2. Jesus had already asked the group of the 12 Apostles to profess their faith in his person. At Caesarea Philippi, after questioning his disciples about the people's opinion of his identity, he asks: "But who do you say that I am?" (Mt 16:15). The reply comes from Simon Peter: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (16:16).

Jesus immediately confirms the value of this profession of faith, stressing that it stems not only from human thought idea but from heavenly inspiration: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Mt 16:17). These statements, in strongly Semitic tones, indicate the total, absolute and supreme revelation: the one that concerns the person of Christ, Son of God.

Peter's profession of faith will remain the definitive expression of Christ's identity. Mark uses this same expression to begin his Gospel (cf. Mk 1:1) and John refers to it at the end of his, saying that he has written his Gospel so that you may believe "that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God", and that in believing you may have life in his name (cf. Jn 20:31).

3. In what does faith consist? The Constitution Dei Verbum explains that by faith, "man freely commits his entire self to God, making 'the full submission of his intellect and will to God who reveals'" (n. 5). Thus faith is not only the intellect's adherence to the truth revealed, but also a submission of the will and a gift of self to God revealing himself. It is a stance that involves one's entire existence.

The Council also recalls that this faith requires "the grace of God to move [man] and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth'" (ibid.). In this way we can see how, on the one hand, faith enables us to welcome the truth contained in Revelation and proposed by the Magisterium of those who, as Pastors of God's People, have received a "sure charism of truth" (Dei Verbum, n. 8). On the other hand, faith also spurs us to true and deep consistency, which must be expressed in all aspects of a life modeled on that of Christ.

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 18 March 1998]

Today’s Gospel passage (cf. Mk 8:27-35) turns to the question that permeates the whole Gospel of Mark: who is Jesus? But this time Jesus himself poses it to his disciples, helping them to gradually address the question of his identity. Before asking them, the Twelve, directly, Jesus wants to hear from them what the people think about him, and he is well aware that the disciples are very sensitive to the Teacher’s renown! Therefore, he asks: “Who do men say that I am?” (v. 27). It comes to light that Jesus is considered by the people as a great prophet. But, in reality, he is not interested in the opinions and gossip of the people. He also does not agree that his disciples should answer the questions with pre-packaged formulas, quoting well-known individuals from Sacred Scripture, because a faith that is reduced to formulas is a short-sighted faith.

The Lord wants his disciples of yesterday and today to establish a personal relationship with him, and thus to embrace him at the centre of their life. For this reason he spurs them to face themselves honestly, and he asks: “But who do you say that I am?” (v. 29). Today, Jesus addresses this very direct and confidential question to each of us: “You, who do you say that I am? All of you, who do you say that I am? Who am I for you?”. Each person is called to respond, in his or her heart, allowing each one to be illuminated by the light that the Father gives us in order to know his Son Jesus. And it can also happen to us, as it did to Peter, that we passionately affirm: “You are the Christ”. However, when Jesus tells us clearly what he told the disciples, that is, that his mission is fulfilled not on the wide road to success, but on the arduous path of the suffering, humiliated, rejected and crucified Servant, then it can also happen that we, like Peter, might protest and rebel because this contrasts with our expectations, with worldly expectations. In those moments, we too deserve Jesus’ healthy rebuke: “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God, but of men” (v. 33).

Brothers and sisters, the profession of faith in Jesus Christ cannot stop at words, but calls to be authenticated by practical choices and gestures, by a life characterized by God’s love; it calls for a great life, a life with an abundance of love for neighbour. Jesus tells us that to follow him, to be his disciples, we must deny ourselves (cf. v. 34), that is, the demands of our own selfish pride, and take up our own cross. Then he gives everyone a fundamental rule. And what is this rule? “For whoever would save his life will lose it” (v. 35). Often in life, for many reasons, we go astray, looking for happiness only in things, or in people whom we treat as things. But we find happiness only when love, true love, encounters us, surprises us, changes us. Love changes everything! And love can also change us, each one of us. The witnesses of Saints proves it.

