(1Cor 15,54-58)

8th Sunday O.T. (C)

1 Corinthians 15:54 When then this corruptible body is clothed with incorruption and this mortal body with immortality, the word of Scripture will be fulfilled:

Death has been swallowed up for victory.

1 Corinthians 15:55 Where, O death, is thy victory?

Where, O death, is thy sting?

1Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

1Corinthians 15:57 Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

1Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my dearly beloved brethren, remain steadfast and immovable, always labouring in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Until the day of the final resurrection, death will reign over this earth and submerge every man. When, on the other hand, the Lord completes his last work, then death will be submerged forever in the victory of Christ. After that, death will no longer have power, it will be defeated forever, forever annulled. Man will enter his finality, and only then will we understand what Christ has truly done for us. Death, both physical and spiritual, only Christ has conquered it, only in Him will we conquer it today and on the last day. There are no other Messiahs, no other ways, no other faiths. The only Messiah is Jesus Christ, the only way is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the only faith is the Word of the Lord, his Holy Gospel. Let those who seek elsewhere know that they will find nothing, for nothing exists.

Death will be ousted, rendered powerless, submerged by the victory of Christ. It that thought it had a deadly sting, finds itself stung by the victorious sting of Jesus Christ. She who thought she was the absolute ruler over man, by the man Jesus was defeated. It was Christ who died that overcame it with his resurrection. This is the mockery of death. Where no man could have succeeded, because he too was a prisoner and slave by birth of death, Christ triumphed. The victory of Christ is the resurrection, the cross is the victory over sin. By becoming in Christ one body and one life, we too on the cross together with Him overcome sin, and by overcoming sin we are led to complete victory over death.

For although the victory is accomplished in Christ, in His body, yet Paul says that the victory is ours: "He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. The victory is ours because it will be manifested in us. We are associated with Him who has made all things.

Now, from the heart of the Christian, our hymn of thanksgiving, praise and blessing must rise up to the Father. Thanksgiving is the highest form of worship. We can only give thanks if Christ's victory has already been made ours; we give thanks for a gift that we already possess, that has already transformed us.

He gives thanks to God for such a great gift whoever commits himself, works, toils, so that Christ's victory transforms his life entirely and he becomes in the world a visible image of Christ crucified and risen, of a spiritual man, who transmits through his life the path of hope to which every man is called. Thanksgiving is thus transformed into an obligation of holiness, to which we are called by the Father who has bestowed the victory of Christ on us and waits for us to live it totally in us.

«Therefore, my beloved brethren, remain steadfast and immovable, always labouring in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord». In this concluding verse, Paul reiterates certain truths that must constitute the life of believers. The first is this: remain steadfast and immovable. In what? In the truth of Christ's resurrection and ours on the last day. The resurrection of Christ is the truth that gives consistency to all the other truths of our faith. If Christ's resurrection is not confessed with certainty of heart and mind, everything will ultimately be in vain and useless.

It is not enough, however, to remain firm and unshakable in this truth. One must be dedicated to the Lord's work. What is the work of the Lord? The fulfilment of his death and resurrection in us. Since the work of Christ was his death and resurrection, the work of the Lord for the Christian is also the fulfilment of Christ's death and resurrection in him. Christ's death is accomplished in the Christian through obedience to God's will. The work of the Lord to be done is to transform the word of Christ into life, as Christ transformed the word of the Father into life. Paul wants us to be prodigal in this work. To lavish ourselves means to spare ourselves in nothing, it means to expend all our physical and spiritual energy for the accomplishment of Christ's work in us.The third truth that we must always have in our hearts is this: whoever does the work of the Lord does the only true work, the only just work, the only holy work, the only work that has eternal value. Each of us, in every work we do, must ask ourselves whether what we do is the work of God. Only God's work is not in vain, and in doing it we do not waste our time and expend our energy uselessly. The work that will make our labour precious is only one: the fulfilment of Christ's death in us, so that his glorious resurrection on the last day may be accomplished in us.

If one sees Christianity in this way, one gives it another imprint; one gives it the imprint of seeking God's will so that it may be fulfilled in our lives. If one observes the life of a Christian community according to this vision of faith, then one becomes aware of all the vanities that surround it. Everything is done, except to fulfil each one individually and all together, each according to his part and vocation, the work of Christ, which is our death in Him in the greatest obedience to our Father who is in heaven.

True faith heals, renews existence, changes it, transforms it. Today, this is what is required of Christian communities: to start from the proclamation of true faith so that each one may begin in his or her own body the fulfilment of the Lord's work, which is the work of Christ, begun in us on the day of our baptism.

Knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. This fervour in doing good must be kindled in us by the certainty of the prize. Our labour is not in vain, for it will make us worthy of the future resurrection, provided, however, that everything is done in the Lord, that is, in intimate union with Jesus Christ.

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation - exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers - Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants compared - In defence of the faith

(Buyable on Amazon)

(1Cor 15,45-49)

1Corinthians 15:45 the first man, Adam, became a living being, but the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

1Corinthians 15:46 There was not the spiritual body first, but the animal body, and then the spiritual.

1Corinthians 15:47 The first man from the earth is of the earth; the second man is from heaven.

1Corinthians 15:48 As the man made of the earth, so are they of the earth; but as the heavenly, so are they of the heavenly.

1Corinthians 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the man of earth, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

In these verses Paul delves into the Adam-Christ parallelism. Adam, the first man, because of his sin was a bringer of death, disease, suffering, pain. He was also the cause of a concupiscent body, a body that was difficult for man himself to govern. Adam instead of a father of life proved to be a father of death, instead of freedom he proved to be a father of slavery, instead of salvation he became a father of perdition.

In his infinite and eternal mercy, God had from eternity foreseen an effective remedy against the death that Adam would bring into the world. Thinking of Jesus Christ, Saviour and Redeemer, He thought of Him as the life-giving spirit in order to work our redemption. How did He work it? Through His dead and resurrected body. That body that was clothed with divine and immortal life, with glory and incorruption, the Lord gives it as our food and drink of eternal life so that we too may become partakers of it, and be clothed with it.

