Creating abundance where there is none

(Lk 9:43b-45)

«Son of man» (v.44) is he who, having gone to the utmost human fullness, comes to reflect the divine condition - and radiates it, without narrow perspectives.

‘Son of man’ is the successful Son: the Person with a definitive step; Word made «brother», who in us aspires to the fullness spread throughout history.

It would seem not up to par; instead, it is indestructible weighing, inside each one who approaches such a ‘measure’ - encountering the divine markings that bring out who we are [and bring about rebirth].

In the Gospel passage it’s the Messiah who becomes a servant (!) and «next of kin» [close relative]: the one who in Semitic culture was held to ransom and liberate his enslaved family members.

However, there is a sharp contrast between what people dream and hope for, and the opinion of the authorities, challenged by this atmosphere of humanization with too wide outlines.

Since time immemorial, in order to block the search for the You-for-you, the face-to-face with God [and to direct consciences], the leaders concerned had filled minds with things of the past, or all conformist, and people's lives with problems that stalled the way.

The slave of the ancient customary religion, allied with power, lived under condemnation because he was outside his Home, thus in a reality that stagnated, accentuating ballasts and emphasizing limitations and feelings of subservience.

By disturbing everyone’s life wave.

In this way, the dull soul submitted to the outer cloak, blocking spontaneous energy. Wrapping all proposals that came from Providence, and its own resources, with dead things.

«Son of Man» is not a "religious" or selective title, but a possibility for all those who adhere to the Lord’s life proposal, and reinterpret it in a creative way.

They transcend the firm, natural boundaries, making room for the Gift, receiving from God the fullness of being, in its new, unrepeatable tracks.

Feeling totally and undeservedly loved, they discover other facets, they change the way of being with themselves, and can grow, realize themselves, flourish, radiating the completeness they have received.

By emanating a different atmosphere, the person integrated in his or her even opposite sides, feels consciousnesses arise, creates projects, emits and attracts other energies; makes them activate.

Thus God wants to extend the sphere in which He "reigns" - relating to all humanity, a Church without visible boundaries.

In short, in the icon of the «Son of man» the evangelists want to indicate the triumph of the human over the inhuman, and the progressive disappearance of everything that blocks the communication of the vital wave.

The People that shines in a divine way is no longer entangled, indeed it brings to the maximum all its varied potential for love, for the outpouring of life.

«Son of man» - a possible reality - is anyone who achieves fullness, flowering of the ability to be, in the extension of relationships... in tune with the sphere of God the Creator, Lover of life.

He/she does it so in varied facets, and merges with Him - becoming One. By creating abundance.

«Son of man» is woman or man who behave on earth as God himself would do, who makes the divine and his strength present in history.

So they can afford to replace both gloomy seriousness and superficiality, with a wise ‘carefreeness’ that makes everything light.

«Son of Man» represents the maximum of the human, the Person par excellence, who becomes liberating instead of oppressive.

The consequences are unimaginable, because each of us in Christ and for the brothers no longer has dead, abstract, (or of others) paths to be redone.

[Saturday 25th wk. in O.T.  September 28, 2024]

Creating abundance where there is none

(Lk 9:43b-45)

'Son of God' is Christ who manifests God in the human condition. 'Son of man' is Jesus manifesting man in the divine condition.

'Son of man' (v.44) is the one who, having gone to the utmost human fullness, comes to reflect the divine condition - and radiates it, without narrow perspectives.

In short, 'Son of Man' is the trustworthy, authentic person; even the 'little one' - without even a legacy of just and invariable ideas, or forces of the same level, and always performing.

"Son of Man" is here the successful Son: the Person with the definitive step. Word made "brother", who in us aspires to the fullness spread throughout history.

It would seem to fall short; instead, it is indestructible charature, within each one who approaches such 'measure' - encountering the divine marks that bring out what we are [and are born again].

In the Gospel passage, it is the Messiah who becomes a servant (!) and becomes the 'next of kin': the one who in Semitic culture was held to ransom and liberate his enslaved kin.

There is, however, a sharp contrast between what the people dream and hope for, and the opinion of the authorities, who are challenged by this atmosphere of humanisation with its overly broad contours.

Established and official teachers of the spirit were at ease in the narrow sphere: accentuating guilt, disfiguring people; making them needy, childish - instead of adult, secure, emancipated.

Even the religious institution trembled: the divine condition diffused in the lives of women and men made autonomous and able to stand on their own two feet would make any mediating structure superfluous.

Since time immemorial, in order to block the search for the You-for-you, the face-to-face with God [and to direct consciences], the leaders concerned had filled minds with things of the past, or all conformist, and people's lives with problems that stalled the way.

The slave of the customary ancient religion, allied with power, lived under condemnation, because it was outside its home. In a reality that stagnated, or advanced in a severely moralistic manner.

Such confusion stranded souls - even more so by accentuating ballasts, emphasising limitations, and feelings of subservience. Disturbing the life-wave of each one.

The logic of the old masters was unacceptable, both from the point of view of personal fulfilment and for living together.

In any sphere, the criterion of the self-loving big-wigs was in force.

Everything was in accordance with the principle that he who stands still is best controlled, stays where you put him, and cannot have passions; therefore he does not set anything in motion. 

