(Rev 1:9-11a.12-13.17-19)

Revelation 1:9 I, John, your brother and companion in tribulation, kingdom, and constancy in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony given to Jesus.

The writer is John. Just as many Old Testament prophetic writings begin with the account of the call of their authors, so too John places at the beginning of his book the task that has been entrusted to him and that empowers him to write. It is he who receives God's revelation, and he takes the floor directly in the first person.  John is "brother and companion in tribulation, kingdom and constancy in Jesus". He is "brother" because in Christ he is one with the other disciples. In Christ we are all children of the one God and therefore all brothers to one another. It is the body of Christ that makes us one in Him. This presents the context in which the message was born: Revelation is in essence a message about the tribulation, and it is a message of hope addressed to a persecuted community.

John is a "companion", i.e. he is in fellowship with them, "in the tribulation", because he too is persecuted like them, together with them. He does not write from outside the persecution, as a free man, he writes from inside the persecution. According to one tradition, John emerged safe and sound from a barrel full of boiling oil without the slightest burn, and so was banished into exile by the Emperor Domitian, Titus's successor and his germane brother.

He is a companion 'in the kingdom', the 'basileia', kingship. There is a pride, a dignity, a kingship that is structural in the Christian life. John too, like them, belongs to that kingdom of priests constituted by God. Tribulation and kingship seem to contradict each other. We are not triumphant and yet we recognise ourselves in being dignified, proud, free even in the most dramatic events. John points to the kingship of the Christian life as a way of standing in all the most desperate situations with kingship of life.

He is a companion 'in constancy in Jesus', because he wants to persevere to the end like Jesus. He is Jesus' beloved disciple. He accompanied Jesus to the cross. Now John is loving Jesus in persecution, in pain and suffering. He is loving him in constancy, that is, in perseverance to the end. Constancy is the ability to hold on, to bear the burdens, the ability to persevere even where the load becomes heavy. Awaiting the glorious event of the manifestation of the kingdom, patient endurance is the specific virtue of the persecuted. Incorporated into Christ through baptism, Christians become sharers in his passion while waiting to participate in his own glory.

John is in exile. The place of his exile is the island called Patmos. It is a rocky island of about 26 square kilometres, about 100 km south of Ephesus, part of the Sporades. On the island there is still a cave where the apostle is said to have received these revelations. Eusebius, the church historian, writes that after the death of Domitian, the Roman senate recalled all those who had been exiled, and John from Patmos went to Ephesus. He also says that John survived until the reign of Trajan. In fact, the use of the past tense, 'I was on the island' suggests that he was no longer on Patmos when he wrote down his visions. The island is a beautiful figure of the Church of Christ. Just as an island is continually buffeted by the waves of the sea, so the Church is plagued by persecution. The apostle is exiled to this place of punishment 'because of the word of God and the testimony given to Jesus'. John presents himself as a witness to Jesus. He is the witness of Jesus who imparts courage to all the other witnesses of Jesus, so that they may persevere in their testimony to the end.

The word 'witness' evokes the atmosphere of a trial or a public debate: one bears witness to something that has happened and something that one has personally experienced. Testimony by hearsay is not valid. Christian witnessing is also linked to suffering, to paying in person: witnessing means martyrdom. By deciding to take Christ's side, the witness must know that he will be involved in his rejection by the unbelieving world. This is the aspect that Revelation emphasises most. John knows that only those who have had the strength to go all the way, like Jesus Christ, will enter his kingdom. That is why he does not shy away from helping his brothers. The disciple of Jesus can only be persecuted for one reason: "because of the word of God and the testimony given to Jesus", that is, he can only be persecuted because he is a true, authentic, faithful disciple of Jesus. Whoever makes this choice will always be opposed by the world. This, however, is the choice of eternal life.

 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

 The Church and Israel according to St Paul - Romans 9-11

(Buyable on Amazon)

(1Cor 5:6b-8)

1Corinthians 5:6 Do you not know that a little leaven causes the whole dough to ferment?

1Corinthians 5:7 Take away the old leaven, that ye may be new dough, for ye are unleavened. And indeed Christ, our Passover, was immolated!

1Corinthians 5:8 Let us therefore celebrate the feast not with old leaven, nor with leaven of malice and perverseness, but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Beware because a little leaven, that is, opening a chink to evil, is like opening a dam and you are swept away: a little leaven makes the whole dough ferment! Sin is like leaven. Once you put it in the holy dough of the community, little by little it manages to ferment it all, that is, to turn it into dough of sin and no longer of holiness and truth. This is the true power of sin. Not only does it succeed in ruining a soul, but a ruined soul succeeds in ruining other souls in a contagious process.