Adam bequeathed a body of sin. This is our condition. Only those who become one with Christ can clothe the spiritual body. If we remain outside the body of Christ, we remain in the bondage of vice and sin; we dwell in our selfishness, we spend our days driven and tossed about by the concupiscence that makes us instinctive, passionate, proud, fanatical, transgressors.

To those who ask why the spiritual state, though more perfect, came after the more imperfect animal state, the apostle answers with a general principle: the natural order dictates that we begin with what is imperfect, and then move on to what is more perfect. God wanted to follow this law, and therefore established that the more perfect spiritual state should be preceded by the imperfect animal state.

We have received an animal body; through this body, in a path of truth we are called to clothe the heavenly body. The death of Christ enables us to set out on the journey, because the Holy Spirit in the waters of baptism clothes us with Christ. It is a journey towards acquiring our true humanity. It is a long journey, not easy, it costs the sacrifice and holocaust of our lives. There is only one way: remain anchored in Christ, become one with him.

Adam came from the earth because according to the Genesis account he was moulded from the dust of the ground. This is his origin. Jesus comes from heaven as the true God. He is not from heaven as a body. He assumed the body from the blessed Virgin Mary. He too therefore has a body that was taken from the flesh of Adam, although this flesh by a singular privilege is most holy, full of grace, from the first moment of its conception. The body of Jesus Christ was born in the greatest holiness, but it is still human flesh and therefore Jesus Christ also has a body that comes from the earth, otherwise he could not have redeemed us.

"What is earthly, such also are earthly; and what is heavenly, such also shall be heavenly." Each one produces according to his nature. Adam, who was taken from the dust of the ground, begat men in his image, also made of a material body. But Christ's gift is different: through his passion, death and resurrection his body has become spiritual, glorious. His body bears within itself the perfection of the divine image. By grace we will be in all things similar to his heavenly body, if we allow ourselves to be generated by God through faith. This is the greatest act of love with which God will clothe us tomorrow, if we allow ourselves to be clothed in our souls today through conversion, faithfulness to the gospel, that is, a life wholly made up of the word of Christ.

For "as we have borne the image of the earthly, so shall we also bear the image of the heavenly. By descent from Adam we bore the image of the earthly man; so by faith we shall bear the image of the heavenly man. Christ is in the glory of his spiritualised body. This is the image with which we shall one day be clothed. Towards the fulfilment of this truth we must walk.

The present moment is the place of the passage, that is, of this gestation in which progressively our animal life, our concrete everyday life, our existence, is lived in spiritual terms. And this is already the harbinger of resurrection. Death then will not be the failure of this life, but the next passage which is all a hymn to life. In baptism we have laid down the image of the earthly man and begun to bear the image of Jesus Christ, an image that will become perfect after the resurrection.

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation - exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers - Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants compared - In defence of the faith

(Buyable on Amazon)

(1Cor 15:12.16-20)

6th Sunday in O.T. (year C)

1Corinthians 15:12 Now if it is preached that Christ rose from the dead, how can some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

1Corinthians 15:16 For if the dead rise not, neither is Christ risen;

1Corinthians 15:17 But if Christ be not risen, your faith is vain, and ye are yet in your sins.

1Corinthians 15:18 And they also that are dead in Christ are lost.

1Corinthians 15:19 If then we have had hope in Christ only in this life, we are more to be pitied than all men.

Some Corinthians held Greek ideas concerning the immortality of the soul, namely that after death the soul separated from the body to be absorbed into the divine or to continue a tenuous existence in Ades, since for the Greeks physical resurrection was impossible. Paul has already said that Jesus Christ not only rose from the dead, he was also seen risen. There were many people who had the grace to see him. Yet, some in Corinth taught that there is no resurrection of the dead. On the one hand there is the whole gospel that is founded on the resurrection of Jesus, and on the other hand it is stated that the dead do not rise. This is not a contradiction on a marginal point of faith; it is a contradiction on the focal point of faith, indeed on faith itself, since our faith is the resurrection of Jesus Christ; together with his incarnation, passion and death. Either Christ is risen and the dead also rise, or the dead do not rise and Christ is not risen either.

Paul does not start from the resurrection of Jesus to refute the error of the Corinthians: he starts from the error of the Corinthians to draw all the consequences of their assertion and thus confront them with another truth that they would have to confess if their assertion were true: "if Christ has not risen, vain is your faith; you are still in your sins.

If Christ is not risen, besides having a vain faith, there is also a miserable state in which man finds himself: he is still in his sins. If Christ did not rise again for our justification, neither did he die for our sins, he just died. No resurrection implies no atonement. Jesus' unopened tomb would indicate that he too remained in the grip of death and that, consequently, the forgiveness of sins and the justification we sought in him are illusory: we are still in our bondage. We enter here into relativism and religious indifferentism. If sin is not taken away through our justification, there is no difference between the Christian and all other men in the world. The difference would only be one of form, but not of substance. We and others are all in our sins, and in them we live, but also die.

Another consequence: 'Even those who sleep in Christ have therefore perished. Not only we who are alive, are in our sins; also those who died believing and hoping in Christ, perished because Christ, not being the true Messiah, could not obtain remission of sins through faith in Him, and therefore passed into the next world with all their sins, which lead to perdition. From this last deduction, one thing becomes clear: faith in Christ (if he is not resurrected) is of no use to us, either in this life or the next. It does not serve us because it does not deliver us from death, it does not free us from sin, it does not obtain redemption, it does not bring us into the joy of heaven.

"If we have hoped in Christ for this life only, we are the most miserable of all men." A hope in Christ for this life only is not only vain, it is also deleterious; indeed it is an anti-human hope. Because of this faith, we must give up many things, which others enjoy, and endure all manner of travails and persecutions - sometimes even shedding our own blood. What then is the use of hoping in Christ in this life, without the hope of eternal life? What is the use of forcing oneself to sacrifice, to mortify oneself, to carry the cross every day, if all this ends in eternal death, since there would be no hope beyond death for those who have put their trust in Christ?