Under the enormous social conditioning, the dull soul was forced to submit to the outer cloak, which willingly blocked the spontaneous energy of souls, and of the world.

Even today, perhaps, there are still agencies of plagiarism that cloak all the proposals of Providence, and the very resources of women and men, or of charisma, with things already dead or abstract [mannered, external].

The true Son, on the other hand, conquers spaces of freedom, not so much from errors, as from egoism that annihilates communion, from self-love that refuses to listen, from standardisation that cancels uniqueness, from conformism that makes exceptionalism pale, from envy that separates and blocks the exchange of gifts, from competition, even spiritual competition that drugs us; from the sloth of those who believe they are not worth enough, which discourages and paralyses.

'Son of Man' is therefore not a 'religious' or selective title, but a possibility for all those who adhere to the Lord's proposal of life, and reinterpret it creatively.

They overcome the firm and proper natural boundaries, making room for the Gift; welcoming from God the fullness of being, in his new, unrepeatable tracks.

Feeling totally and undeservedly loved, they discover other facets, change the way they are with themselves, and can grow: they realise themselves, they flourish; they radiate the wholeness they have received.

Coming out of the poor or static idea we have of ourselves - a serious problem in many sensitive and dedicated souls - the relational personality can also begin to imagine.

And to dream, discovering that it can no longer give weight to those who want to condition its path as a person, in fullness of being, character, vocation.

He who activates the idea that he can do it, then transmits the power of the Spirit he has received and welcomed, and the universe around him blossoms.

Emanating a different atmosphere, the person integrated in his or her even opposite sides, feels consciousnesses arise, creates projects, emits and attracts other energies; makes them activate.

By relating interpersonally, God wants to extend the sphere in which he "reigns" - to all mankind.

Church without visible boundaries, which will begin with the 'Son of Man'. A figure not exclusive to Jesus.Son of David and Son of Man

This universalistic perspective emerges, inter alia, from the presentation Jesus made of himself not only as "Son of David", but as "Son of Man" (Mk 10:33). 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 character 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, Consistory 24 November 2012].

With the image of the Son of Man, the prophet Daniel already wanted to indicate an overturning of the criteria of human and divine authenticity: a man or a people, a leader, finally with a heart of flesh instead of a beast.

In the icon of the 'Son of Man', the evangelists wish to reveal and trigger the triumph of the human over the inhuman; the progressive disappearance of everything that blocks the communication of full existence, of totality of profound energy.

The divinely shining people are no longer entangled by fears, manipulations, or hysteria; on the contrary, they bring to the full all their varied potential of love, of outpouring of life.

The 'Son of Man' - a possible reality - is anyone who achieves completeness, the blossoming of the capacity to be, in the extension of relationships. With this, he enters into harmony with the sphere of God the Creator, the Lover of life.

It does so in its varied facets, and merges with Him - becoming One. Creating abundance; not a false identity.

"The 'Son of Man' is the man who behaves on earth as God himself would; in short, who makes the divine present and its power unfolded in history.

So he can afford to replace the gloomy seriousness of the pious and subservient being, or the superficiality of the sophisticated and disembodied, with the wise 'light-heartedness' that makes everything light [because it rhymes with naturalness].

'Son of Man' depicts the ultimate human, the Person par excellence - in its eminent Self, which becomes liberating instead of oppressive.

The consequences are unimaginable, because each one of us in Christ and for our brothers and sisters, no longer has dead, abstract, or other people's paths to tread.

To internalise and live the message:

How does the 'Son of Man' figure speak to you of your own personal thoughts and hopes, and what is the difference or contrast with the thoughts and hopes of the manipulators?

Jesus' prayer in the imminence of death - Lk

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

At our school of prayer last Wednesday I spoke of Jesus’ prayer on the Cross, taken from Psalm 22[21]: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”. I would now like to continue to meditate on the prayer of Jesus on the Cross in the imminence of death. Today, I would like to reflect on the account we find in St Luke’s Gospel. The Evangelist has passed down to us three words spoken by Jesus on the Cross, two of which — the first and the third— are prayers explicitly addressed to the Father. The second, instead, consists of the promise made to the so-called “good thief”, crucified with him; indeed, in response to the thief’s entreaty, Jesus reassures him: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23:43).

Thus in Luke’s narrative the two prayers that the dying Jesus addresses to the Father and his openness to the supplication addressed to him by the repentant sinner are evocatively interwoven. Jesus calls on the Father and at the same time listens to the prayer of this man who is often called latro poenitens, “the repentant thief”.

Let us reflect on these three prayers of Jesus. He prays the first one immediately after being nailed to the Cross, while the soldiers are dividing his garments between them as a wretched reward for their service. In a certain sense the process of the Crucifixion ends with this action. St Luke writes: “When they came to the place which is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’. And they cast lots and to divide his garments” (23:33-34).

The first prayer that Jesus addresses to the Father is a prayer of intercession; he asks for forgiveness for his executioners. By so doing, Jesus is doing in person what he had taught in the Sermon on the Mount when he said: “I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Lk 6:27); and he had also promised to those who are able to forgive: “your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High” (v. 35). Now, from the Cross he not only pardons his executioners but he addresses the Father directly, interceding for them.