The old leaven must be removed because we are a new dough, a dough that must not be leavened, we are unleavened dough. The reference is to the Passover celebration with the immolation of the lamb in memory of the Exodus, and the unleavened breads that were eaten on that occasion. The lamb could only be eaten with unleavened bread. On that night, everything that belonged to the past, to the old world, had to disappear from the house. A new life had to begin, towards a new future, towards a new country.

Paul says: Take away the old leaven, that is, take away that wrong logic that makes you belong to the world and no longer belong to Christ. Christ, our Passover, has been immolated! You are unleavened. In the sense that you do not have your own leaven, and if you did have it you belong to the world, because in baptism the old leaven was taken out of the way, we were regenerated in Jesus Christ and in him we were made new dough, unleavened, without the leaven of sin. This is now our reality.

We must eat the Paschal Lamb, and our Paschal Lamb is Jesus Christ who has already been immolated, he is down on the table. How do we eat it? With new dough, but the new dough is us, so we must eat it as new dough, we cannot eat it as dough leavened by sin. This is why we must remove sin, that is, the old leaven, from our hearts. Practically Paul points out that Christ, our Passover, has already been sacrificed: the feast has begun, yet the old leaven is still in the house - what a contradiction!

To guard against the danger of being corrupted, the church must do what was done in every Israelite home on the eve of the Passover. One would scrupulously dispose of all bread with leaven. The old leaven of which the church must be cleansed is the corrupting principle of the old man. Let us remember that our paschal lamb, Jesus Christ, has already been immolated once, and his immolation is not repeated, and therefore the Easter we celebrate always lasts, and therefore we must always be without leaven. The Christian life can be compared to a continuous Easter feast (the "we celebrate" in v. 8 is present, indicating a continuous action in time). If the Christian life is compared to a continuous Easter; then believers must continually remove leaven from their lives and community.

If we do not eat Christ, we cannot leave the land of bondage. We remain prisoners of our sin. If we cannot eat Him, Christ does not serve our life. If Christ does not serve us, what use are we as Christians? To nothing.

For Paul there are three ways of eating Christ, of celebrating our Passover supper with Him. The first way is to celebrate it with old leaven, that is, in a state of sin. This way is not according to God. This way does not allow us to eat Easter. If we eat it, it becomes a cause of condemnation for us. It is a grave sin to eat Christ, our Passover, with old leaven, that is, with grave sin in our hearts, without repentance, without the will to abandon this leaven, without having decided to get rid of it.

The second way is to celebrate it with leaven of malice and wickedness. Malice and wickedness are diseases of the heart that does not seek God, that does not desire Him, and yet lives with the gospel. Malice takes the good out of the heart and puts evil in it; the person thinks, wants, and judges everything according to this criterion of evil with which he lives. This way is also not according to God.

The third way of celebrating it, the right way, is with the unleavening of sincerity and truth. With sincerity and truth in our hearts, we begin that journey that must lead us to the attainment of our spiritual goal, which is the attainment of the kingdom of heaven, in anticipation of the glorious resurrection of our body in Christ, with Christ, and for Christ.

For many, sincerity simply means having on one's lips what is in one's heart, and acting according to these feelings. This sincerity often coexists with sin; the sincere person commits sin openly, without even that modesty which is the sign that a little fear of God still lives in us. This sincerity is deplorable, because it is a sincerity that excuses evil and those who commit it. The sincerity that Paul recommends, on the other hand, is purity of motives, the purity of a sincere heart without the addition of extraneous substances, understood here as sin, which adulterate the pure motives and works of the saints. The sincere life is a life that can stand the closest scrutiny, a life whose characteristics are intellectual honesty and moral sincerity.

The ancient Easter was merely the image of a feast far superior in meaning and importance. The sacrifice of the lamb that inaugurated the Passover was a shadow of the only truly effective and eternal sacrifice of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The deliverance from Egypt recalled by the Passover was a figure of the deliverance from the bondage of sin and eternal death, a deliverance procured by Christ for all believers, who through faith in him are now constituted into God's people. The manner of celebrating the Passover (without unleavened bread) was emblematic of the life of thankfulness and holiness that the church must lead.

Let us therefore celebrate the feast, says Paul, the feast of the true passage, of the true exodus, with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

 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

 The Church and Israel according to St Paul - Romans 9-11

(Buyable on Amazon)

(Lk 22:14 - 23:56)

Luke 22:14 When the hour was come, he took his place at table, and the apostles with him,

Luke 22:15 and said, "I have longed to eat this Passover with you, before my passion,

Luke 22:16 For I say unto you, I will eat it no more, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God."

Luke 22:17 And he took a cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take it, and distribute it among you,

Luke 22:18 For I tell you, from this time on I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God comes."

