XXXIV Sunday in Ordinary Time (year B) [24 November 2024]

First reading Dn 7:13-14

*A coronation scene

The prophet Daniel describes a coronation scene "in the clouds of heaven", i.e. in God's world with a "son of man" (in Hebrew it simply means a human being) approaching the Old Man, whom a few verses earlier (v.9) he describes seated on a throne: it is understood that he is God. The Son of Man advances to be anointed king: "he was given power, glory and kingdom...his is an eternal power that will never end", a universal and eternal kingship that, however, he does not conquer by force and, as Daniel points out, he does not approach the throne of God on his own initiative. This Sunday's reading stops here, but to better understand, one must go a little further and realise that this "son of man" is not an individual but a people: "I, Daniel, was troubled in my soul .I approached one of the neighbours and asked him the true meaning of all these things, and he gave me this explanation: "The four great beasts represent four kings, who shall arise from the earth; but the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess it for ever and ever" (vv15-18). In a few verses later he repeats: 'Then the kingdom and the power and the greatness of the kingdoms that are under heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom shall be eternal, and all empires shall serve and obey him' (v27). This son of man is therefore 'the people of the saints of the Most High' which, in biblical language, means Israel and in the age of persecution, is the small faithful remnant. We are at the most painful time of Antiochus Epiphanes' persecution around 165 B.C. when only a small group really remained. When Daniel states that the people of the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom, he means to encourage them to resist because the final deliverance will soon come, and since shortly afterwards Antiochus Epiphanes was driven out, his prophecy was interpreted by some Jews as referring to the expected Messiah-King, who would not be a particular individual, but a people. When Jesus was born centuries later, although everyone in Israel awaited the Messiah, not everyone imagined him in the same way: some awaited a man, others a collective Messiah called 'the little Remnant of Israel' (an expression from the prophet Amos 9.11-15), or 'the son of man' in reference to the prophet Daniel. Jesus is the only one (no one else does this) to use the expression 'Son of Man' coming on the clouds of heaven more than 80 times in the gospels, referring to himself, but his contemporaries could not recognise in Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter, the Messiah, i.e. 'the people of the saints of the Most High'. Moreover, Jesus substantially modifies the definition because, referring to Daniel, he says: "Then...you will see the Son of Man coming, surrounded by clouds, in the fullness of power and glory" (Mk 13:26), and again in the Gospel of Mark he adds: "The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him" (Mk 9:31). Only after the resurrection will the disciples understand that the title of Son of Man on the clouds of heaven is attributed to Jesus, because he is both man and God, the first-born of the new humanity, the Head who makes us one Body and, at the end of history, we shall be as "one man, grafted into him and thus "the people of the saints of the Most High". While Daniel said a "Son of Man" Jesus changes it to "Son of Man"": son of man meant "one man", while son of man means "Humanity" and therefore "Son of Man" means Humanity. By attributing this title to Himself, Christ reveals Himself to be the bearer of the destiny of the whole of humanity, fulfilling the divine creation project, that is, to make humanity one people: "God created man in His own image...male and female He created them...He said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth" (Gen 1:27-28). For St Paul, Jesus is the new Adam: 'As by one man's disobedience all were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience all will be made righteous' (Rom 5:12-21; 1 Cor 15:21-22, 45-49), while in the Fourth Gospel, Piato's phrase 'Ecce homo, Behold the man' (19:5) is always striking.

*Responsorial Psalm 92/93 (1,2,5)

*We proclaim God our King 

By proclaiming Christ our King we affirm our faith/hope with the courage to realise his kingdom, certain that by rising he has defeated death and by forgiving the murderers he has destroyed hatred. However, while we dare to say that Christ is already king, everything in the world seems to be going backwards: death kills, hatred spreads in all its forms of violence and injustice. Psalm 92/93 proclaims God's victory over the world in spite of appearances, and the Jews also celebrate God the King by having the same faith and hope as they await God's 'Day'. In proclaiming his victory over the forces of evil, however, they rely on the experience of the Exodus by worshipping God who by freeing Israel offered his Covenant, while we Christians rely on the resurrection of Christ. To sing the kingship of God this psalm looks to the model of the coronation of kings: in the throne room the new king, invested with the royal mantle, sat on the throne and, having signed the enthronement charter, took possession of the royal palace. At this point, the people shouted 'Long live the king,' an acclamation that in Hebrew is called 'térouah' and was originally a cry of victory against the enemy. In this psalm, the acclaimed king is God, and more than others he deserves the terouah because he has defeated the forces of evil: "The Lord reigns, he is clothed with majesty, he is girded with strength": these are the clothes of the Creator.  The Hebrew expression: "He girded his strength" evokes the gesture of tying a garment to his hips, as the potter does with his apron to work the clay".  Singing that his throne "is stable from everlasting, from eternity thou art", the psalm hints by contrast at idols that are within everyone's reach and evokes the fragility of earthly kingdoms, particularly the kings of Israel, some of whom reigned a few years, even a few days. Throughout the psalm, God is proclaimed king over creation because he dominates the forces of the waters that are often untamable for man: "more than the roar of rushing waters, more mighty than the billows of the sea, mighty on high is the Lord" (v.4). The billows of the sea recall the Sea of Rushes (in Hebrew Yam Suf, and suf means reed or rush)) identified with the Red Sea, which God made his people cross. Since then, the Lord's faithfulness has never faded, as verse 5 expresses so well: "Worthy of faith are all your teachings". The expression "worthy of faith" in other versions is rendered as "unchanging", a word that has the same root as Amen and evokes faithfulness, stability, truth, immutability, steadfastness. This is God's faithfulness to his people, of which the Temple of Jerusalem was a symbol, an icon of God's presence and a reflection of his holiness: "Holiness befits your house". Nebuchadnezzar II conquered Jerusalem and pulled down the Temple of Solomon, deporting most of the population to Babylon, and having destroyed the kingdom of Judah in 586 BC, there were no more kings in Israel because the last one was Sedekiah who was captured, blinded and taken into exile. From that moment on, the expression: 'Holiness befits your house' celebrated God's sovereignty in the expectation of the Messiah-King, God's faithful image.  Every year, during the Feast of Tents (in the autumn), this psalm was taken up to celebrate in advance the fulfilment of the whole of history, the definitive Covenant, the Wedding between God and Humanity: in fact Israel with the whole of humanity will one day share the kingship of the Messiah, as the Queen sits next to the King.