May the Virgin Mary, who lived her faith by faithfully following her Son Jesus, help us too to walk on his path, generously spending our life for him and for our brothers and sisters.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 16 September 2018]

(Mk 8:22-26)

In this section of Mk the initiation of Faith is described; in filigree, the routing to the relationship with Christ that takes away the difficulties of ‘sight’ - and the first baptismal liturgies typical rhythm.

The overall context of the passage makes it clear that the episode preludes a lengthy Jesus instruction.

He announces his Passion three times to Peter and disciples, who are reluctant to commit themselves to Cross.

When Mk was writing, the communities situation was one of deep travail. A lot of pains were experienced: it was not easy to understand so much suffering.

In 64 Nero decreed the first great persecution, which produced many victims among believers.

The following year the Jewish revolt broke out, triggering the bloody reconquest of Palestine starting from Galilee.

In the meantime, in Rome the troubles of the bloody civil war (68-69) were crumbling the idea of ​​the Golden Age and rather causing a lot of hardships.

The holy city, Jerusalem, was being razed to the ground in 70. And although Titus had returned to Rome, the war was going on in other outbreaks, until the fall of Masada (74).

In this framework, strong tensions arose outside Palestine between Jewish converts to Christ and observant Jews; and the greatest difficulty was over the interpretation of Jesus’ Cross.

For the traditionalists - and at first for the apostles themselves - a defeated and humiliated man could not be the expected Messiah.

The Torah itself stated that all the crucified were to be considered persons cursed by God [Dt 21:22-23: «the hanged man is a curse from God»].

In that very context, Mk seems to hint that... the real blind ones are Peter and the apostles themselves, conditioned by the propaganda of the Messiah glorious King; as well as the Judaizers.

Everyone wanted a triumphant Jesus. They were like blind people who understood nothing but the easy and flashy propaganda - as well as the world organized on the basis of selfishness.

In order to heal the blindness of his leaders or simple community members who were still uncertain, the Lord had to lead them «out of the village» - the place of usual, ancient illusory beliefs.

And he had to forbid his intimates to re-enter it: there, no one would ever be able to understand the value of the self-giving in ordinary existence or in assembly living, God’s testimonies (vv.23.26).

The same happened to us, like as the «blind man from Bethsaida»: only when the Relationship was internalized and consolidated, did we move from glimmers to greater clarity, learning to understand people, issues, realities.

To be finally «enlightened», we had to accept that God’s gift was introduced through the identity of life in the Son.

The Lord healed our gaze, making us grow over time. A "portent" that became recovery, also natural.

A perspective that prompted decision and action, which now even measure up to great things. Starting from a new vantage point, filled with Hope.

This is also true in the perception of discomforts, which gradually regenerate the being - because anxieties are simple voices of an energy that wants to dispel fog and ballast, and make us flourish otherwise.

These are the event-witnesses to the ‘coming’ of the Messiah in our lives.

Intimate guiding events and images, which the Gospels do not frame in a Christological or ecclesiological framework of a triumphalist kind, but rather in an almost day-to-day and spontaneous manner; very human and relational.

To say that the new person is perhaps still immersed in the shadows, but gradually places the “old man” in the background.

And in the metamorphosis of perspective gaze, in Christ each can bring his or her future person closer.

[Wednesday 6th wk. in O.T.  February 19, 2025]

(Mk 8:22-26)

The encyclical Brothers All invites us to a perspective look, which arouses decision and action: a new eye, filled with Hope.

It "speaks to us of a reality that is rooted in the depths of the human being, regardless of the concrete circumstances and historical conditioning in which he lives. It speaks to us of a thirst, of an aspiration, of a yearning for fullness, for a fulfilled life, of a measuring oneself against what is great, against what fills the heart and lifts the spirit towards great things, such as truth, goodness and beauty, justice and love. [...] Hope is audacious, it knows how to look beyond personal comfort, the small securities and compensations that narrow the horizon, to open up to great ideals that make life more beautiful and dignified" [n.55; from a Greeting to young people in Havana, September 2015].