We are only to be pitied. We have renounced this world in the light of another world, but if Christ is not resurrected we have lost the pleasure of both worlds. Greater foolishness than this could not exist for a man. For this Christians would be to be pitied more than all men, for they are fools more than all men, and they are fools because they go after a faith which at its core is false, since they themselves, that is, those who profess it, would affirm that it is false, founded on a truth that does not exist.

How desirable it would be for Christians today to learn from Paul to draw the consequences of every statement they make concerning our most holy Faith! If they did this, they would understand that certain things cannot be affirmed; but if they are affirmed, it is right to draw conclusions and act accordingly. On many matters of faith today one could make the same argument as Paul. The results would be truly astonishing. But this is not done, and so man continues to live in his delusion. He thinks he has said it all, while in reality he does nothing but live by falsehood, deception and all kinds of other lies about the Lord, not only to his own detriment, but to the detriment of every man, Christian and non-Christian alike.

The strength of faith is in its arguments, in its deductions, in the consequences that must necessarily be drawn from a statement, whether true or false is of little importance, as long as one draws conclusions and knows how to deduce everything. All this ability is wisdom of the Holy Spirit and is given to those who love the truth, seek the truth, desire the truth; it is given to all those who love God and man; who do not want to be false witnesses of God; who do not want to be deceivers of their brothers.

We must always pray to the Lord to give us an open, wise, intelligent mind to immediately perceive the deadly trap that is hidden and concealed behind every statement that is in the guise of faith, while in reality it is pure lie, pure fantasy, pure imagination that has as its point of origin the heart of man and certainly not the heart of God. Reason is a precious asset of man. He must also know how to use it and use it well to discover the true and false of his statements; he must know how to use it to grasp the nuances of true and false that may be hidden in a word; he must know how to use it to arrive through a series of deductions and arguments at the truth itself. Faith needs reason, it needs it; not in order to demonstrate faith, which is based on proclamation alone, but because the truth of faith also possesses a rational path that must be developed. 

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation - exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers - Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants compared - In defence of the faith

(Buyable on Amazon)

(1Cor 15:1-11)

1Corinthians 15:1 I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I proclaimed to you and which you received, in which you stand firm,

1Corinthians 15:2 and from which also ye receive salvation, if ye hold it in that form in which I have proclaimed it unto you. Otherwise, you would have believed in vain!

This fifteenth chapter is devoted by Paul entirely to the problem and question of faith concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ, in which he also sees and contemplates ours. It is the last doctrinal topic of the Epistle to the Corinthians, one of the main points of Christian doctrine, namely the resurrection of the dead. This dogma was denied by the Sadducees, mocked by the pagans, interpreted allegorically by some Christians, judged impossible and absurd by some Corinthians imbued with false philosophical ideas. Along with the resurrection, they probably also denied the immortality of the soul, or at least doubted it. The Apostle refutes these errors, proving the reality of the future resurrection, and then explaining the manner in which this mystery will be fulfilled, with the example of the resurrected Jesus and the lives of the believers and apostles.

In the first verse one can already glimpse the seriousness with which the apostle addresses the subject. The resurrection of Jesus is not one of the many tenets of faith, or one of the many truths that make up the revelation he proclaimed. The resurrection of Jesus is the Gospel he proclaimed to the Corinthians. It, alone, is Gospel. It, alone, is sufficient to firmly ground faith in Christ. From the resurrection of Christ, every other mystery of faith is made comprehensible and receives its proper value.

To produce fruits of eternal life, the Gospel must be composed of three essential moments: the proclamation of the Gospel, the acceptance of the Gospel, and standing firm in the Gospel. If any one of these moments is missing, the gospel is also missing. The gift of Christ to man is essential. If the Church does not give Christ to man, man loses Christ. Those who do not have the Church do not have Christ; the Christ they believe they possess is not the true Christ, it is not the Christ of faith, it is their Christ, made in their image and likeness. This 'Christ' that man gives himself is a pure idol. It is not God's gift to man. God gives Christ to man through his Church, starting with his apostles.

But it is not enough to give and receive the gift, it is necessary that in the gift we remain steadfast, anchored. Paul, in this, is of an unprecedented seriousness. He leaves no room for personal thoughts, for spontaneous reflections. The Gospel is proclaimed by the Church and the apostles, from the Church and the apostles one accepts it, one remains firm and well anchored in it, and through this faith, one comes into possession of salvation ('you are saved'), which will be given to us in all its fullness in the life to come.

Having stated the first principle of faith, another follows immediately. "If you keep it in that form in which I have proclaimed it to you". The necessary condition to obtain this salvation is to keep, that is, to firmly believe the Gospel as it was preached, without taking away or falsifying anything. Salvation is from the Gospel on only one condition: that it is maintained, kept intact, in the form in which the Church and the Apostles proclaimed it. If this does not happen, if the Gospel is changed, altered, it becomes ineffective as far as salvation is concerned. Faith placed in it is a vain faith, because it does not grant salvation.

There is an obligation, and it is an obligation of salvation, to keep the Gospel in its original form, to keep it in the heart and mind as it was proclaimed. He who wants salvation must receive the Gospel from the Church, but he must also keep it as the Church has delivered it to him. He cannot make any changes to it, on pain of losing his soul.

To believe in a personal Gospel and then lose one's soul (this means having 'believed in vain'), what is the use? Better to have no gospel than to have a false one; better to live in the way of the world than to live falsely in the way of God.

Paul's principles cannot be adapted to certain modern theology, which has ousted the gospel from its place, replacing it with human thoughts that have only the appearance of truth and faith. In truth they contain nothing of the liberating and redeeming power of the gospel. Much faith today is in vain; much faith does not lead to salvation, because it is founded on a modified Gospel, reduced to human thoughts.

This too must be said for the sake of truth; the salvation of many souls who have fallen into this trap prepared for them by many men who call themselves men of faith, while they have reduced the Gospel of God, the only word of eternal life, to vanity and foolishness.