Second Reading Rev 1:5-8

*He who is, who was, and who is to come

 "Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth": the phrases of this short text, which is the beginning of the Apocalypse, are dense and evoke the whole mystery of Christ and each word reveals an aspect of it. "Jesus" is the name of a man from Nazareth and means "God saves"; "Christ" indicates the Messiah filled with the Spirit of God; "the faithful witness" connects to Jesus' words to Pilate that we hear today in the gospel: "I was born and came into the world to bear witness to the truth". The statement: "the firstborn from the dead" encapsulates the faith of the early Christians who saw in Jesus, a mortal man like everyone else, the firstborn of a long line, resurrected by God to lead all his brothers and sisters, and the phrase: "the Sovereign of the kings of the earth" reinforces the concept of the Messiah who placed all his enemies under his feet, as Psalm 109/110 sings. Since in Revelation numbers are symbolic and ternary expressions are reserved for God, the three qualifications: "faithful witness, firstborn of the dead, ruler of the kings of the earth" attributed to Jesus affirm that he is God. The second sentence takes up and amplifies the first: "To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, who has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen'. Here we find the traditional tenets of faith: Christ's love for all men; the gift of his life signified by the expression "blood shed" to redeem us from evil, while the statement: "He has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father" indicates that in Christ the promise "You shall be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" contained in the book of Exodus (19:6) has been fulfilled.  In the third sentence: "Behold, he comes with the clouds" it is the Son of Man, spoken of by Daniel in the first reading, who advances to the throne of God to receive universal kingship. The first dimension of his kingship is triumph. The second dimension is that of suffering: "Every eye shall see him, even those who pierced him, and for him all the tribes of the earth shall beat their breasts", a clear allusion to the cross and the soldier's lance (Jn.19:33-34). Here St John refers to the prophecy of Zechariah: "I will pour out upon the house of David and Jerusalem a spirit of kindness ... they will look upon him whom they have pierced ... they will mourn for him as for an only son ... they will mourn for him as for a first-born ... a spring will flow ... as a remedy for sin and impurity". ( Zech 12:10; 13:1).  With the spirit of benevolence God will transform the human heart and turning their gaze to the one they have pierced, men will see an innocent man unjustly slain in clear contrast to the religious authorities of the time. Looking at the crucified Messiah suddenly eyes and hearts will open and, when the hearts of all men will be transformed, Christ will be King because it is the opening of the heart that introduces us into the grace and peace of eternity in God: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world" (Mt 25:34). Finally, the final expression of the second reading: "He who is, who was, and who is to come" (v. 8) is one of the translations of the name of God (YHVH, Ex 3:14) in the Jewish commentaries (Jerusalem Targum). 

Gospel Jn. 18:33b-37

*So you are king?

John's gospel is the only one to report the long dialogue between Pilate and Jesus, a text of considerable interest for the Feast of Christ the King because statements about Christ's kingship are rare in the gospels and only during his passion does Jesus openly declare that he is king.  During his public life whenever they wanted to make him king he withdrew, when they publicised his miracles he imposed silence and this even after the Transfiguration. Only now that he is chained and condemned to death does he claim to be king, i.e. at the least convenient time according to human calculations.  Undoubtedly he has an alternative way of conceiving kingship and he explained it to the disciples: the leaders rule over the nations, but this must not be the case for you; if anyone wants to be great let him be your servant, if he wants to be first let him be servant of all, imitating the Son of Man who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom (i.e. deliverance) for the multitude (cf. Mk 10:42-45). It is during Pilate's interrogation that he declares himself to be the king of mankind, thus at the very moment when he gives his life for us showing that his only royal ambition is service. On closer inspection, in the dialogue between Pilate, a high representative of the Roman empire, and a man condemned to death, the parts are reversed: it is not Pilate who judges him but Christ who judges the world, and the Roman power ends up recognising Christ as the true king. Jesus was captured because the religious leaders, frightened by his success, acted deceitfully, fearing their destruction with the arrival of the Romans: "If we let them, the Romans will come and destroy us". It is a murder that stems from the will of the ruling priestly caste while for Pilate Jesus represented no danger. Today we read in John's gospel the first questioning of Pilate: "Are you the king of the Jews?" In this trial it is not the judge who questions the accused but the reverse and the sentence will be passed by the accused. In fact Jesus does not answer, but asks. "Do you say this of yourself or have others spoken to you about me?". And Pilate: "What have you done?  Jesus replies: "My kingdom is not of this world". Pilate insists: "So you are king?" and Jesus: "You say so" in the sense that if you are affirming it (su legeis) you have understood it well and therefore proclaim it. It is, however, a different kingdom from all earthly ones defended by soldiers and based on power, domination and lies. Mine, on the other hand, is the kingdom of truth that relies on no other defence than the truth: 'For this I was born and came into the world: to bear witness to the truth. Whoever is of the truth hears my voice', and he adds: 'For this I was born and for this I came into the world: to bear witness to the truth'. And he concludes: 'Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice'. He does not say: 'Whoever has the truth', but 'whoever is from the truth', since truth is not a doctrine to be possessed but the believer's way of life. In the second reading from Revelation, John states that Jesus is the "faithful witness", the "only-begotten Son full of grace and truth," as we already read in the Prologue of his Gospel (Jn 1:14). If Pilate, a son of the Greco-Roman world, asks the question "What is truth?" (Jn18:38), the Jews, on the other hand, knew from the very beginning of the Covenant with God that truth is God Himself.  Truth in the Bible means God's "steadfast faithfulness" and has in Hebrew the same root as "Amen" which means stable, faithful, true, as it appears today in Responsorial Psalm 92/93. The Truth is God Himself so no one can claim to possess it but it is indispensable to listen to it and let oneself be instructed by it (cf. Jn 8:47). Only God can tell us "Listen", as the Torah continually repeats: "Shema Israël".  

Some Testimony on Christ King of the Universe: 

*St. Augustine, in his sermon on Psalm 2, writes: "Christ has no temporal kingdom, but he reigns in the hearts of men. His throne is the cross, His sceptre is love, and His crown is made of thorns. He is a king who does not conquer with weapons, but with truth and justice."

* Saint Nicholas Cabasilas Orthodox (14th century) is credited with this sentence: "Christ reigns because he has conquered our hearts, not with violence, but with sacrifice. His cross is his throne, and from the cross he judges the world with love, offering eternal life to those who submit to his divine will."

*St. Catherine of Siena, in her work "The Dialogue of Divine Providence" writes: 

"Christ is sweet king, because his kingdom is not founded on pride nor on strength, but on love and humility. He made of his flesh a bridge between heaven and earth, that man might cross it and reach the eternal kingdom. His crown is of thorns, a sign of the love with which he took upon himself the pains of his subjects; his throne is the cross, from which he ruled with mercy and justice."