Jesus’ attitude finds a moving “imitation” in the account of the stoning of St Stephen, the first martyr. Indeed Stephen, now nearing his end, “knelt down and cried with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’. And when he had said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:60): these were his last words. The comparison between Jesus’ prayer for forgiveness and that of the protomartyr is significant. St Stephen turns to the Risen Lord and requests that his killing — an action described clearly by the words “this sin” — not be held against those who stoned him.

Jesus on the Cross addresses the Father and not only asks forgiveness for those who crucify him but also offers an interpretation of what is happening. According to what he says, in fact, the men who are crucifying him “know not what they do” (Lk 23:34). He therefore postulates ignorance, “not knowing”, as a reason for his request for the Father’s forgiveness, because it leaves the door open to conversion, as, moreover, happens in the words that the centurion was to speak at Jesus’ death: “Certainly this man was innocent” (v. 47), he was the Son of God. “It remains a source of comfort for all times and for all people that both in the case of those who genuinely did not know (his executioners) and in the case of those who did know (the people who condemned him), the Lord makes ignorance the motive for his plea for forgiveness: he sees it as a door that can open us to conversion” (Jesus of Nazareth, II, [San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2011], p. 208).

The second word spoken by Jesus on the Cross recorded by St Luke is a word of hope, it is his answer to the prayer of one of the two men crucified with him. The good thief comes to his senses before Jesus and repents, he realizes he is facing the Son of God who makes the very Face of God visible, and begs him; “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingly power” (v. 42). The Lord’s answer to this prayer goes far beyond the request: in fact he says: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (v. 43). Jesus knows that he is entering into direct communion with the Father and reopening to man the way to God’s paradise. Thus, with this response, he gives the firm hope that God’s goodness can also touch us, even at the very last moment of life, and that sincere prayer, even after a wrong life, encounters the open arms of the good Father who awaits the return of his son.

However, let us consider the last words of Jesus dying. The Evangelists tells us: “it was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’. And having said this he breathed his last” (vv. 44-46).

Certain aspects of this narrative differ from the scene as described in Mark and in Matthew. The three hours of darkness in Mark are not described, whereas in Matthew they are linked with a series of different apocalyptic events such as the quaking of the earth, the opening of the tombs, the dead who are raised (cf. Mt 27:51-53). In Luke, the hours of darkness are caused by the eclipse of the sun, but the veil of the temple is torn at that moment. In this way Luke’s account presents two signs, in a certain way parallel, in the heavens and in the temple. The heavens lose their light, the earth sinks while in the temple, a place of God’s presence, the curtain that protects the sanctuary is rent in two. Jesus’ death is characterized explicitly as a cosmic and a liturgical event; in particular, it marks the beginning of a new form of worship, in a temple not built by men because it is the very Body of Jesus who died and rose which gathers peoples together and unites them in the sacrament of his Body and his Blood.

At this moment of suffering Jesus’ prayer, “Father into your hands I commit my spirit”, is a loud cry of supreme and total entrustment to God. This prayer expresses the full awareness that he had not been abandoned. The initial invocation — “Father” — recalls his first declaration as a 12-year-old boy. At that time he had stayed for three days in the Temple of Jerusalem, whose veil was now torn in two. And when his parents had told him of their anxiety, he had answered: “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Lk 2:49).

From the beginning to the end, what fully determines Jesus’ feelings, words and actions, is his unique relationship with the Father. On the Cross he lives to the full, in love, this filial relationship he has with God which gives life to his prayer.

The words spoken by Jesus after his invocation, “Father”, borrow a sentence from Psalm 31[30]: “into your hand I commit my spirit” (Ps 31[30]:6). Yet these words are not a mere citation but rather express a firm decision: Jesus “delivers” himself to the Father in an act of total abandonment. These words are a prayer of “entrustment” total trust in God’s love. Jesus’ prayer as he faces death is dramatic as it is for every human being but, at the same time, it is imbued with that deep calmness that is born from trust in the Father and from the desire to commend oneself totally to him.

In Gethsemane, when he had begun his final struggle and his most intense prayer and was about to be “delivered into the hands of men” (Lk 9:44), his sweat had become “like great drops of blood falling down upon the ground” (Lk 22:44). Nevertheless his heart was fully obedient to the Father’s will, and because of this “an angel from heaven” came to strengthen him (cf. Lk 22:42-43). Now, in his last moments, Jesus turns to the Father, telling him into whose hands he really commits his whole life.

Before starting out on his journey towards Jerusalem, Jesus had insisted to his disciples: “Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of man is to be delivered into the hands of men” (Lk 9:44).

Now that life is about to depart from him, he seals his last decision in prayer: Jesus let himself be delivered “into the hands of men”, but it is into the hands of the Father that he places his spirit; thus — as the Evangelist John affirms — all was finished, the supreme act of love was carried to the end, to the limit and beyond the limit.