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation - exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers - Law or Gospel?Jesus Christ true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants compared - In defence of the faith

(Buyable on Amazon)

(Lk 2:22-40)

Luke 2:29 "Now let your servant, O Lord, be

go in peace according to your word;

Luke 2:30 for my eyes have seen your salvation,

Luke 2:31 prepared by you before all peoples,

Luke 2:32 light to enlighten the Gentiles

and the glory of your people Israel".

Very ancient is the liturgical use of the Nunc dimittis, prayed in the evening before going to sleep. What does it mean to pray the Nunc dimittis? It means first of all to confess that, having believed in God, it is now indifferent for us to die or to live, because by faith we know that we no longer see death. For the believer, true death lies behind us and is in baptism (Rom 6:3-11), so that the death that lies before us should no longer be a cause for anguish or fear. To every believer are addressed the words: "whoever lives and believes in me will not die eternally" (Jn 11:26), which Jesus said to Martha.

Repeating Simeon's words leads us to a confession of faith whereby we can tell God that he can now dismiss us from his service. By going to sleep we prepare ourselves for a moment of powerlessness, a moment in which we are not masters of anything, we prepare ourselves for sleep, which is a figure of death. With this canticle we prepare ourselves to welcome in peace the hour when we will die. To die is a difficult thing, and to die well is a rare grace, but if we practise every night to make sleep a prophecy of death, then we prepare ourselves to go towards death as to an encounter with the Lord.

With the Nunc dimittis we confess the Lord as the Master of our lives, he who by his power can call us to himself every day, and so we learn to make our lives a service from which we can ask to be dismissed.

To pray the Nunc dimittis is to thank God for the miracle of making us come to evening still with faith in him: this alone is a great miracle that must be acknowledged with thanksgiving. Asking each evening to be dismissed from the Lord's service teaches us that it is not for us to finish the work, but that it is for us only to believe and confess that God's work has been accomplished and completed in us. It is we who in our little faith think that we always have something to accomplish.

For the Lord we should always be ready, for he returns as a thief in the night. Before sleep, when night comes, we must be ready to lay down our breath in the Lord's hands, handing our existence back to him.

By praying the Nunc dimittis we also confess that we have seen salvation, that we have seen and recognised God's action. Even at the end of a day of suffering, of weeping, with the Nunc dimittis we acknowledge in faith that God works salvation even through events that make us suffer, that constitute a contradiction for us. But from faith descends the peace that makes us confess: 'we have seen with our own eyes the salvation of God'. And so we bring our whole day before the Lord, and if we have been faithful, then we ourselves will have been 'light of the world'. Even our day, though marked by our weaknesses, will have been light to the heathen, to the unbelievers, to all the people we have encountered.

Even the events that have contradicted us must therefore be considered as something good through which the Lord leads us. After all, Simeon, now old and without a relevant role, is contradicted in his life. Anna, in her condition of old age and widowhood, also experiences events of contradiction. In the first two chapters of Luke we encounter barrenness, poverty, irrelevance, all events of contradiction that run through the lives of all men of God in this part of the gospel. Yet it is precisely these who see themselves superabundantly rewarded by the Lord.

So even amidst the events of contradiction we are called to walk and carry out our mission. According to Luke, the mission was carried out by Simeon, by Anna, not by those who had been commissioned. The one who says: "I am the light of the world" (Jn 8:12) is also the one who says: "You are the light of the world" (Mt 5:14), associating us with his mission, which takes place both in our abasement and in our success.

This opens us up to great freedom in our Christian life and in our calling: whether successful or stoned, we must move forward in obedience to God's promise, not stopping at the contradictions of each day.

If we have lived obedience during the day, we have been light in the world. But in this world we are also the glory of Israel, because Christians, the church, are the missionaries of Israel in the world.

Behold, the Nunc dimittis is truly what seals our day. Simeon sang it at the end, at the sunset of his life; we sing it every evening, at the end of our days, waiting to do it at the end of our existence, at the evening of our lives. Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation - exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers - Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants compared - In defence of the faith

(Buyable on Amazon)

(1Cor 12,12-30)

1Corinthians 12:12 For just as the body, though it is one, has many members, and all the members, though they are many, are one body, so also Christ.

1Corinthians 12:13 And indeed we were all baptized into one Spirit to form one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free; and we were all watered with one Spirit.

Through the simile of the body, Paul wants the Corinthians to understand the great principle of fellowship that binds all those baptised into Christ. The first rule of the principle of fellowship is this: the body is one, the members are many. No member alone forms the body, no body is formed by a single member. There is no opposition between unity and diversity. On the contrary, unity is given by diversity, and diversity is made for unity, just like in the human body.

Diversity is very important, otherwise, only God would exist. Therefore, the very condition to be able to exist is that we are different and distinct, and woe betide to abolish diversity, because the life of one member, its functionality, derives from the life of the other member and its functionality. No member works for itself, each member works for the other members. Each member receives vital help from the other members and lives as long as it is capable of receiving this vital help. Thus the life of one depends on the life of the other.

There is a reciprocity in the human body that for Paul must also be reciprocity in the body of Christ, which is the Church: 'so also is it of Christ'. Given that Paul used the human body as an analogy of the church, one would have expected him to have concluded by saying, 'so also is it of the church', instead he says, 'so also is it of Christ', and it is precisely this that the Apostle wants to make clear, namely that the 'church' is the body of Christ, so to say that we are of Christ is to say that we are church.

In last Sunday's reading, the Apostle Paul had reminded the Corinthians that there is one God, one Lord, and one Spirit. Now he adds another great truth: there is one body, that is, one church. The body of Christ is one, not two, not three, not many, and will be one until the consummation of history. Everything was made in Christ, for Christ, and with Christ - and we are all in him, members of his body. And the image of the church as one body is not just an image: it is the mystical and profound reality of redeemed humanity.