*Dietrich Bonhoeffer Protestant pastor in his book 'Discipleship' writes: "Christ is the King who bears the cross, and his kingdom is the kingdom of the cross. Those who follow him enter into his lordship not with power or glory, but with the humility of one who accepts the weight of his yoke. Christ reigns over us because he chose to die for us, and in this is our true freedom."

*G.K. Chesterton in his book 'Orthodoxy' writes: "Christ is not only a king, but the king of paradoxes. His crown is made of thorns, yet it is the most glorious; his throne is the cross, yet it is the highest; his power is manifested in surrender, yet no one has ever reigned with greater authority. He is the king who turns sorrow into joy and death into life."

Happy Solemnity of Christ King of the Universe to you all!

+ Giovanni D'Ercole

God bless you! For the past few weeks I have chosen to offer not a homily but a service to those who wish: I present the Sunday Bible readings to aid understanding of the biblical text with a short commentary always starting with the word of God. I hope it may be useful to you: if you wish, let me know and I thank you for your attention." The Word of God is an uphill path, the more you strive, the more you advance towards the light " (paraphrase from St John of the Cross) " Each verse of the Bible is like a step: reading it is easy, living it is the real challenge of faith (paraphrase from "the Ladder of Paradise" by St John Climacus). Each week I will send the text on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning to allow time to read and meditate.

Here is next Sunday's.

XXXIII Sunday Ordinary Time (year B) 

Commentary on the readings [17 November 2024]

*First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Daniel 12, 1-3

 *In the storm of persecution Faith in the resurrection is born 

The book of Daniel is named not after its author but after its protagonist, the prophet Daniel who lived in Babylon during the years of the last kings of the Neo-Babylonian empire and was written during the Maccabean revolution (2nd century BC). There are at least two important statements in today's text. First of all, Daniel comforts his contemporaries who were going through a difficult time. When he says: 'It will be a time of distress, such as there had never been', he is speaking of the future, but it is only in appearance because they were under occupation and persecution. Opposition books could not be circulated, so he pretends to speak of the past or the future, but in truth of the present, and readers understand and take the comfort they need. Reigning after the conquests of Alexander the Great and the first rather tolerant successors was Antiochus Epiphanes, sadly famous for his terrible persecution of the Jews. He placed himself at the centre of the Temple as a god and the Jews had to choose: submit or remain faithful to their faith, facing torture and death. Some bent, but many remained faithful and were killed. Daniel tells them that Michael, the leader of the Angels, watches over them and if they are now experiencing defeat and the horror of terror, they are nevertheless victorious in a battle that takes place both on earth and in heaven: the heavenly army has already won. Human history is a gigantic struggle in which the victor is already known, and this particularly concerns the people of the Covenant. 

To the message of comfort for the living Daniel joins a reference to those who sacrificed themselves so as not to betray the living God. Since God does not forsake those who die for him, those who die will thus be resurrected. The word 'resurrection', which is part of our vocabulary today, was virtually unknown at the time. For centuries, the question of individual resurrection did not arise as the focus was on the people and not on the individual, on the present and future of the people and not on the fate of the individual. In the history of Israel, interest in the destiny of the individual emerged as a conquest and progress during the exile linked to the idea of individual responsibility. It must always be remembered that faith in the faithful God matures with the events of history and Israel increasingly understands that God desires the good of man and never abandons him. The experience of the Covenant thus nourished Israel's faith and it was realised that if God wants man free from all bondage, He cannot leave him in the chains of death. Truth exploded when some believers sacrificed their lives for God and their death became a source of faith in eternal life. It was thus understood that martyrs will rise for eternal life: "Many of those who sleep in the region of the dust shall awake: some to eternal life, and some to shame and everlasting infamy". The book of Daniel considers resurrection only for the righteous, but later it will come to be understood that resurrection is promised to all mankind composed of good and bad human beings and indeed no one is totally good or bad. Finally, only when we are enlightened by the certainty that God loves us, can we understand that we will live forever.

Responsorial Psalm 15 (16), 5.8, 9-10, 11

*The great commitment in the image of the Levite 

In Psalm 15(16), of which today we meditate on just a few verses, it all seems simple when we take refuge in God because only in him is our good. In verse 5 we read: "The Lord is my inheritance and my cup: in your hands is my life" and continues "my inheritance is great" (v.6) and then states that "for this my heart rejoices and my soul exults; my body also rests secure because you will not forsake my life in hell nor will you let your faithful one see the grave" (v.8,9,10). In reality, under very simple appearances, Psalm 15/16 translates the terrible struggle of faithfulness to the true faith: exactly the same as Daniel's call not to deny the faith despite the persecution of King Antiochus Epiphanes. The struggle for fidelity marks Israel from the very beginning, ever since Moses during the exodus perceived the risk of idolatry: think of the episode of the golden calf when the people convinced Aaron to build it (Ex. 32). When they then entered the land of Canaan (between the 15th and 13th centuries BC), the danger of idolatry remained as they saw that everything was going wrong. War, famine, epidemic aroused the desire to rely on two certainties: The Lord and Baal because, in difficulties, one is tempted to resort to every god possible and imaginable. King Ahaz did it in the 8th century by sacrificing his son to idols, and his grandson Manasseh fifty years later. This is why the prophets fought against idolatry, which is the worst of slavery. This psalm therefore translates the preaching of the prophets in the form of a prayer: there resounds an invitation to the believers to follow the preaching, and at the same time it is a supplication to God to help everyone endure in the time of trial. It would also be helpful to read the verses not found on this Sunday (vv.1-4) where it is said, among other things, that "to the idols of the land, to the mighty gods went all my favour. They multiplied their sorrows those who run after a foreign god" and then states "I will not pour out their libations of blood, nor will I pronounce with my lips their names". In short, it is necessary to turn only to the God of the Covenant as the only one able to guide his people on the difficult path to freedom. Over the centuries, it has been understood that the God of Israel is the only God for all mankind. If there is an exclusivity for Israel, it is because he chose him freely and revealed himself to them as the one true Lord. It is up to Israel to respond to this calling by binding itself exclusively to him and, in so doing, fulfil its mission as a witness to the one God before the other nations. To express this mission, Israel in this psalm compares itself to a Levite: "The Lord is my inheritance and my cup, in your hands is my life" (v.5). It alludes to the singular condition of the Levites that, at the time of the partition of the Promised Land among the tribes of Jacob's descendants, the members of the tribe of Levi had received no part of the land and thus their portion was the House of God (the Temple), the service of God. Their whole life was consecrated to the service of worship; their livelihood was guaranteed by tithes and a portion of the crops and meat offered in sacrifice. Israel is at the heart of humanity as the Levites are the heart of Israel, both called to the direct service of the Lord, the source of joy. Bearing in mind the first reading that speaks of the resurrection of bodies (Dan 12), one understands that the eternity spoken of in this psalm is not about individual resurrection because the true subject of all the psalms is never an individual but the whole of Israel sure to survive being the chosen of the living God. And verse 10: "Thou shalt not forsake my life in hell, nor let thy faithful see the grave" does not express faith in individual resurrection but is an appeal for the survival of the people. Certainly when the prophet Daniel (first reading) proclaimed faith in the resurrection of the dead, this verse made such sense; later Jesus and now all of us can confidently say that our hearts rejoice and our souls are rejoicing because the Lord does not abandon us to death, but rather at his right hand, an eternity of joy awaits us.

