experience is as if shrouded in the confusion of underlying questions... and often lacking even the eye and warmth of a Witness.

So we look for a Person who translates everything into Relation, and we long for his sapiential Food - a foundation, the humanising warmth, and a synthesis of all truth, of all history.

Only Jesus and his story give meaning to the many happenings; also to limits, wounds, boundaries, precariousness.

He is Dream, Meaning, Action and Voice of the Father. Key, Centre and Destination of each one and of humanity. The only Food for the 'hunger' and the only Source for the 'thirst' of the woman and man subjected to trials and questions.

In Jesus' time, by widespread devotion Moses continued to be the great leader to believe and adhere to. But according to the Lord, that of the Exodus of the "fathers" is configured as a proposal that has no future: it does not guarantee orientation, subsistence and a joyful, solid and full life.

It does not even remain as a stump of the now. It is only an archaic seed, a particular excrescence undone in favour of the mystical and renewed Wheat that makes one proceed on the authentic Path.

The pious and inactual custom - with all its labours - had not secured the great change: access to the 'land of the free'.

The Gift from Heaven prepared and arranged another Birth, upsetting from the root the light, tedious and insipid nourishment; whatever, for all seasons.

No reassuring recipe comes our way, because the 'second Genesis' and growth in the Spirit has character, but it does not happen once and for all.

Even the wounds and uncertainties of life become a 'call' to feed on the Person of Christ. But reinterpreting Him with new answers to new questions; to generate again and grow in Him and of Him.

So we are in the episodes, yet out of time; in the Love that is born, yet new.

We can experience the taste of living, instead of the condemnation of always feeling undermined.

For this spousal and ever-new union, the immense scope of his Person minced, ruminated, made one's own as one does with food, becomes Life itself of the Eternal (v.33).

Anointing that does not lapse, that calls us together to Concelebrate.

[Tuesday 3rd wk. in Easter, May 6, 2025]