In this section of Mk, the initiation of the Faith is described; in filigree, the instraction to the relationship with Christ that takes away the difficulties of "sight", and the typical passages of the first baptismal liturgies.

The general context of the passage makes it clear that the episode preludes a long instruction of Jesus.

He announces his Passion three times to Peter and the disciples, who are reluctant to commit themselves to the Cross.

The Master insists - not to add insult to injury and wear down his intimates.

[As the Tao Tê Ching (xxxiii) also recognises: 'That which dies but does not perish has everlasting life'].

When Mc wrote, the situation of the communities was not easy. Much suffering was experienced: it was not so easy to understand so much suffering.

In 64 Nero decreed the first great persecution, which produced many victims among the believers.

The following year, the Jewish revolt broke out, triggering the bloody reconquest of Palestine from Galilee.

In the meantime, in Rome the turmoil of the bloody civil war (68-69) was crumbling the idea of the Golden Age and rather bringing many hardships.

Finally the holy city, Jerusalem, was being razed to the ground (70).

And although Titus had returned to Rome, the war was going on in other hotbeds until the fall of Masada (74).

Within this framework, strong tensions arose outside Palestine between Jews converted to the Lord and observant Jews, and the greatest difficulty was over the interpretation of the Cross of Jesus.

For the traditionalists - and at first for the apostles themselves - a defeated and humiliated man could not be the expected Messiah.

The Torah itself stated that all the crucified were to be considered "cursed by God" [cf. Deut 21:22-23: "the hanged man is a curse from God"].

In that very context, Mk seems to hint that... the real blind ones are Peter and the apostles themselves, conditioned by the propaganda of the glorious Messiah-King, as well as the Judaizers.

They all wanted a triumphant monarch. But they were like blind men who understood nothing but the easy and flashy propaganda - and the world organised on the basis of selfishness.

In order to heal the blindness of his 'leaders' or simple community members who were still uncertain, the Son had to lead them 'out of the village' - the place of the usual, old illusory beliefs.

And forbid his intimates from re-entering it: there, no one would ever be able to understand the value of self-giving in ordinary life or in assembly living, witnesses of God (vv.23.26).

From the very beginning the initiation into the Faith included rite and the new Word.

The latter fully revealed the meaning of the first liturgies - reaching out towards a transformation that touched the whole man in concrete terms.

Mind and heart, spirit and senses, individual and community were involved - for a clear vision of the meaning of life.

In the language of the First Testament, Word and active event are expressed in a single term: 'Dabar'.

Here vision and listening coincide in a single process of perception, assimilation, internalisation and attunement, then action.

Everything in Christ and in us is offered to the senses and the intelligence.

We seem to see a catechumen being - as we used to say - "enlightened", that is, snatched from the disorientation of a paganising life.

The candidate was introduced into the new radiance of the Faith: progressively "initiated" into the Person of Christ, into the demands of Communion and Mission.

The same thing happened to the "blind man of Bethsaida".

Having made the first informal contacts with Jesus, we too began by perceiving something, perhaps in a confused way at first...

As as children, we drew 'pictures' - and at first we could not really delineate the differences, not even the outlines of the surrounding volumes.

Only when the relationship became internalised and consolidated did we move from glimmers to greater clarity, learning to understand people, themes, reality.

It has been and continues to be a 'prodigy' to be assimilated, adapting little by little to the natural course.This although it does not limit itself to an updating of cultural formulae, but finally arrives at 'compromising' the baton.

A 'sign' (John would say) of greater realities, a sign of wondrous things - if you will.

A powerful work, but one that unfolds in an evolutionary process of self-knowledge and knowledge of others, of existential learning, and flowering in the faculties.

[There is no talk of infused science; nor of 'mirabilia Dei' in the ancient sense, i.e. of a conspicuously immediate wonder. As if it were an incredible, exceptional, unrepeatable, sensational (and fortuitous - or extremely difficult and stunted) feat. To convince only someone and peremptorily].

An essential element of revelation in the sacred Scriptures - compared to other religious texts of the ancient world - is the demythologised cosmos, on a human scale.