*Second Reading from the Epistle to the Hebrews 10:11-14. 18

 Jesus delivers humanity from the fatality of sin 

The letter to the Hebrews, like and more than the other New Testament texts, aims to make it clear that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah-priest, and therefore the Jewish priesthood is superseded. Having ended the role of the priests of the Old Covenant, in the New Covenant the only priest is Christ. But what are the characteristics of the priests of the Old Covenant compared to Christ? The author focuses on two points: the liturgy of the Old Testament priests was daily and they always offered the same sacrifices; Jesus, on the other hand, offered a unique sacrifice. The worship of the Jewish priests was ineffective, since the sacrifices did not have the power to eliminate sins, whereas, with his unique sacrifice, Jesus eliminated the sin of the world once and for all. There are statements here that were important to the Judeo-Christian milieu of the time, such as the expression 'to eliminate sins' because the word 'sin' returns several times in this text. Experience says that after Christ's death/resurrection sins continue to exist in the world, so to say that Jesus took away the sin of the world is to point out that sin is no longer a fatality because, thanks to the gift of the Holy Spirit, we can overcome it. Furthermore, when we read that "with one offering he has made perfect for ever those who are sanctified" we must understand that the term "perfect" does not have a moral meaning, but expresses fulfilment, completion. That is, we have been led by Christ to our fulfilment; thanks to him we have become free men and women: free not to relapse into hatred, violence, jealousy; free to live as sons and daughters of God and as brothers and sisters. In the celebration of the Eucharist we keep saying 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world'. This makes one think of the prophet Jeremiah (31: 31-33) who prophesied: "Behold, the days will come - the Lord's oracle - when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah...I will put my law within them, I will write it on their hearts", or of Ezekiel (36: 26-27): "I will take away from you the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you and make you live by my laws". The early Christians knew that one must allow oneself to be led by the Holy Spirit, but an essential condition is to remain united to Christ like the branches to the vine.  We read again in the text: "Christ...is seated forever at the right hand of God and is now waiting for his enemies to be placed at the footstool of his feet" (vv12-14). The expression 'seated at the right hand of God' had been a royal title in Israel for centuries. On the day of his coronation, when he took possession of his throne, the new king sat at the right hand of God, and in this context to say that 'Jesus Christ sat forever at the right hand of God' means that Jesus is the true King-Messiah awaited. This concept is reinforced by what follows: "He is now waiting for his enemies to be set at the footstool of his feet". The tradition was that on the steps of the thrones of kings were carved or sculpted figures of chained men representing the enemies of the kingdom, and the king ascending the steps of the throne trampled on them, symbolically crushing his enemies, and this was not gratuitous cruelty but a guarantee of security for his subjects. Signs of these figures can be found in the thrones of Tutankhamun (discovered in 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt), while in Israel, the only trace remains of what the prophet pronounced for the king in the coronation rite: "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet". If Christ is indeed the Messiah, the awaited eternal king descendant of David, the old world is now over. One last clarification: why is it said: "the sacrifice of the Mass"?  In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read: "Now where there is forgiveness there is no more offering (sacrifice) for sin". The term sacrifice remains even though, with Christ, its meaning has changed: for him, "to sacrifice" (sacrum facere, to perform a sacred act) does not mean to kill one or a thousand animals, but to live in love and to give one's life for one's brethren, as the prophet Hosea already stated in the 8th century B.C.: "I want love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God more than holocausts." (6, 6).

*Gospel according to Saint Mark (13, 24-32)

Jesus uses the apocalyptic style here 

In Mark's gospel Jesus now changes style and approaches in his discourses the divination literature that was then very much in vogue. All religions were asking the same questions: Will mankind go irretrievably to ruin or will Good triumph? What will the end of the world be like and who will be the victor? They used the same images of cosmic upheavals, eclipses of the sun or moon, celestial characters, angels or demons. The Jews first and then the Christians borrowed this style but inserted the Gospel message, i.e. divine revelation. That is why, in the Bible, this literary style is called "apocalyptic" because it brings a "revelation" from God: literally, the Greek verb apocaliptõ means to reveal, in the sense of "lifting the veil that covers the history of mankind". At the time, it was like a cipher language, in code: it speaks of the sun, the stars, the moon and how all this will be shattered, even if it means something else. It is the victory of God and his children in the great battle against evil that they have been waging since the origin of the world. Here is the specificity of the Judeo-Christian faith for which it is a mistake to use the term apocalypse to speak of frightening events because in the language of the Jewish and Christian faith it is exactly the opposite. Revealing the mystery of God does not tend to frighten humanity, but rather to encourage people to face every crisis in history by lifting the corner of the veil that covers history in order to hold on to hope. Already the prophets in the Old Testament used the same imagery to announce the day of God's final victory over every evil force. We find in Joel (2:10-11): "The earth trembles, the sky is shaken, the sun and moon are darkened and the stars cease to shine. The Lord makes his voice heard before his host. Great is his army, mighty in carrying out his commands. Great is the day of the Lord, terrible indeed: who shall be able to sustain it?". I also recommend reading these others from the prophet Joel (3:1-5 and 4:15-16) and Isaiah (12:1-2). These are not stories to instil terror, but to announce the victory of the God who loves us. The message is always this: God will have the last word because, as Isaiah writes, evil will be destroyed and the Lord will punish the wicked for their crimes (cf.13:10); it is the same Isaiah who, a few verses earlier (ch.12:2), announced the salvation of God's children: "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, I will not be afraid, for my strength and my song is the Lord; he has been my salvation." These words, in which praise and faith in God as Saviour resound together with a deep sense of security and trust in divine protection, are part of a song of thanksgiving that celebrates the deliverance and support that God offers his people. In apocalyptic style, to proclaim faith is to assure that God is the master of history and one day evil will disappear. Therefore, rather than 'end of the world', it would be better to say 'transformation of the world' or rather 'renewal of the world'. All this emerges in this Sunday's gospel of Mark with one clarification: the definitive victory of God against evil only takes place in Jesus Christ. In the gospel we are only a few days away from Easter and Jesus resorts to this language because the battle between him and the forces of evil is now at its climax. To understand Jesus' message, we can turn to the gospel of John, when at the conclusion of his long discourse to the apostles he says: "I have spoken these words to you so that you may have peace in me. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world" (John 16: 33). And the parable of the fig tree that sheds its leaves fits well into this message, bearing in mind that the key to understanding is the adjective "near", "near": the signs only herald the nearness of the end, so beware of false prophets who see the end of the world now. Instead, we must watch and pray because the nearness of the end is for every generation - and this invitation is present throughout the Gospel.