Dear brothers and sisters, the words of Jesus on the Cross at the last moments of his earthly life offer us demanding instructions for our prayers, but they also open us to serene trust and firm hope. Jesus, who asks the Father to forgive those who are crucifying him, invites us to take the difficult step of also praying for those who wrong us, who have injured us, ever able to forgive, so that God’s light may illuminate their hearts; and he invites us to live in our prayers the same attitude of mercy and love with which God treats us; “forgive us our trespasses and forgive those who trespass against us”, we say every day in the Lord’s prayer.

At the same time, Jesus, who at the supreme moment of death entrusts himself totally to the hands of God the Father, communicates to us the certainty that, however harsh the trial, however difficult the problems, however acute the suffering may be, we shall never fall from God’s hands, those hands that created us, that sustain us and that accompany us on our way through life, because they are guided by an infinite and faithful love.

[Pope Benedict, General Audience 15 February 2012]

1. Jesus Christ, Son of Man and God: this is the culminating theme of our catechesis on the identity of the Messiah. It is the fundamental truth of Christian revelation and faith: the humanity and divinity of Christ on which we shall have to reflect more fully later. For now, we would like to complete our analysis of the messianic titles already present in some way in the Old Testament and see in what sense Jesus attributes them to himself.

As for the title "Son of Man", it is significant that Jesus used it frequently when speaking of himself, while it is the others who call him "Son of God", as we shall see in the next catechesis. Instead, he called himself "Son of Man", whereas no one else called him that, except the deacon Stephen before the stoning (Acts 7:56) and the author of the Apocalypse in two texts (Acts 1:13; 14:14).

2. The title "Son of Man" comes from the Old Testament from the Book of the Prophet Daniel. Here is the text describing a night vision of the prophet: "Looking again in the night visions, behold, there appeared in the clouds of heaven one like a son of man; he came and was presented to him, who gave him power and glory and a kingdom; all peoples, nations and languages served him; his power is an everlasting power, which never fades, and his kingdom is such that it will never be destroyed" (Dan 7:13-14).

And when the prophet asks for an explanation of this vision, he receives the following answer: "The saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess it for ever and ever . . . then the kingdom and the power and the greatness of all the kingdoms that are under heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High" (Dan 7:18, 27). The text of Daniel is about an individual person and the people. We note immediately that what refers to the person of the Son of Man is found in the words of the angel in the annunciation to Mary: "he will reign forever . . . and his kingdom will have no end" (Lk 1:33).

3. When Jesus calls himself 'Son of Man' he uses an expression from the canonical tradition of the Old Testament and also found in the Jewish apocrypha. It should be noted, however, that the expression "Son of Man" (ben-adam) had become in the Aramaic of Jesus' time an expression simply indicating "man" ("bar-enas"). Jesus, therefore, by calling himself "son of man", almost succeeded in hiding behind the veil of common meaning the messianic significance the word had in prophetic teaching. It is no coincidence, however, that if utterances about the "Son of Man" appear especially in the context of Christ's earthly life and passion, there is also no lack of them in reference to his eschatological elevation.

4. In the context of the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth, we find texts such as: "The foxes have their dens and the birds of the air their nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" (Matthew 8: 20); or also: "The Son of Man has come, who eats and drinks, and they say, Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of publicans and sinners" (Matthew 11: 19). At other times the word of Jesus takes on a value more strongly indicative of his power. Thus when he says: 'The Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath' (Mk 2:28). On the occasion of the healing of the paralytic lowered through an opening in the roof he states in an almost defiant tone: 'Now, so that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, I command you,' he said to the paralytic, 'get up, take up your bed and go home' (Mk 2:10-11). Elsewhere Jesus declares: "For as Jonah was a sign to those in Nineveh, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation" (Lk 11:30). On another occasion it is a vision shrouded in mystery: "A time will come when you will long to see even one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see him" (Lk 17:22).

5. Some theologians note an interesting parallelism between the prophecy of Ezekiel and the utterances of Jesus. The prophet writes: "(God) said to me: 'Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites . . . who have turned against me . . Thou shalt say to them, 'Says the Lord God'" (Ez 2:3-4). "Son of man, you dwell among a race of rebels, who have eyes to see and do not see, have ears to hear and do not hear . . ." (Ez 12:2) "You, son of man . . . keep your eyes fixed on it (Jerusalem) which will be besieged . . . and you will prophesy against it" (Ez 4:1-7). "Son of man, prophesy a riddle telling a parable to the Israelites" (Ez 17:2).

Echoing the words of the prophet, Jesus teaches: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost" (Lk 19:10). "For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk 10:45; cf. also Mt 20:28). The "Son of Man" . . . "when he comes in the glory of the Father", will be ashamed of those who were ashamed of him and his words before men (cf. Mk 8:38).

6. The identity of the Son of Man appears in the dual aspect of representative of God, herald of the kingdom of God, prophet calling to conversion. On the other hand, he is the "representative" of men, whose earthly condition and sufferings he shares in order to redeem and save them according to the Father's plan. As he himself says in his conversation with Nicodemus: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life" (Jn 3:14-15).

It is a clear proclamation of the passion, which Jesus repeats: "And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly, and be reproved by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and then be killed, and after three days rise again" (Mk 8:31). Three times in Mark's Gospel (cf. Mk 9:31; 10:33-34) and in each of them Jesus speaks of himself as the "Son of Man".