Unfortunately we experience diversity as a nightmare because we say that the other has something that I do not have, so there is a difference, so I have to appropriate what he has. So the gifts we have become the place of quarrel and fight, and man through gifts dominates and does evil.

The church is not a 'club' formed by people who have decided to agree on what to believe, to all think alike. On the contrary, the church is formed by Christians who have been subjected to a specific divine operation. Baptism symbolises this truth. One is part of the body of Christ the moment one is born of water and the Holy Spirit. Baptism is the sacrament of our incorporation into Jesus Christ. When we come out of the waters we are no longer us, we come forth as the body of Christ, we come forth as his members. This is the new reality that is fulfilled in baptism.

To be baptised is to go deep, to be immersed, in what? In the one Spirit! We are immersed in the life of the Spirit that is given to us by the cross. We immerse ourselves in this love that God has for us; this is what unites us. We live by this love that is one for all. This gives my identity as a son, makes me love the Father, and love my brothers and sisters; this is the profound meaning of baptism. And this makes us one body, because we are united by one breath (the Spirit). One is the breath, one is the life, one is the body.

We form one body where each is a distinct member from the other, whether we are Jews or Greeks (the great religious differences); whether we are slaves or free (the great social differences); whether we are male or female (the great natural differences). Indeed, these differences are fundamental for the body to be articulate. If we are baptised, if we are immersed in the love that God has for us and live from this love that unites us to Christ, we live the life of God, and together with others who live the same life we form one person in God; and that is the total Christ. And this is the Church.

Just as the right hand and the left hand and the other parts of the body are distinct and different from each other, but have one life and form one person, so we have one life and are one person. From this truth comes a twofold obligation for those who have accepted to be part of the body of Christ. The first is to see and think of oneself as the body of Christ, a member of Him. Thinking of oneself as a member of Christ means living the law of communion in all its aspects.

The second obligation is to nourish oneself daily with the Holy Spirit, through personal and community prayer, and especially through the Eucharist - the sacrament of new life - so that assimilation to Christ occurs in a perfect manner; whole, without gaps. This configuration to Christ is necessary to abolish that past that could always return and enslave us, and feed the thoughts of the old man. Instead, the strength of the new man is in constantly drinking from the waters of the Holy Spirit. This is the secret of the saints. This must be the secret of every member of the body of Christ. If he constantly drinks of the water of the Spirit, the old man will have less and less strength, and Christ will grow more and more in him.

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation - exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers - Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants compared - In defence of the faith

(Buyable on Amazon)

(1Cor 12:4-11)

2nd Sunday in O.T. (C)

1Corinthians 12:4 There are diversities of charisms, but one is the Spirit;

1Corinthians 12:5 there are diversities of ministries, but one is the Lord;

1Corinthians 12:6 there are diversities of operations, but one is God, who works all things in all.

1Corinthians 12:7 And to each is given a particular manifestation of the Spirit for the common good:

Three times diversity is spoken of and three times unity. Unity is attributed to the Spirit who is the Holy Spirit, to the Lord who is Jesus, and to God who is the Father. Practically, the Trinity underlies our diversity and unity, because the Trinity is the first place of diversity and unity. Distinction, diversity is necessary for relationship, for love. Diversity, in love, becomes unity, which maintains diversity. Since God is love, then love needs diversity; and diversity is the very place of unity, whereas very often for us diversity is the place of quarrel, because we do not accept diversity.

"There is diversity of gifts, but there is one and the same Spirit". Here we have the word charismatōn. Derived from the same root as the word 'grace', charis, it means 'manifestations of grace' and therefore 'gifts'. Charisma is a particular grace through which we can manifest God's richness to the world. Charisma is grace because it is freely given to man. No one can make a personal boast of it.

Having affirmed this first truth, Paul immediately affirms another. If charisms are many, only one is their author: the Holy Spirit of God. Why does Paul wish to specify this truth? The pagans believed that a person's different gifts should be attributed to different gods, one of whom gave wisdom, the other strength, etc. So that Christians would not think that something similar was happening with the different gifts given to them, the apostle warns them that although the gifts are different, one is the Spirit from whom they proceed.

"There is diversity of ministries. Ministries, diakoniōn, means: diakonia, services (those of the apostles, bishops, presbyters, etc.). So it introduces another concept: every charisma, every gift we have is a service to others. So there is a diversity of services because the gifts are manifested in the service one does to one's brothers.

"There is but one and the same Lord". All these services are established and regulated by the supreme will of the one head of the Church: the Lord Jesus. Thus every service finds its origin in Jesus, who made himself the servant of all, and every gift finds its model in Jesus.

'And there is a variety of operations'. Operations translates the term energēmàtōn, which comes from the word normally used for 'work'. The works we do for the service of the Kingdom are to be traced back to God the Father Almighty, who from the heights of heaven strengthens our will, infuses energy and vigour into the body, holiness into the soul so that we may work according to God.

"But there is but one and the same God". For the third time Paul asserts that there can be no divisions between Christians on the basis of 'gifts', because it is the same God who bestows the gifts in all their diversity. And precisely because all gifts proceed from God, they can only be directed to an end worthy of God.

Every man is an instrument in God's hands. If God uses one instrument for one thing and another instrument for another thing, may the instrument enter into jealousy, may behave with envy, may say to the Lord why do you use me and not the other, or why do you use the other and not me? If God has arranged for one to exercise a ministry with a particular charisma and another to act according to another ministry and with a different charisma, who is the man so that he can say to God why did you make me this way and why did you make me differently from others?

If it is God who works in us, then it is right to pray to God to act in us according to the gift with which he has enriched us, but also to empower the gift with which he has enriched others.

In these verses we have the deep scaffolding of the structure of a community life and also of a couple, that is, diversity and unity. They are not an obstacle to each other, but are necessary to each other, otherwise, it is impossible to live. The discourse is a grade because it applies both on a strictly personal level and on a social level. These are core values in which the fate of humanity is at stake, that is, how you live what you are. Today there is an attempt to abolish diversity. There is unity, but in foolishness, in non-identity, in the destruction of the person.