Happy Sunday to you all!

+Giovanni D'Ercole

Brief Commentary on the Readings [10.11.24]

*First Reading 1 Kings 17:10-16

The prophet Elijah is far from his homeland, in Sarepta, a city on the Phoenician coast, which at the time was part of the kingdom of Sidon and not of the kingdom of Israel. We are in the 9th century B.C., King Ahab had married Queen Jezebel (around 870), thus not a daughter of Israel, but the daughter of the king of Sidon, in order to implement a policy of alliance, but exposing himself to the grave risk of apostasy, because Jezebel brought with her customs, prayers, statues and the priests of the cult of Baal, the god of fertility, rain, lightning and wind. King Ahab, a very weak person, thus ends up betraying his religion and even builds a temple to Baal. Elijah and the faithful Jews feel ashamed at the betrayal of their faith, knowing full well the first commandment: "You shall have no other gods but me!", which is the a. b. c. of the Jewish faith: God alone is God, all other idols are useless. Elijah opposes Jezebel and, in order to prove the falsity of the idols, as a severe drought was just then occurring in Israel, he launches a challenge: you hold Baal to be the god of rain, but I will prove that the God of Israel alone is the one true God, master of everything, of rain and drought. The unfolding of this challenge will take place, but today's text stops at this point. Warned by God, Elijah prophesies that there will be years of severe drought and, following a divine command, he takes refuge by the Kerith stream, east of the Jordan (1 Kings 17:3-4). The drought persists, the stream dries up and God orders him to go to the distant Sarepta where he meets a poor widow from whom, as a poor beggar, he asks for "a piece of bread". The woman confesses to him that she has no more bread, for all she has left is a handful of flour in a jar with a little oil in it; she gathers two pieces of wood to prepare a loaf for her and her son, they will eat it and then prepare to die. The prophet reminds her that God can do everything and invites her to prepare a 'little bread' for him and then she will share what is left with her son. He assures her that the God of Israel will intervene: the jar of flour will not run out and the jar of oil will not be emptied until the day the Lord makes it rain. And so it came to pass: "the jar of flour did not run out and the jar of oil did not empty". The story of the widow of Sarepta is similar to that of the widow who, as we read today in the gospel, in the Temple of Jerusalem gives God all her change, a clear example of a simple faith that deprives itself of everything and trusts in the word of the God of Israel. The message is clear: while Israel falls back into idolatry, a foreign, pagan widowed woman is rewarded by the Lord for her great faith. There is also a detail to point out: the widow heard God personally command her to provide for the prophet, and this shows that God's word resounds where and how He wills, even among the Gentiles. Jesus would refer to this episode when speaking to his countrymen in Nazareth (Lk 4:25-26). Indeed, in the late texts of the Old Testament (and the first book of Kings is part of it), pagans are often cited as an example to indicate that salvation is promised to all mankind, not being reserved to Israel alone. In short, God is solicitous towards those who trust in him, and the great lesson of this biblical episode is that the Lord's solicitude never betrays those who trust in him.  

*Psalm 145 (146), 5-6a, 6c-7ab, 8bc-9a, 9b-10 

With this psalm, Israel sings its history, giving thanks to God for his constant protection. "Oppressed, afflicted, hungry", the people had experienced oppression in Egypt from which they were delivered "with a strong hand and an outstretched arm" as they would later be from deportation to Babylon, and this psalm was written on their return from exile from Babylon, perhaps for the dedication of the Temple restored after its destruction in 587 BC by the troops of the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. Indeed, fifty years later (in 538 BC), Cyrus, king of Persia, defeated Babylon, authorised the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple, the dedication of which was celebrated with joy and fervour as we read in the book of Ezra: "The sons of Israel, the priests, the Levites and the rest of the deported did joyfully dedicate this House of God" (Ezra 6:16). A psalm therefore imbued with the joy of returning home because, once again, God has shown fidelity to the Covenant with his people of whom he is the father, the avenger, their "redeemer". Re-reading its own history, Israel can testify that God has always accompanied it in its struggle for freedom: "The LORD does justice to the oppressed, he raises up the afflicted". Israel experienced hunger, in the desert, during the Exodus and God sent manna and quails for its food: "To the hungry he gives bread" and only later did it understand that God always redeems the afflicted, heals the sick, lifts up the small and marginalised, opens the eyes of the blind and progressively reveals himself, through his prophets, to his people who seek him: "God loves the righteous". In this song, note the insistence on the name "Lord", which here translates the famous NAME of God revealed to Moses on Sinai, in the burning bush: it is the four consonants YHVH (two inhaled and two inspired) that indicate the permanent, active, liberating presence of God in the life of his people (Ex.3:13-15). Moreover, in the Bible, the expression 'your God' is a reminder of the Covenant with the chosen people: a Covenant to which the Lord has never failed, and Israel's prayer is addressed to the future, so when it evokes the past, it is to strengthen its expectation and hope.  God communicated his name to Moses on Sinai in two ways. First with the unpronounceable four consonants, YHVH, which we often find in the Bible, particularly in this psalm, and which is translated as 'the Lord'. There is, however, a more elaborate formula, "Ehiè asher ehiè", which in Italian is rendered either as "Io sono chi sono", or "I will be who I will be", a way of expressing God's eternal presence alongside his people. The insistence on the future, "for ever" reinforces the commitment of the people who, with this psalm, not only recognise God's work on behalf of Israel, but also want to give themselves a course of action: if God has acted in this way towards us, we in turn must do the same, becoming the first witnesses of the Lord's love for the poor and excluded, a love that, through Israel, he intends to spread to the whole world. The Law of Moses and the Prophets was written to educate the people to progressively conform to God's mercy and, for this reason, it provided numerous rules of protection for widows, orphans, and foreigners, intending to make Israel a free people that respects the freedom of others. Finally, the prophets' appeals focus on two points (which perhaps surprise us): a fierce fight against idolatry, (as Elijah did) and appeals to justice and care for others, going so far as to make God say: "It is mercy I want, not sacrifices, the knowledge of God, not holocausts" (Hos 6:6); or again: "You have been told, O man, what is good, what the Lord requires of you: nothing but to respect right, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God" (Mi 6:8). Finally, we read in the book of Ben Sira: "The widow's tears run down the cheeks of God" (Si 35:18). For Israel, the tears of all those who suffer flow down the cheeks of God...and if we are close to God, they should flow down our cheeks too! 