7. By the same appellation Jesus defines himself before the tribunal of Caiaphas, when to the question: "Are you the Christ, the blessed Son of God?" he replies: "I am! And you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven" (Mk 14:62). In these few words echoes Daniel's prophecy about the "Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven" (Dan 7:13) and Psalm 110 that sees the Lord seated at the right hand of God (cf. Ps 110:1).

8. Repeatedly Jesus speaks of the elevation of the "Son of Man", but he does not hide from his listeners that it includes the humiliation of the cross. To the objections and incredulity of the people and disciples, who well understood the magic of his allusions and yet asked him: "How then do you say that the Son of Man must be elevated? Who is this Son of Man?" (Jn 12:34), Jesus asserts: "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am and do nothing of myself, but as the Father has taught me" (Jn 8:28). Jesus states that his "elevation" by the cross will constitute his glorification. Shortly afterwards he will add: "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified" (John 12: 23). It is significant that at Judas' departure from the Upper Room, Jesus says "now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God also has been glorified in him" (Jn 13:31).

9. This constitutes the content of life, passion, death and glory of which the prophet Daniel had offered a pale sketch. Jesus does not hesitate to also apply to himself the character of an eternal and everlasting kingdom that Daniel had assigned to the work of the Son of Man, when he proclaims to the world: "Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory" (Mk 13:26; cf. Mt 24:30). It is in this eschatological perspective that the Church's work of evangelisation must take place. He warns: "You will not have finished going through the city of Israel before the Son of Man comes" (Mt 10:23). And he asks: "But will the Son of Man, when he comes, find faith on earth?" (Lk 18:8).

10. If, as the "Son of Man", Jesus realised by his life, passion, death and resurrection, the messianic plan outlined in the Old Testament, at the same time he assumes by that same name his place among men as a true man, as the son of a woman, Mary of Nazareth. Through this woman, his Mother, he, the 'Son of God', is at the same time the 'Son of man', a true man, as the Letter to the Hebrews attests: 'He became truly one of us, in all things like us except sin' (Heb 4:5; cf. Gaudium et Spes, 22).

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 29 April 1987]

Making "the sign of the cross" distractedly and flaunting "the symbol of Christians" as if it were "the badge of a team" or "an ornament", perhaps with "precious stones, jewels and gold", has nothing to do with "the mystery" of Christ. So much so that Pope Francis suggested an examination of conscience precisely on the cross, to verify how each of us carries the only true "instrument of salvation" in our daily lives. Here are the lines of reflection that the Pontiff proposed in the Mass celebrated Tuesday morning, 4 April, at Santa Marta.

"It attracts attention," he immediately pointed out, referring to the passage from the evangelist John (8, 21-30), "that in this brief passage of the Gospel three times Jesus says to the doctors of the law, to the scribes, to some Pharisees: 'You will die in your sins'". He repeats this "three times". And "he says this," he added, "because they did not understand the mystery of Jesus, because their hearts were closed and they were not able to open a little, to try to understand that mystery that was the Lord". In fact, the Pope explained, 'to die in one's sin is an ugly thing: it means that everything ends there, in the filth of sin'.

But then "this dialogue - in which three times Jesus repeats 'you will die in your sins' - continues and, at the end, Jesus looks back at the history of salvation and reminds them of something: 'When you have raised up the son of man, then you will know that I am and that I do nothing of myself'". The Lord says precisely: "when you have lifted up the son of man".

With these words - said the Pontiff, referring to the passage from the book of Numbers (21, 4-9) - "Jesus brings to mind what happened in the desert and what we heard in the first reading". It is the moment when "the bored people, the people who cannot endure the journey, turn away from the Lord, spit on Moses and the Lord, and find those snakes that bite and cause death". Then "the Lord tells Moses to make a bronze serpent and raise it up, and the person who suffers a wound from the serpent, and who looks at the bronze one, will be healed".

"The serpent," the Pope continued, "is the symbol of the evil one, it is the symbol of the devil: it was the most cunning of animals in the earthly paradise. Because "the serpent is the one who is capable of seducing with lies", he is "the father of lies: this is the mystery". But then "must we look to the devil to save us? The serpent is the father of sin, the one who made mankind sin". In reality, "Jesus says: 'When I am lifted up on high, all will come to me'. Obviously this is the mystery of the cross".

"The bronze serpent healed," Francis said, "but the bronze serpent was a sign of two things: of the sin made by the serpent, of the serpent's seduction, of the serpent's cunning; and also it was a sign of the cross of Christ, it was a prophecy. And "for this reason the Lord says to them: 'When you have lifted up the son of man, then you will know that I am'". So we can say, said the Pope, that "Jesus 'became a serpent', Jesus 'became sin' and took upon himself the filth all of humanity, the filth all of sin. And he "became sin", he made himself lifted up so that all people could look upon him, people wounded by sin, us. This is the mystery of the cross and Paul says it: 'He became sin' and took on the appearance of the father of sin, the cunning serpent'.