The problems are traced back to the dialectic of our choice between death and life, as well as the ability to accept a Vocation within a Vocation.

Passages and metamorphoses serve to avoid petrifying life. They bring providential newness to woman and man, to history and sensibility.

By opening our gaze, we crumble useless convictions; we open our aptitude to listen to the proposed renewal.

Indeed, seeing what was previously unnoticed is part of the process that leads from darkness to Faith.

To be finally enlightened, we had to accept that the gift of God was introduced through the identity of life in the Son, which prompts other births.

The Lord healed our gaze by making us grow in time. A 'portent' that also became natural recovery.

The contact with the Lord that opens our eyes and makes us see more and more happens in stages - a non-point source event; also expressed through the tactile language of the Sacraments.

And step by step He lets us advance in the sharpness of insight, in the understanding of the world around us.

Perspective that aroused decision and action, which are now even measured by great things. From a new vantage point, filled with Hope.

This is also true in the perception of hardships, which gradually regenerate the being - because hardships and anxieties are mere voices of an energy that wants to dispel fog and ballast, and make us flourish otherwise.

These are the events-witnesses to the Messiah's coming in our lives.

Intimate guiding events and images, which the Gospels do not frame in a triumphalist Christological or ecclesiological framework, but rather in an almost summary and spontaneous manner - very human and relational.

To say that the new person is perhaps still immersed in the shadows, but gradually places the old man in the background.

And in the metamorphosis of his perspective gaze, in Christ he brings the future person closer.

To internalise and live the message:

What acumen of vision has the Person of Christ granted you? What intimate and engaging icon?

What leap in relationships, in terms of humanisation?

Because of Adam’s sin we too are born “blind” but in the baptismal font we are illumined by the grace of Christ. Sin wounded humanity and destined it to the darkness of death, but the newness of life shines out in Christ, as well as the destination to which we are called. In him, reinvigorated by the Holy Spirit, we receive the strength to defeat evil and to do good. 

In fact the Christian life is a continuous conformation to Christ, image of the new man, in order to reach full communion with God. The Lord Jesus is the “light of the world” (Jn 8:12), because in him shines “the knowledge of the glory of God” (2 Cor 4:6) that continues in the complex plot of the story to reveal the meaning of human existence. 

In the rite of Baptism, the presentation of the candle lit from the large Paschal candle, a symbol of the Risen Christ, is a sign that helps us to understand what happens in the Sacrament. When our lives are enlightened by the mystery of Christ, we experience the joy of being liberated from all that threatens the full realization.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 3 April 2011]

Dear pilgrims.

You are glad to find yourselves gathered in the Pope's house. And I too am very happy to welcome you. Together, we are experiencing some "heart to heart" moments, as at the Ark of Trosly-Breuil, as in the 67 Arks of the world. All of you who have some limitations in health or who so gently surround these young people with disabilities, have a priority place in my heart as a universal Pastor. Is this not how Jesus behaved? Isn't that how parents and educators here behave?

For a few moments I want to gather with you and contemplate Jesus with you. Reading the Gospel carefully, we are - almost on every page - amazed by the Lord's attitude in his dealings with people. He has a unique way - he has, I would say, the secret - of approaching people or letting them come to him. A unique way of conversing with them by listening to them and letting them express themselves. A unique way of freeing them or beginning to free them from their miseries: he progressively opens them up to something other than themselves, to other valid realities. One might say: Jesus liberates them through a progressive decentralisation from themselves.

Therefore, like you in the Ark communities, Jesus uses with respect and delicacy the human resources of closeness, of the gaze, of gestures, of silence, of dialogue. You can also - in this meditative perspective - examine at length his encounters with the first apostles, with Nicodemus, the guests at the wedding in Cana, the Samaritan woman, Zacchaeus, the Roman centurion, the blind man of Bethsaida or the one at the pool of Siloe, Martha and Mary of Bethany, the disciples of Emmaus, Thomas, the unbelieving apostle . . .