* Second Reading Heb. 9:24-28

The author of the letter to the Hebrews, which has been with us for a few Sundays, is addressing Christians of Jewish origin who perhaps feel nostalgia for the ancient cult, while in Christian practice there are no temples or bloody sacrifices. The author, wanting to prove that everything is now obsolete, takes up the realities and practices of the Jewish religion one by one. He speaks above all of the Temple, defined as the 'sanctuary' and points out that one thing is the true sanctuary, in which God resides, that is, heaven itself, quite another is the temple built by men, which is only a pale copy of the true sanctuary. The Jews were particularly proud, and rightly so, of the magnificent Temple of Jerusalem, but they did not forget that every human construction remains human and therefore, weak, imperfect, perishable. Moreover, no one in Israel claimed to enclose the presence of God in a temple, however immense, as the first builder of the Temple of Jerusalem, King Solomon already stated: "Could God really dwell on earth? The heavens themselves and the heavens of the heavens cannot contain you! How much less this House that I have built." (1 Kings 8:27). For Christians, the true Temple, the place where one encounters God, is not a building because the Incarnation of Christ changed everything: now the meeting place between God and man is Jesus Christ, the God made man. The Evangelist John narrates that Jesus took the liberty of driving out the money changers and cattle merchants for sacrifices from the Temple area, explaining then: "Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up" and the disciples understood, after the Resurrection, that the Temple of which he spoke was his body. (Cf. Jn 2:13-21). In today's passage from the Epistle to the Hebrews the same thing is said: let us remain grafted into Jesus Christ, let us be nourished by his body, thus we are placed in the presence of God on our behalf.  With his death Christ highlights the central role of the cross in the Christian mystery and a little later (Heb 10), the author will specify that Christ's death is only the culmination of a life entirely offered up and that when speaking of his sacrifice, one must mean "the sacred act that was his whole life" and not only the hours of his Passion. For the moment, the text before us speaks of Christ's Passion and his sacrifice, without any further details. It juxtaposes the sacrifice of Christ with that offered by the high priest of Israel, on the day of Yom Kippur ("Day of Forgiveness") when the high priest, entering alone into the Holy of Holies, pronounced the Holy Name (YHVH) and shed the blood of a bull (for his own sins) and that of a goat (for the sins of the people), solemnly renewing the Covenant with God. As the high priest left the Holy of Holies, the people, gathered outside, knew that their sins were forgiven. But this renewal of the Covenant was precarious, and had to be repeated every year, whereas the Covenant that Jesus Christ made with the Father in our name is perfect and final: on the Face of Christ on the cross, believers discover the true Face of God who loves his own to the end. We can no longer deceive ourselves; God is our Father because He is the Father of Jesus and in Christ we can live in the Covenant that God proposes to us: the New Covenant in Christ and there is no longer any room for fear of God's judgement because by professing "Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead" (in our Creed), we proclaim that the word "judgement" is synonymous with salvation: "the Christ, having offered himself once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time, no longer for sin, but for the salvation of those who wait for him" and it is right to affirm that Jesus Christ is "the high priest of the coming happiness", as the author states in ch.  9:11, a text that is proclaimed on the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, in year B.

*Gospel  Mark 12:38-44

"Beware of the scribes..." We are at the conclusion of the 12th chapter and are approaching the end of Mark's gospel, with the account of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. Jesus dispenses the last advice to the apostles: He has already told them to have faith in God and "whatever you ask in prayer, have faith that you have obtained it and it will happen to you" (11:22-24). He then added: "See to it that no one deceives you" (13:5), while he now exhorts them to beware of the scribes (12:38) using the language of the prophets to stigmatise some of their attitudes without this meaning a total condemnation of their actions.  At the time, the scribes were highly regarded because they commented and interpreted the Scriptures and preached, they sat in the Sanhedrin, the permanent court of Jerusalem that met in the Temple premises twice a week; they were therefore laymen who had studied the Law of Moses in specialised schools, becoming experts and some among them were called "doctors of the law" so that by respecting them, the Law itself was respected. Such respect made some people's heads swell as they demanded the first seats in the synagogues, with their backs to the Tablets of the Law and facing the public. In today's gospel, Jesus pays tribute to the scribe who had wisely replied, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." (12:34), but adds a more general criticism by reacting to the hostility that some scribes, from the beginning of his public life, had shown him envy and jealousy. A growing distrust of Christ towards them becomes clear in Mark's gospel as their jealousy becomes hatred to the point of planning to kill Jesus after the expulsion of the merchants from the Temple. The chief priests, scribes and elders besiege him as he walks in the Temple asking him by what authority he teaches and performs miracles (11:27-28) and we will see during the passion Pilate himself realise this, as St Mark notes: "Pilate knew that the chief priests had handed him over to them out of envy" (15:10). Jesus, however, is not impressed by their hatred and rebukes them for something much more serious, namely, that they exploit their position by demanding payment from poor widows when they ask for legal advice: "They devour widows' houses and pray long to be seen. They will receive a more severe sentence" (12:40). It is at this point that a poor widow appears (12:42-43) in total destitution (12:44) because, not being entitled to her husband's inheritance, she depended on public charity. She approaches to lay down two pennies and Jesus points her out as an example to the disciples: 'Truly I say to you, this widow, so poor, has thrown more into the treasury than all others. For all have offered of their surplus. She, on the other hand, in her misery, threw into it all she had to live on" (12:43-44). The evangelist makes no comment, but it is understood that the widow's trust will be rewarded. The parallel with the widow of Sarepta is natural: just as she offered Elijah her last provisions, this widow laid down all her savings in the Temple, stripping herself of everything. Jesus invites us to reject the model of ostentation of some scribes with their thirst for honours and privileges, and exhorts us to imitate the humble and discreet generosity of the "poor widow" who leaves everything she has in the Temple. Several Church Fathers have interpreted it as a powerful symbol of humble and generous faith and genuine charity, not because she gives much but because she offers everything she has to live on, trusting God. This story, besides being a lesson in charity and trust, is also a reminder of authentic social justice, where love for God must always translate into care, help and love for the needy.