"Whoever did not look upon the bronze serpent after being wounded by a serpent in the desert," the Pontiff explained, "died in sin, the sin of murmuring against God and against Moses". In the same way, 'whoever does not recognise in that uplifted man, like the serpent, the power of God who became sin in order to heal us, will die in his own sin'. Because 'salvation comes only from the cross, but from this cross that is God made flesh: there is no salvation in ideas, there is no salvation in good will, in the desire to be good'. In reality, the Pope insisted, "the only salvation is in Christ crucified, because only he, as the bronze serpent meant, was able to take all the poison of sin and healed us there".

"But what is the cross for us?" is the question posed by Francis. "Yes, it is the sign of Christians, it is the symbol of Christians, and we make the sign of the cross but we don't always do it well, sometimes we do it like this... because we don't have this faith to the cross," the Pope pointed out. The cross, then, he said, "for some people is a badge of belonging: 'Yes, I wear the cross to show that I am a Christian'". And 'it looks good', however, 'not only as a badge, as if it were a team, the badge of a team'; but, Francis said, 'as the memory of the one who became sin, who became the devil, the serpent, for us; he lowered himself to the point of total annihilation'.Moreover, it is true, 'others carry the cross as an ornament, they carry crosses with precious stones, to be seen'. But, the Pontiff pointed out, "God said to Moses: 'He who looks at the serpent will be healed'; Jesus says to his enemies: 'When you have lifted up the son of man, then you will know'". In essence, he explained, 'those who do not look upon the cross, thus, in faith, die in their sins, will not receive that salvation'.

"Today," the Pope relaunched, "the Church proposes to us a dialogue with this mystery of the cross, with this God who became sin, out of love for me". And "each of us can say: 'out of love for me'". So, he continued, it is appropriate to ask ourselves: 'How do I carry the cross: as a reminder? When I make the sign of the cross, am I aware of what I am doing? How do I carry the cross: only as a symbol of belonging to a religious group? How do I carry the cross: as an ornament, like a jewel with many golden precious stones?". Or "have I learnt to carry it on my shoulders, where it hurts?".

"Each one of us today," the Pontiff suggested at the conclusion of his meditation, "look at the crucifix, look at this God who became sin so that we might not die in our sins, and answer these questions that I have suggested to you.

[Pope Francis, St. Martha, in L'Osservatore Romano 4 April 2017]

XXIII Sunday in Ordinary Time  Year B  (8 September 2024)

1. In the first reading of today's liturgy, the prophet Isaiah addresses the Jews deported to Babylon returning to Jerusalem: "Courage, do not be afraid! Behold your God, vengeance comes, divine recompense. He comes to save you'. There is one word that might come as a surprise: 'divine vengeance'.  It is best to point out immediately that it does not have the same meaning with respect to the way we feel. Contextualising it in the historical moment, we understand that when the prophet speaks of God's vengeance, he is referring to salvation, and we understand this better if we formulate the text like this: 'Behold God's vengeance: He comes and will save you', and then: 'Behold God's reward: He himself comes to save you'. Even more helpful in perceiving this message of hope are the promises that follow: the sick will be healed, the blind will regain their sight, the deaf will regain their hearing, the crippled will leap like deer and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. These promises taste like soothing and encouraging balm to the ears of a people deported to Babylon and scarred by the atrocious wounds inflicted by Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem. It is to them that God assures future days of prosperity and rediscovered joy. But there is more: in the light of the historical and religious framework of that time, 'vengeance' was perceived favourably by the Jews because they knew that the Lord would never abandon his people and would indeed fight against the evil that oppressed them. "Divine vengeance" therefore meant restoring dignity to those who make up this people that the Lord has chosen for himself and who place all expectation in him. And it is precisely in this that God's glory shines. To better understand, it is worth adding that at the beginning of its history, the people of the Bible imagined a vengeful God as men are, and it was only through a centuries-long purification of faith through the preaching of the prophets that they began to discover the true face of the Lord. Then, although the word 'vengeance' remained, its content changed completely, as it did with other words, for example 'sacrifice' and 'the fear of God'. It took centuries to come to recognise the true face of God, a God different from what one could imagine, a God who is love and spends his love for all men.  With the phrase: 'Behold the divine reward. He comes to save you', the prophet wants to imply that God loves more than any other in the world and in any trial, pain and physical or moral humiliation, he does not delay in intervening by manifesting his mercy. How necessary it is to rediscover divine mercy in our lives! God comes to save us, comes to raise us up. A fundamental aspect of faith is precisely the certainty that He has already conquered the arrogance of evil with the omnipotence of His merciful love, and even if satanic forces operating at various levels apparently dominate the world, the Christian does not succumb to the temptation of pessimism because he knows that he is loved by the One who in so many ways wants to show us His Fatherly tenderness and never abandons us.