Jesus' relationship with his compatriots manifests in the highest degree his sense of dignity, of the sacred value of each person.

You are persuaded of the unprecedented richness of this revelation, which can only be divine. but we know, unfortunately, that too many people and too many leaders of peoples forget it. your arks are and can be, even more, a serene and vigorous demonstration of sacred respect, of patient attention, of possible human promotion, in favour of children and adolescents limited from birth by various handicaps. you contribute, without making noise, to the 'civilisation of love'.

Wholeheartedly, I encourage you to continue your educational and evangelically inspired work, carried out in an original and communitarian way, in the 67 Arche spread over several continents. I imagine that this community life is not without problems. Solving them once and for all will take time. But what is important is to live with your problems, renewing and affirming each day your will, your choice of respect, of listening, of tenderness, of forgiveness, of cooperation, of hope, of joy. Truly, this behaviour alleviates the problems, creating a climate of openness of spirit and heart among those with handicaps and fostering the growth of the personality of adults devoted body and soul to their service.

I fervently invoke on the group I have the joy of receiving, but also on all the Arks of the world, on their members and their leaders, and on their founder, Monsignor Jean Vanier, renewed graces of light and divine strength.

[Pope John Paul II, Address to the Arche Community 16 February 1984]

Today’s Gospel sets before us the story of the man born blind, to whom Jesus gives sight. The lengthy account opens with a blind man who begins to see and it closes — and this is curious — with the alleged seers who remain blind in soul. The miracle is narrated by John in just two verses, because the Evangelist does not want to draw attention to the miracle itself, but rather to what follows, to the discussions it arouses, also to the gossip. So many times a good work, a work of charity arouses gossip and discussion, because there are some who do not want to see the truth. The Evangelist John wants to draw attention to something that also occurs in our own day when a good work is performed. The blind man who is healed is first interrogated by the astonished crowd — they saw the miracle and they interrogated him —, then by the doctors of the law who also interrogate his parents. In the end the blind man who was healed attains to faith, and this is the greatest grace that Jesus grants him: not only to see, but also to know Him, to see in Him “the light of the world” (Jn 9:5).

While the blind man gradually draws near to the light, the doctors of the law on the contrary sink deeper and deeper into their inner blindness. Locked in their presumption, they believe that they already have the light, therefore, they do not open themselves to the truth of Jesus. They do everything to deny the evidence. They cast doubt on the identity of the man who was healed, they then deny God’s action in the healing, taking as an excuse that God does not work on the Sabbath; they even doubt that the man was born blind. Their closure to the light becomes aggressive and leads to the expulsion from the temple of the man who was healed.

The blind man’s journey on the contrary is a journey in stages that begins with the knowledge of Jesus’ name. He does not know anything else about him; in fact, he says: “The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes” (v. 11). Following the pressing questions of the lawyers, he first considers him a prophet (v. 17) and then a man who is close to God (v. 31). Once he has been banished from the temple, expelled from society, Jesus finds him again and “opens his eyes” for the second time, by revealing his own identity to him: “I am the Messiah”, he tells him. At this point the man who had been blind exclaims: “Lord, I believe!” (v. 38), and he prostrates himself before Jesus. This is a passage of the Gospel that makes evident the drama of the inner blindness of so many people, also our own for sometimes we have moments of inner blindness.

Our lives are sometimes similar to that of the blind man who opened himself to the light, who opened himself to God, who opened himself to his grace. Sometimes unfortunately they are similar to that of the doctors of the law: from the height of our pride we judge others, and even the Lord! Today, we are invited to open ourselves to the light of Christ in order to bear fruit in our lives, to eliminate unchristian behaviours; we are all Christians but we all, everyone sometimes has unchristian behaviours, behaviours that are sins. We must repent of this, eliminate these behaviours in order to journey well along the way of holiness, which has its origin in baptism. We, too, have been “enlightened” by Christ in baptism, so that, as St Paul reminds us, we may act as “children of light” (Eph 5:8), with humility, patience and mercy. These doctors of the law had neither humility, nor patience, nor mercy!