"Now to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good". This is a criterion for discerning gifts: common utility. Everything I have and am is for the purpose of loving God and neighbour, and if it does not lead in this direction, I am misappropriating it, and therefore I am using it diabolically. All gifts are gifts from God, but we can make right or wrong use of them. A ministry, a gift, a charisma, a grace are not for the person who receives them, they are for the common good. Everyone must feel enriched by the charisma of the other, because the other, his charisma, God has not given him for himself, but for the good of the Church.

From this principle enunciated by Paul, a serious problem of conscience arises for every Christian. If the charisma of the other is for my own benefit, can I disregard it, can I not make use of it if it is necessary to me? Ignoring the other's charism, not making use of it, not wanting this charism to bear fruit, is a sin that pours against me. If the charisma of the other is for me, by depriving myself of it, I deprive myself of the nourishment I need.

Rejection of the other's charism, and especially rejection for reasons of bad conscience, places me in serious danger of failing in my Christian life, because I deprive myself of the support and nourishment that the Lord has placed beside me.

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation - exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers - Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants compared - In defence of the faith

(Buyable on Amazon)

(Lk 3:15-16.21-22)

Luke 3:15 For the people were waiting, and all wondered in their hearts concerning John, whether he was not the Christ,

Luke 3:16 And John answered them all, saying, I baptize you with water: but there cometh one mightier than I, unto whom I am not worthy to untie even the strap of his sandals: he shall baptize you in Holy Spirit and fire.

Luke 3:21 And when all the people were baptized, and while Jesus, having also received baptism, stood praying, the heaven was opened

Luke 3:22 and there descended upon him the Holy Spirit in bodily appearance, as of a dove, and there was a voice from heaven, "You are my beloved son; in you I am well pleased."

The question that is posed here and that will be the reason for revelation is the identity of John: "whether he was not the Christ", i.e. the Messiah awaited by Israel. V. 16 places John in direct confrontation with Jesus on the one hand, and with two different types of baptism on the other. Jesus is presented as the 'stronger' one. The title of "the stronger" is recognised in the Old Testament to God (Deut 10:17). If, therefore, Jesus is referred to as 'the strongest', Luke now quantifies the distance between John and the one who is 'the strongest', measuring it with the expression: 'I am not worthy to untie even the lace of my sandals'. Slave labour. Well, the distance is such that compared to 'the Strongest', John is not even worthy to be qualified as a slave. This is the distance that separates John from Jesus.

The effects of this gap between the two are indicated by comparing the modalities of the two baptisms: 'I baptise you with water [...] he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire'. The latter expression can be read as an endiad: the Holy Spirit who is fire. God appears to Moses on Mount Horeb in the form of a fire that does not burn and guides his people in the desert in the form of a pillar of fire that enlightens them and protects them from their enemies. A fire that also expresses both God's wrath and justice against the infidelities and enemies of his people. This fire is juxtaposed with the Holy Spirit and, read as an endiad, is the Holy Spirit and expresses the power of his disruptive nature, but at the same time it is placed in the midst of men as an action of divine judgement.

Note Luke's use of the tenses of the verb to baptise: the baptism of water is governed by the indicative present tense and says the present state of things; a baptism of penance and preparation in view of another baptism, but in itself devoid of any regenerating force. A baptism, therefore, still imperfect. On the other hand, the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire is governed by the verb in the future tense, since it concerns the times after John, inaugurated by "the stronger" of him.

A Holy Spirit whom all evangelists describe with reference to the dove. The reference to the dove is somewhat peculiar, since nowhere in the Bible is God referred to the dove. The choice of the dove probably stems from two biblical images: from Gen 1:2 where it is said that "the spirit of God hovered over the waters"; and in the account of the universal flood, where it is said that Noah released a dove to see if the earth was still covered by water. In both cases Noah's hovering and the dove have to do with water, just as the Spirit has to do with the baptismal waters, those of the Jordan.

V. 22 presents the public investiture of Jesus, a kind of prophetic anointing in the Spirit, giving him all divine authority and power, with which he is clothed not only by mandate but also by his nature. Luke provides here the key to understanding not only the person of Jesus, but also his own mission: Jesus does not work on his own, but in a Trinitarian form. There is in fact here the presence both of the Father, in the form of a voice, who recognises in Jesus his Son: 'You are my beloved son, in you I am well pleased'; there is the Holy Spirit who descends upon Jesus and remains there; and finally, there is Jesus himself, the Son of the Father. Father and Holy Spirit, therefore, work in and with Jesus, who is the action of the Father, the historical space where the Father works with the power of his Spirit. The entire mission of Jesus therefore acquires a markedly Trinitarian significance.

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation - exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers - Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants compared - In defence of the faith

(Buyable on Amazon)

(Jn 1:1-18)

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word,

the Word was with God

and the Word was God.

John 1:2 He was in the beginning with God:

John 1:3 all things were made through him,

and without him nothing was made of all that exists.

John 1:4 In him was life

and the life was the light of men;

John 1:5 The light shines in the darkness,

but the darkness did not receive it.

In vv. 1-5 there is a descending logic, which sees the Logos, first, in relationship with God (vv. 1-2), then, in relationship with himself (vv. 3-4), finally, in relationship with men (v. 5), so that from his being with God he finds himself being with men. A descent, therefore, spent on behalf of men.

We speak of a principle, which recalls by its formulation - "En archē" - the Genesis principle (Gen 1:1) and intentionally refers back to it. Here (Jn 1:1), in fact, as there (Gen 1:1), it begins with "En archē"; it continues with a reference to light and darkness (Jn 1:5), which in some way reflect Gen 1:3-5; the Word of the prologue is the exclusive creator protagonist of all that exists, possessing life in itself; similarly, the Genesis Word, which is repeated, almost like a litany, nine times ("And God said"), is creative power, which emanates life. There is in John a clear intentionality in assimilating the events of the beginnings of his Gospel to those of the Genesis creation, as if to indicate to the reader how the occurrence of the Jesus event constitutes the beginning of a New Creation.