2. Today is for us the invitation that Isaiah addresses to the exiles in Babylon who return to Jerusalem. Faith assures us that humanity is surely waiting for the definitive deliverance from every form of slavery and offence to human dignity, from every risk of physical and moral blindness that disrupts peace. The Messiah is the promised saviour: Jesus' contemporaries must have understood this because, presenting himself as the Messiah in the synagogue of Nazareth (cf. Luke 4), Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah himself: "The Spirit of the LORD, of GOD, is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the humble; he has sent me to bind up those whose hearts are broken, to proclaim liberty to those who are slaves, the opening of the prison to the captives, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favour, the day of vengeance of our God" (61:1-2).  Note, however, that he purposely omits the last words of the prophecy: 'the day of vengeance of our God', to make it clear that he comes to give hope and salvation to the poor, the prisoners, the oppressed, who would have had difficulty understanding the word 'vengeance'. Now his every action will have the face of mercy.  Mercy, of which tangible signs are the blind who regain their sight, the crippled who walk again, the lepers who are cleansed, the deaf who are able to hear again, the dead who are raised, and above all the gospel proclaimed to the poor, as Christ affirms when replying to John the Baptist's disciples who came to ask him if he is the awaited Messiah (Lk 7:22). This is the gospel: God raises us from our misery and saves us, and this appears clearly in today's page of Mark's gospel (ch.7). Jesus is in pagan land - the territory of the Decapolis - where he heals a man suffering from a double infirmity: he is deaf and mute. The evangelist uses the Greek term "magilalos" (which means one who speaks with difficulty because he is deaf), rarely used in the New Testament and only once found in the Old Testament precisely in the text from Isaiah that we heard in the first reading: "the tongue of the mute shall shout for joy". The evangelist assures that this prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus and proof of this is the healing of the deaf mute, symbol of humanity unable to hear and therefore with serious difficulties in communicating (he only stammers). Jesus is asked "to lay his hand on him" and he accomplishes something he had never done before. He pulls him away from the crowd and repeats ritual gestures of the healers: he puts his fingers in his ears and touches his tongue with saliva. Jesus does not change these gestures but imbues them with a new meaning. Unlike the healers, he looks up to the sky, emits a sigh and says: "Effata, that is open".  By raising his eyes upwards, he manifests that he heals by the power conferred on him by the Father. As for the sigh, it is rather a groan: the same word is used that St Paul, in his letter to the Romans, uses to describe both the impatience of creation waiting for deliverance and the way the Holy Spirit prays in the hearts of believers "with inexpressible groans" (Rom 8:26). In the groaning of Jesus we can perceive on the one hand humanity waiting and calling for deliverance, and on the other hand the Spirit interceding for us so that no human suffering leaves us indifferent. The gospel closes with the people full of amazement proclaiming: "He has done all things well: he makes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak". We perceive here an anticipation of the profession of faith of the Christian community that will be total and perfect on the lips of the centurion under the cross of Christ towards the end of Mark's gospel: "Truly this man was the Son of God" (Mk 15:39).

3. Effatha, i.e. 'Open up' is one of the few Aramaic words directly quoted in the gospel and has remained unchanged in every language. It is found in the rite of baptism, when the celebrant touches the ears and lips of the baptised, adding: "May the Lord Jesus, who made the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak, grant that you may soon hear his word, and profess your faith to the praise and glory of God the Father. Every day we hear in the liturgy the psalmist who sings: "Lord open my lips and my mouth shall proclaim your praise (Ps 50/51:17), and the Apostle Paul's affirmation returns frequently in preaching: "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except under the power of the Holy Spirit" (1 Co 12:3). Only God can open man's heart and make his lips worthy of honouring him. Only God saves us: it is, however, up to our freedom to choose to love him and proclaim his praise not simply in words, but with our whole life, becoming a living gospel.

Happy Sunday + Giovanni D'Ercole

XXII Sunday in O.T.  B  (1 September 2024)

1. "This great nation is the only wise and intelligent people". The statement is found in the first reading from the book of Deuteronomy and refers to what everyone could say about Israel when it remains faithful to the Covenant. The Creator's plan is that, attracted by the example of this small people who chose themselves as the driving force of humanity, the day will come when people from every continent will ask to be part of the people of the new covenant and will be able to shout with joy that they have finally found the joy of living and living together with the one God, God of all peoples.  The biblical texts of this XXII Sunday of Ordinary Time help us to discover what is the snag, rather the obstacle to the realisation of such a divine dream.  The first reading taken from Deuteronomy (written between the 8th and 6th centuries B.C.) attributes the speech to Moses, although in truth it is many years after his death, but it is as if it is intended to repeat what he would have said at that time if he were alive. Here it is insisted that nothing be added and nothing be taken away from the Law given by God to Moses on Sinai because unfortunately the people had drifted away over time and it was urgent to reaffirm the essentials of the Jewish faith, that is, the observance of the Torah that keeps the Covenant alive over the centuries. The Covenant between Yahweh and his people has two inseparable aspects. On the one hand, God faithfully fulfilled what he had promised (a land to his people), while the same cannot be said of Israel's response. Indeed, from the moment he entered the promised land, the land of Canaan, he could not resist the temptation to abandon the one God and his precepts (mitzvot) to turn to the idols of those peoples. The Lord had given him the land for him to live in in a holy way, and the term 'holy' (Kadosh) indicates someone or something that is distinct from the rest, for good or evil, and could be translated as 'separate'. We speak of a holy land, but it would be better to say "separate land", a land given to Israel to live in in a different way, and this means at least three things. Firstly, it is a land destined to be the homeland of a people that is happy because it is faithful to its God; secondly, it is a land called to become a land of justice and peace because the people has learnt from the mouth of its God that it is not the only people in the world and that it must therefore learn to cohabit with others. From this point of view, the long biblical history of Israel can be read as a path of difficult conversion from violence to fraternal openness to others. Thirdly, the Holy Land constitutes in the divine plan the space to learn to live entirely according to the Torah. We then understand the command of the Lord: "Now, Israel, listen to the laws and regulations that I teach you, that you may put them into practice, so that you may live in and possess the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is about to give you". If this text dates back to the time of the exile in Babylon, it could be interpreted as follows: Israel would never have lost this Land if it had followed the Torah and the commands of its God, but now that it is about to re-enter it, it seeks at least this time to be faithful to what guarantees its happiness. Being faithful for Israel, however, did not appear easy and that is why the sacred author, to encourage it, invents a new argument: "hearing of all these laws", that is, seeing the life and style that animates it, the other peoples will say: "This great nation is the only wise and intelligent people". Here we hear the echo of the book of Proverbs that considers the acceptance of Wisdom (Pr 9:1-6 that we heard last 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time) the best way to learn to live. Finally, a final argument: the sweetness of life under the Covenant is the unique spiritual experience Israel was privileged to have: . "What great nation has gods so close to it, as the Lord our God is close to us whenever we call upon him?"