I suggest that today, when you return home, you take the Gospel of John and read this passage from Chapter nine. It will do you good, because you will thus see this road from blindness to light and the other evil road that leads to deeper blindness. Let us ask ourselves about the state of our own heart? Do I have an open heart or a closed heart? It is opened or closed to God? Open or closed to my neighbour? We are always closed to some degree which comes from original sin, from mistakes, from errors. We need not be afraid! Let us open ourselves to the light of the Lord, he awaits us always in order to enable us to see better, to give us more light, to forgive us. Let us not forget this! Let us entrust this Lenten journey to the Virgin Mary, so that we too, like the blind man who was healed, by the grace of Christ may “come to the light”, go forward towards the light and be reborn to new life.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 30 March 2014]

And the much yeast, which impoverishes

(Mk 8:14-21)

Jesus says one thing, the apostles understand another. The «leaven of the Pharisees and that of Herod» is a theme that alludes to the ideology of domination.

The disciples were close to Christ, because he was the character of the moment.

But enraptured by cheap illusions, they no longer listened to the Master, who was pursuing them.

Even today some followers do not feel like getting involved in things they do not want to know and would put them in shortage (v.14) - with the only possibility of fraternal sharing.

They seem unwilling to hear anything but proclamations of power, opulence, fame and imperial victory.

Their heads and their desires remain distant, engaged only in the validations of "swelling" and profit - despite appearances to the contrary.

They come to kidnap the Son of God for themselves, because they seem to have become exactly like the adversaries of the new Faith: hardened hearts (v.17) - eyes that do not look, ears that do not listen (v.18).

By moving away from him to turn willingly to the usual idolatries and pagan hopes.

Of course, there were confused ideas about the Messiah around - but all related to the [unfaithful] conception of ‘grandeur’.

But the authentic Messiah doesn’t want to reach an eminent position through contacts and deceptions, but rather to help needy and frightened humanity.

Many were waiting for a King, others for a high priest who was finally holy.

Some expected a guerrilla, or a healer;  others a judge or a prophet. No one a Servant.

Everyone reduced him to normal flattery, according to their interests - and class of belonging.

In fact, the very intimates of the Master showed themselves willing to go after any breeze of doctrine, as long as this could allow them to retain the treasures of the Kingdom.

Any title for the Messiah - religious, political, nationalist - could be tolerated, digested and made tameable... except the one that forced them to become servants of others.

The only uncomfortable presence.

Yet the prolonged absence of a prophetic spirit becomes the cause of many torments.

The inclination to coexistence and communion is missionary ‘truth’. Instrument for the redemption of all, starting with those who reach out to needy sisters and brothers.

By its nature and mandate, the small boat of the Church remains sent to all nations. ‘Salt of the earth’, ‘Light of the world’.

No believer must imagine himself exonerated.

Baptism has incorporated us, so that we are launched to cooperate - according to capacity and contexts.

A breath that cannot be interrupted or limited. Death would result.

In short, the Lord doesn’t ask us for marginal and nuanced behavior, but rather receptive and global ones.

Attitudes that affect the sense of history and its assets...

Because sharing the little «bread» doesn’t impoverish; rather, it enriches.

To internalize and live the message:

«They had ‘only one bread’ with them in the boat»: do you complain about it or do you evaluate its meaning?

[Tuesday 6th wk. in O.T.  February 18, 2025]

Dear friends, do not hesitate to follow Jesus Christ. In him we find the truth about God and about mankind. He helps us to overcome our selfishness, to rise above our ambitions and to conquer all that oppresses us. The one who does evil, who sins, becomes a slave of sin and will never attain freedom (cf. Jn 8:34). Only by renouncing hatred and our hard and blind hearts will we be free and a new life will well up in us.

Convinced that it is Christ who is the true measure of man, and knowing that in him we find the strength needed to face every trial, I wish to proclaim openly Jesus Christ as the way, the truth and the life. In him everyone will find complete freedom, the light to understand reality more deeply and to transform it by the renewing power of love.

[Pope Benedict, homily in Havana 28 March 2012]