Although there is a substantial reference to the first chapter of Genesis, the two "En archē" are substantially different, constituting two completely different contexts. The Genesian 'En archē' constitutes the temporal beginning of creation, merely indicating its divine origin. It is not a metaphysical origin, but a historical one. Of a different nature is John's "En archē", whose content is the transcendent, metaphysical existence of the Word. It is an absolute principle, which takes us not to the origins of creation, but to the very life of God. There is no longer the doing of God, but the Being of God, which is Word. The single and dominant verb in vv. 1-2, in fact, is the verb 'to be', which by its very nature always indicates the essence of its subject, always says something about its being and transports us into the area of ontology. It is here always placed in the imperfect indicative ("was"), highlighting the persistence of the Word's Being, which is placed in a principle that has no beginning, but which indicates the Word's absoluteness and its pre-eminence.

V. 1 presents the Word, or Word, in its relationality with God, which in John indicates the Father: 'the Word was with God'. Here too the verb 'to be' appears to indicate a constitutive aspect of the Word's being. Here too the verb is placed in the imperfect indicative, to signify how the Word's being with God is a permanent and persistent condition, the proprium of the Word's existence, highlighting its co-eternity. Its relationship with God is qualified by the particle "pros", which here holds the accusative ("ton theon", God), thus opening the relationship to a plurality of meanings, describing in different ways the relationship of the Word with the Father. The particle expresses a motion in place; it possesses, therefore, in itself a dynamism of its own, which indicates the direction of the Word: it is not only at the Father, from whom it comes, but is directed, by its very nature, towards the Father, expressing a strong relational tension, which attracts it towards Him and binds it inseparably to Him. The particle "pros", moreover, also takes on the meaning of cause, reason, purpose, highlighting another aspect of the Word in its relationship with the Father: its reason for being is its being for the Father, in His function and in His favour; in Him it finds the meaning of its existence and in Her the Father is reflected and found. She is a Word that is nourished by the Father's will, so that doing His will becomes an essential and constitutive element of her very living and being, indeed she is the very Dabar (Heb.: = word) of the Father. There are no personalisms or private initiatives, but the Dabar of the Father, by its very nature, reflects the Father in itself and gives effect to it in its saying/acting, becoming its witness and revealer in the midst of men.

"And the Word was God". The noun "God" is not preceded by the determinative article as is the case with "The Word" (kai theos ēn ho logos), suggesting that the noun "God" is predicate of the Word, which is the subject of the verb, thus emphasising its divinity on a par with the Father.

The intention of v. 2, "He was in the beginning with God", is to focus attention on the Word-Father relationality, a relationship that was such from the beginning. The focus, therefore, shifts to the relationality of the Word with the Father, whose eternity is attested with the expression "en archē". No longer the Word, therefore, is "en archē", but rather the relationship of This with God.

If vv. 1-2 contemplate the Word in its triple condition of eternity, of relationality with God, and of divine nature, focusing attention on the relational aspect, vv. 3-5 highlight the Word's double dynamism, placing it in close relation to men (v. 4), which is realised in its appearance among them (v. 5).

V. 3 opens with an absolute in the plural "panta" (all things), devoid of a determinative article, therefore all-encompassing, which has no limits and embraces everything without excluding anything, making the Word the exclusive source, first and last, of everything that exists. This exclusivity of this originative source of the All is reinforced by the following expression, placed in negative form, which excludes anything from occurring without its intervention. This absoluteness goes far beyond mere creation, to embrace the whole of what exists either as already in being, becoming or simply in potency. But what is most emphasised is the mediating action proper to the Word. The emphasis, therefore, falls not so much on the "panta" as on the prepositions "dià" (through) and "chōrìs" (without), which emphasise the mediating nature of the Word.

"In him [the Word] was life and the life was the light of men". Light and life, a binomial that closely recalls the very dimension of the divine Being. Light because by its appearance it has made itself visible and accessible to men; light because it becomes the revelation of God's will towards men; light because this is God's dimension, in which the new creation is placed, to which men are called to adhere existentially. A light that recalls Genesis v. 1:3. There, too, light appears, which constitutes the environmental context within which the first creation was placed. It is not the light of the stars, which will only appear on the fourth day, but the very dimension of God, in which the Genesis creation was placed, clothed and permeated. That is why, at its end, God will find himself in it and be reflected in it, recognising that "what he had made was a very good thing" (Gen 1:31). A creation, then, clothed and glowing - of God.

V. 5 closes the descending concatenation of the Word, which, contemplated in its being in the beginning with God, now appears in the midst of darkness. This bipolarity is part of the pattern of the human mind, which by contrast associates the positive with the negative, opening up a wide range of nuances between these two poles. The coexistence and co-existence of light with darkness belong to the primordial context of the Genesis creation. There, too, light appeared in the midst of darkness. It did not dissolve the darkness, but created a new context, a new reality, which contrasted with it, so that God separated them (Gen 1:4), assigning them their own role (Gen 1:5). Light and darkness, therefore, stand at the origins of life as two separate and irreconcilable entities, since they have to do with the deepest dynamics of man and life. Light and darkness speak of the dialectic of opposing views between God and fallen man. Darkness, as well as describing man's condition after the primordial fall, speaks of his inability to grasp the light, since darkness, by its very nature, is blind and encloses everything in its blindness. It is precisely this dialectic of contrasting light and darkness that characterises the history of salvation. That is why "darkness did not receive it" (v. 5).

There are two meanings of darkness in v. 5: in the first part, it indicates in a general sense the fallen human condition, shrouded in ignorance of God, so that the appearance of light in this context emphasises the illuminating and revelatory function of the incarnate Word, taking away all alibis from fallen man, bringing him to the knowledge of the divine will, before which he is called to take a stand. In the second part of v. 5, darkness is historicised and embodied in the pagan and Jewish worlds, as the historical places where it took root and opposed the Word. The first 'darkness', therefore, indicates the state, the condition of man before the coming of the Word; the second 'darkness' historically identifies the actors who embody it.