2. In turn, we, the baptised people, can paraphrase and repeat: "What great nation has the gods as close as the Lord is to us every time we call upon him?" This question provokes us, and to attempt an answer we must start from another word of Jesus that we find today in the gospel: "This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me by teaching doctrines that are the precepts of men". We are in the midst of a dispute with the Pharisees who rebuke his disciples for not observing the Torah. Mention is made here of the "tradition of the ancients": the word tradition repeated in verses 3 and 5 is not to be understood in a derogatory sense. On the contrary, it constitutes the richness of what the ancestors tried to teach about the divine Law and codified, in the form of precepts, the behaviour pleasing to God, concerning every smallest detail of daily life. This is why the Pharisees considered the observance of such discipline indispensable to preserve the identity of the Jewish people. Israel felt itself a "separate" nation to belong to God and therefore any contact with pagans constituted an impediment to its fidelity to the Covenant. This is why the Pharisees are indignant against Christ's disciples for going against the Law by eating without washing their hands.  Quoting the prophet Isaiah, Jesus calls them "hypocrites" and this severity of his calls them "hypocrites" and implies a fundamental problem that challenges our lives. In truth, Jesus also quotes the Scriptures that are for all the supreme reference of every choice and says: "This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me". Herein lies the problem: the faithful observance of every norm of the Law becomes a useless cult if the doctrines that are taught are reduced to human precepts, as the prophets had already declared several times (Cf. Is 29:13). Jesus says: Neglecting the commandment of God, you keep the tradition of men". Which commandment of God he is referring to, which the Pharisees and scribes trample on, Jesus does not say, but rebukes them for "having their hearts far from God". He returns often in the Gospel to this rebuke of the Lord - fighting against any exclusion made in the name of God and this is the underlying canvas of his disputes with the religious authorities. One misunderstands the divine law if one believes that to approach God one must separate oneself from other men. On the contrary, the prophets deployed every energy to make it clear that true worship pleasing to Heaven begins with respect for every human person. If we read in Leviticus: "Be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy" (19:2), let us not forget that the same God is announced by Isaiah as the God of forgiveness (Is 43) who can never lead to contempt for others. And Jesus then explains what true "purity", that is, authentic worship rendered to God, consists of. If in the biblical sense "purity" means the way of approaching God, the true purity of heart, as many prophets have repeated, is love and forgiveness, tenderness and acceptance: in a word, mercy, while the impurity that condemns in his adversaries is the hardening of the heart because it is what comes out of the human heart that makes us impure.

3. For Jesus then turns to his disciples and thus completes his teaching: For from within, that is, from the hearts of men, come forth evil intentions: impurity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and make man impure. It must be acknowledged that this is a difficult teaching to understand not only for the Pharisees, but also for us. It is, however, a lesson of life that we can only fully understand and accept because God came to dwell among us, showing by his example not to be afraid of contact with the impure beings that we are. And to encourage the disciples immediately afterwards, Jesus leaves for a region inhabited by pagans.  As in Christ's time, there is the risk of the Pharisees, which was the religious movement that arose around 135 BC out of a desire for sincere conversion. The term Pharisee means 'separate' and translates into the rejection of all political compromise and laxity in religious practice. These are two deeply felt problems and Jesus never attacks the Pharisees or refuses to talk to them, as he does with Nicodemus (Jn 3) and Simon ( Lk 7). But the pretension to the highest spiritual and religious ideal can have its pitfall: the rigour of observance can generate a conscience so centred on the pursuit of the optimum, that it despises those who do not achieve it. More profoundly, when one conceives of perfection in living exclusively and 'apart' one forgets that God's plan is to see all men united in love. If Jesus sometimes uses harsh words, it is not against the practice of the Pharisees, but he condemns those deviations concerning what is called 'Phariseeism', and no religious movement, including Christianity, is exempt from this risk.

Have a good Sunday and a happy month of September 

+Giovanni D'Ercole