XXXI Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B (3 November 2024)

[* First Reading]

From the book of Deuteronomy Deut 6:2-6

SHEMA ISRAEL! Listen to Israel! In the first reading we find one of the most important texts of the Old Testament, a reminder of the preaching of Moses, which still today holds a prominent place in the religion and prayer of Israel. The book of Deuteronomy is late, even though we find it among the first five books of the Bible, and it is the result of all the reflection of God's people over many centuries after their exit from Egypt. Moses left nothing but the Tablets of the Law in stone, but his teachings were transmitted orally from generation to generation. From time to time, however, feeling the need to translate them into something written according to the places and needs of the moment, the books of the Bible were compiled almost to accompany the tumultuous events of Israel.  Thus were born the sapiential texts of King Solomon, then those of the prophets narrating the events of the people and the action of the prophets up to the exile in Babylon and the devastation of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. Once the exile was over, the Jews felt the need to return to what God had promised that the Land he had promised must be earned. It is at this point that the book of Deuteronomy (meaning the second law) was born. It appears as a second collection of Moses' teachings where the invitation "listen" resounds insistently, almost like a cry of alarm. Deuteronomy is therefore a reinterpretation of the history, exodus and teachings of Moses, many years after his death, to recall the urgency of conversion to return to the listening/obedience of the Mosaic Law. Listen, Israel: the Lord is our God, the only one is the Lord. The whole destiny of Israel is encapsulated in these two words: Shema, listen Israel! Israel, the chosen people, named after Jacob's memorable fight with God (Gen 32:29) in the Yabbok river tributary of the Jordan, is always tempted to fight against God - Moses called them a hard-nosed people. Instead, the book of Deuteronomy reminds them of the need to listen to/obey God in order to find happiness and freedom, and so even today, from the age of three or four, every Jew recites this prayer every day; indeed, he writes the Shema everywhere and even wears it on his forehead and in his arm at heart level; he stamps it on the door of his house and town. Shema Israel is to Jews what the Our Father is to Christians.

[*Responsorial Psalm]

Ps.17/18

"The Lord shows himself faithful to his anointed, that is, to his Messiah". Here, in the Responsorial Psalm, the term messiah simply means king, and the psalmist makes King David speak to the Lord while he is in trial.  We are before the year one thousand B.C. and the legitimate king was Saul, the first king of Israel, who however did not fulfil his mission well and in fact his reign began well and ended very badly because he did not want to listen to the prophet Samuel. At that point, God chose David as his successor who remained in the court of Saul who considered David as his rival and even tried to kill him on several occasions. 

In the second book of Samuel (ch.22) we read that David sang this psalm to thank God for having delivered him from his enemies, primarily Saul. Even though the psalm (17/18) was sung by David, the subject is not David alone, nor any particular character, but the entire people of God who, when they want to thank the Lord, borrow David's words while defending themselves from Saul, and so the people call God 'my rock, my fortress, my deliverer'. He invokes God my rock, in whom I take refuge because in those days caves were places of refuge and if every people had a protector god the one of Israel was far firmer than any other. In Deuteronomy (32:31) we read for example: 'For their rock is not like ours, and our enemies are witnesses'. When he speaks like this, Moses imbues the rock with a different meaning, echoing the deliverance from Egypt: "the Lord has delivered me because he loves me". And when the people sing this psalm, they recall the faithful presence of the One whose name is "I am with you" and this constant reminder is a source of hope. Like David, Israel awaits the fulfilment of the promises of the faithful God, that is, the coming of the Messiah who will definitively liberate humanity. And this is why they sing: 'Long live the Lord and blessed is my rock, exalted be the God of my salvation. He grants his king great victories, he shows himself faithful to his Messiah".

[Second Reading].

From the letter to the Hebrews (Heb 7:23-28)

The letter to the Hebrews is always surprising: written by a Jewish convert to Christ for other Jewish converts, it uses language that is comprehensible to Jews but certainly less immediately comprehensible to us. The text proceeds by contrasts that ultimately boil down to a single and fundamental one: that is, the difference between the Old and the New Covenant. In today's text, this comparison, although not explicitly declared, is present in every sentence: in the first Covenant, that is, in the Old Testament, many "became priests because death prevented them from lasting long" (v.23) and "the Law in fact constitutes high priests men subject to frailty", for this reason needing "to offer sacrifices every day, first for their own sins and then for those of the people"(27).  The priests of the Old Testament were mortal, while Jesus is immortal having immolated himself "once for all, offering himself". In the Old Testament, the priest was timeless while Christ is a priest forever; he was separated from other men according to the rite of consecration while he himself remained a sinner full of frailty, while Christ is full of power and capable of saving; the other priests were appointed according to the Mosaic law, Jesus is called directly by God as his Son. From the incomplete and imperfect first Covenant, Jesus moves believers to the perfect and final new and fulfilled Covenant. In the text, the most important themes of the Christian faith are evoked: the resurrection of Christ, risen he lives forever (v. 24-25), and the Eucharist evoked by the reference to Christ's sacrifice that he offered himself once and for all (v. 27). Christ's whole life, not just his death, was the free gift of his love for the Father to its full fulfilment, and his death on the cross is the supreme sacrifice, anticipated in the Passover supper and now renewed in every Eucharist. When Jesus says: 'this is the cup of the new covenant of my blood shed for you', the disciples knew well that 'shedding the blood' meant accepting the sacrifice of his life.  Jesus Christ is therefore the only priest for eternity. It remains useful to make reference to the last verse where it speaks of the consecration by "oath" that constitutes the Son a priest, "made perfect for ever". There is here an allusion to Psalm 109/110 important for both Jews and Christians, many times quoted in the New Testament and in particular in the letter to the Hebrews: "The Lord has sworn and does not repent: "You are a priest forever in the manner of Melkiisedek". For the first Christians who came from the Jewish world, Jesus was the promised Messiah and at the same time king and priest, consecrated to be pontiff, i.e. bridge between God and men, obedient until death to the will of the Father and consecrated forever to the mission entrusted to him according to the eternal divine plan. The evangelist Luke also presents Jesus on the cross interceding until the end for us: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do" (Lk23:34), while Matthew notes that the sheet with which Joseph of Arimathea wrapped his body is like the high priest's robe (Mt 27:59). The author of the letter to the Hebrews therefore draws his conclusion: Jesus saves us forever and always intercedes on our behalf so that "we advance with full confidence to the throne of grace" (4:16).

[Gospel].

Mk 12:28-34

What is the first of all commandments? 