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation - exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers - Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants compared - In defence of the faith

(Buyable on Amazon)

(Lk 2:41-52)

Luke 2:41 His parents went up to Jerusalem every year for the feast of Passover.

Luke 2:42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up again according to the custom;

Luke 2:43 But when the days of the feast were past, and they were on their way back, the boy Jesus remained in Jerusalem, without his parents noticing.

Luke 2:44 Believing him to be in the caravan, they made a day's journey, and then set out to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances;

Luke 2:45 not having found him, they returned in search of him to Jerusalem.

Luke 2:46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the doctors, listening to them and questioning them.

Luke 2:47 And all who heard him were filled with amazement at his intelligence and his answers.

Luke 2:48 When they saw him, they were amazed, and his mother said to him, "Son, why have you done this to us? Behold, your father and I, distressed, were looking for you."

Luke 2:49 And he answered, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must attend to the things of my Father?"

Luke 2:50 But they did not understand his words.

Luke 2:51 So he departed with them and returned to Nazareth and was subject to them. His mother kept all these things in her heart.

One of the most difficult passages in all the Gospels, and one that opens up numerous questions: is it possible that the two parents were so clueless and superficial as not to ascertain where their first-born and only son was before they left? Is it possible that they only realised after a day's walk that Jesus was not with them? Is it possible that a young boy can sit quietly for three days in a row in the Temple, debating with the teachers of the Law, without the slightest concern for his family? And all this time who gave him food and sleep? And after the debate, where did he go? What did he do? How is it possible that this young boy, portrayed here as a seasoned and experienced adult, was completely indifferent to his parents' anxieties and rebukes, indeed it is he who rebukes them? One could continue with these questions, but Luke here is not chronicling an unfortunate incident, he is making theology and constructing his narrative in function of it; certainly not to satisfy the curiosity of his readers, let alone the logic of modern criticism. To continue down the road of questioning is to go nowhere. Here one must follow the author's thought and intent.

The scrupulous observance of the Torah by Jesus' family is an established fact. Its faithful and persevering observance is emphasised here: 'his parents went every year to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover'. The obligation to make the pilgrimage to the Temple of Jerusalem burdened only males, although women and children were not excluded. A journey, that of the twelve-year-old Jesus, which is referred to as "according to custom" and therefore performed according to the prescriptions of the Torah.

Jesus' remaining in Jerusalem at the age of twelve indicates the place of Jesus' dwelling, where the Father's will will find its full fulfilment. Here the mission that the Father has assigned to him will find its definitive end and fulfilment. This is why the twelve-year-old Jesus, having arrived in Jerusalem, does not go back, but remains there in conformity with the will of the Father (v. 49). Significant is the verb that Luke uses here to indicate Jesus' "remaining" in Jerusalem: "hypémeinen", which among its various meanings also includes "to endure, to cope with, to support". His remaining, therefore, is dense with meaning and hints at the suffering of his suffering and death in Jerusalem, the place where the mysteries of salvation will be fulfilled. 

Vv. 44-45 narrate the bewilderment of this small family community as it realises that it has lost Jesus. Mary and Joseph's search is based on human logic: they look for him among relatives and acquaintances, hoping to find him among them, but to no avail. To find Jesus it is necessary to "return to Jerusalem". It is there, in the place of the fulfilment of the Mystery, that Jesus can be found. And they will find him as he speaks; they will discover him as the Word that resounds in the Temple; the Word that teaches; the Word that imposes itself amidst the astonishment of the ancient teaching of the Torah. To find Jesus, therefore, it is necessary to return to Jerusalem.

The finding of Jesus is framed in a significant double framework: temporal, "after three days"; and spatial, "in the temple, sitting among the doctors". The finding of Jesus "after three days" may allude to his resurrection, when, after the bewilderment of his passion and death, Jesus is found by his disciples. The question that Luke addresses here, however, is not so much the resurrection of Jesus, but 'how' Jesus is found after the 'three days': he is found 'in the temple sitting among the doctors'. Temple and doctors allude to the heart of Judaism: worship and Torah. "In the midst" of all this is Jesus in an unequivocal stance: "sitting", the characteristic position of one who teaches. In this position Jesus is described by Luke: "while he listened to them and questioned them", the two parameters within which the teacher-disciple relationship moved. The Risen One, therefore, is positioned within Judaism as the new Word, the new Teaching, the new Torah, destined to take the place of the old Teaching.

V. 48 attests to the astonishment of Mary and Joseph, who see their son sitting among the teachers of the Law, but do not understand what they see: 'Son, why has he done this to us? Behold your father and I, distressed, were looking for you". The answer Jesus gives them reveals Jesus' amazement at his two parents' inability to understand: "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must attend to the things of my Father?". A rebuke and an invitation to reflect on the motivations of their search, dictated more by human concerns than by a true understanding of the mystery that lives and permeates Jesus.

With v. 49, after a long preamble of misunderstandings and mutual amazement, we come to the revelation: "Did you not know that I must be concerned with the things of my Father?". Jesus never moves of his own accord according to his personal plans, but his actions, as well as his speech, have as their only referent source the Father, without whom he does nothing. 

After Jesus' act of 'insubordination', Luke wants to reassure his reader that Jesus was not a daredevil, but a good boy, respectful of his parents and was always submissive to them (v. 51). However, one should not exclude, in this submission of Jesus, a theological note that in some way refers back to Phil 2:5-11, where Paul highlights a process of emptying the Son of glory until he assumed human nature and "humbled himself by becoming obedient unto death and death on a cross". This faithful submission of Jesus to his parents is also, therefore, part of the process of inner stripping.

"His mother kept all these things in her heart". An attitude, this of Mary's, that also constitutes an invitation to "keep" the Mystery, which by its nature is not immediately accessible to reason, in the silence of one's heart while waiting for the light of the Spirit, who knows the depths of God, to illuminate the mind as well.

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation - exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers - Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants compared - In defence of the faith

(Buyable on Amazon)