The Sages of the Talmud speak of 613 mitzvòt, i.e. 613 biblical commandments. These are divided into 248 positive commandments, mitzvòt assè, and 365 negative or prohibitive commandments, mitzvòt lo tàassè. The scribe asking the question knows that the most important commandment for the Jews was the observance of the Sabbath, the transgression of which was tantamount to transgressing the entire law and was therefore punished with death. Jesus, however, had broken it several times by healing on the Sabbath and so now a scribe attempts to test him, since Jesus had silenced both the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  The scribes were the official theologians of the time who had already decided to eliminate Jesus and were looking for a way and an opportunity, but feared the crowd. The question is therefore not to learn but to mislead Jesus. As always, Jesus answers surprisingly because he says that the first is... and then he does not quote either the Decalogue or any of the 613 commandments, but refers to the Scriptures and compares two texts that are well known to all. He quotes the creed of Israel, Shemà Israel, Hear Israel, the prayer that Jews recite twice a day, morning and evening, found in the book of Deuteronomy (6:4). "The first is: Hear Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord; you shall therefore love the Lord your God with all your heart, and the Hebrew text adds the possessive to emphasise the immediacy, the force of this command, with all your soul, which is life, the psyche in Greek, with all your mind and with all your strength'. However, love for God must be translated into love for one's neighbour: this is why he adds to this prayer the second precept found in the book of Leviticus: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself" (Lev 19:18) And he notes that there is no other commandment greater than these. The first, the famous Shema Israel, which we read today in the first reading, is joined by the second, which is a passage from the book of Leviticus often quoted by religious authorities. The Shema Israel prescribed to love God and him alone in the sense of attaching oneself to him to the exclusion of all other gods, a clear rejection of idolatry. This love of God was nothing other than a response to the love of God who had chosen Israel as his people. But can love be commanded? The initial impulse certainly cannot, but the faithfulness of love can be commanded, and that is precisely what we are talking about here: to make love an absolute law is to make every other norm of any kind relative to the love of God so that no law can take its place.  The second commandment appears in the book of Leviticus and it is the so-called law of holiness which begins: "Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy" (Lev 19:2). So already in the Old Testament, in the ideal of Israel, the love of God and neighbour merged into a single love and the Tablets of the Law translated this requirement by closely linking the relationship with God and that with one's neighbour.  This scribe is encouraged by Jesus who concludes with a formula that resembles a beatitude: 'You are not far from the kingdom of God'. It is interesting to note that Jesus' teaching is not of the type: You must, you must, you must do...but rather it is a revelation of what we already live and, in this perspective, he seems to say: "since you have understood that loving is the most important thing blessed are you because you are already very close to the kingdom of God". And it is even more interesting to note that Jesus ends the series of disputes with the Pharisees and scribes that we have seen throughout Mark's gospel in this way, with a positive note that we find only in this gospel: "You are not far from the kingdom of God".  In truth, one question still remains: "If everything was already written in the Mosaic law, what is the original contribution of Jesus"?  It is true that everything was in germ in the Mosaic Law, but Jesus announces and brings to fulfilment the final stage of revelation. And how? Firstly by extending the notion of neighbour to infinity - Mark shows in fact that he struggles against all exclusion - and secondly Jesus came to earth to live in himself these two inseparable loves: love of God and love of neighbour. Finally, Jesus came to make us capable of loving by giving us the gift of his Spirit: 'A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another' (Jn 13:35) and by this all will recognise you as my disciples.  He thus offers the scribe the most beautiful definition of the Kingdom: God reigns where love is king because the love of God nourishes the love of neighbour.

Happy Sunday to you all!

+ Giovanni D'Ercole

Some days I was in a bar. There were some young people talking about their daily problems, when at a certain point the issue of envy came up.

The discussion on this topic was also taken up by the people who were there and someone joking or not (who knows) expressed: but how do you remove it?

I was reminded of old magical and superstitious practices from when I was a child. Or of all those times I have heard people say in the face of a failure or unfavourable situation: 'I must go and have envy removed'. And not only from simple people, but also from people with a certain degree of culture. As already argued in previous articles, even the man of science has his irrational side.

In the Treccani dictionary under envy we read: 'An unpleasant feeling for a good or quality of others that one would like for oneself, often accompanied by aversion and resentment for the one who possesses it instead'.

It is a feeling we all have and which we refuse to acknowledge because it is often something we are ashamed of. We often believe that this feeling has occult powers and therefore believe that pseudo-magical practices can free us. Nothing could be more illusory.

Melanie Klein wrote the book 'Envy and Gratitude' where she addresses this issue.

This author investigated in depth the first relationship the child has with the mother's breast and then with the mother when it manages to perceive her as a total object. A primary relationship that can also be difficult due to maternal causes: non-acceptance of the baby, difficulties in childbirth, or reluctance to breastfeed. 

But there are also causes that can arise from the baby, and among these is envy, which prevents a good relationship with the breast.

The baby may feel a great deal of anger towards the breast, whether it is perceived as good, i.e. that it satisfies him, or as bad - because it does not satisfy his needs and generates envy because it possesses something he does not have.

And so the infant tries to harm him as he can, by putting his naughty bits in (spitting, urinating, biting, etc.).

In a person a strong presence of envy can damage his way of life, and his relations with others; not because of external causes, but because he cannot understand the good object.

He feels that he has ruined it and made it bad.

He cannot feel its good feelings, and this increases his envy and hatred.

In contrast, the child who is more able to feel love and gratitude for the gift he has received, experiences the good object more.

Consequently, gaining confidence in his own goodness, he will overcome envy and hatred more easily.

The person suffering from envy can hardly enjoy the joys of life, because the relationship with the mother and then with any other object of love is damaged.

Positive feelings encourage the child to keep the milk received as good.

Experiencing gratitude is the basis of pleasure, and later he will be able to establish satisfying relationships, because destructive desires are diminished: his anxieties will be less.

Envy does not make us live well, for the simple reason that it goes against life - and the outside world becomes our enemy.  

Or it makes us live a 'breast' that is too idealised or too bad.

A person with a good capacity to love can love the 'object' while seeing its limitations.

One positive thing that envy can operate in us is the possibility of improving ourselves.  

Often, for those who seek help from a professional, among the various issues that the person brings to analysis, this problem must be addressed. 

If the analyst is well aware of these destructive parts, he will be able to lead the person in front of him to recognise the negative parts, and to mitigate them with love and positive feelings.

The well-adjusted person will bear his or her own feelings of guilt better, and will not need to see them on others.  .

Very often it is difficult to bear ourselves.

Francesco Giovannozzi Psychologist - Psychotherapist.