Luke 22:19 Then he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

Luke 22:20 Likewise after he had supped, he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."

Luke 22:39 And he went out, as usual, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed him.

V. 14 acts as a frame for the account of the Paschal supper within which is placed the institution of the Eucharist. It is a very dense verse, divided into three parts. The first is a very significant temporal note, which introduces the paschal narrative: "When the hour was come". The hour has come. It is the Easter supper. Here takes place the meeting and the completion-substitution of two salvific events, which are closely linked to the passion-death-resurrection of Jesus: the celebration of the Jewish Passover, the event of the liberation of Israel. The other event, complementary and substitutive of the first, are the bread and wine, essential and proper elements of the Jewish Passover, but which here, in this "hour", are re-signified, because they are representative of a new liberation, which has as its foundation a bread-body broken and a wine-blood poured "for you", where in that "for you" is found anyone who has decided his or her life for that broken bread and that poured wine. It is, therefore, an hour that constitutes the apex of salvation history, where all that has been prefigured finds its fulfilment in this hour, which ritualises in that bread-body broken and in that wine-blood poured the salvific event that becomes an offer of salvation for whoever welcomes it into their life.

The second part of v. 14 presents a Jesus taking his seat at the table. It does not speak of sitting down, but of reclining, reclining, reclining (Greek: "anepesen"), in the manner proper to the Greco-Roman world, but which had taken on for the Jew the meaning of a position that qualified the free man; while the third part of v. 14 states "the apostles with him". The apostles are those whom Jesus called with him to share his lot, the founding stock of the church. And it is precisely in this perspective that the evangelist attests that the apostles also lay down with Jesus at that table of the bread-body broken and the wine-blood poured, thus sharing his lot. It is a matter - the reclining at the table with Jesus in which his death is ritualized - of a true and proper following that in some way echoes, anticipating it, v. 39 in which it is recounted that Jesus "went out and went, as usual, to the Mount of Olives; the disciples also followed him".

V. 15 opens the pericope relating to the Jewish Passover, which here, in that "before my passion", is linked to the passion and death of Jesus; but we can also perceive how in that "before" this Jewish Passover is also the last. One can thus understand Jesus' expression ("I have longed for it"), to express his great expectation for this Passover, set at the threshold of his suffering and death. A Passover of farewell, then, but not of abandonment, since it will be precisely vv. 19-20, which in taking up the gesturality of the Jewish Passover will redeem it, becoming its perpetual reference ("in memory of me"), in which a new presence of Jesus is found in the form of bread and wine and which has its fulfilment in him, the true paschal lamb sacrificed.

Luke, in noting Jesus' great longing and expectation for this Passover, the last one he would celebrate with his own, focuses on the expression "to eat this Passover with you", so that somehow, in that Passover, the disciples are involved in Jesus' destiny. A Passover that, however, has its fulfilment only in the Kingdom of God, thus denouncing its incompleteness and, therefore, all its inconsistency and fragility. In other words, a Passover (the Jewish one) that has liberated, but is no longer liberating.

The question of the salvific value of this Passover is here addressed by Luke in the contrast between the verbs 'to eat' and 'not to eat' in v. 16, the latter verb, like the 'not to drink' of v. 18, placed in the future tense; as if to say 'never again shall I eat and never again shall I drink', thus removing from this Passover the sense of a 'liberating celebration': 'until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God', thus assigning it an eschatological dimension.

The present of the Jewish Passover, in fact, which celebrates Israel's liberation from Egyptian oppression, has in itself an unfinished meaning, which was enclosed in a repetitive memorial that finds no outlet in history except in a glorious memory, which, similar to the Wailing Wall, recalls the grandeur of Yahweh's deeds. A sterile Passover, therefore - one that does not open Israel to the future, but locks it up in its past through a rituality that does not allow it any outlets, so that the liberation celebrated in it becomes an unfinished liberation. This is why Jesus and with him his own will no longer eat, and not only because he will be killed shortly thereafter. Liberation that, however, will find its meaning and its fulfilment in that Kingdom of God, which Jesus came to reveal and to found, and which that Easter in some way prefigured, celebrating a liberation that in reality prefigured another and in which it will find its fulfilment, becoming a liberating Easter.

Jesus, therefore, will no longer eat of this Passover, and with him his disciples, because this has been transferred to a new Passover and replaced by it, in a new exodus from slavery to freedom, signified in Jesus' passage from death to life, which affects the life of each individual believer in his or her today, who by eating of this new Passover, announces in the testimony of his or her own life this passage from death to life - in the expectation of his or her return. A strong eschatological tension is thus created between the 'already and the not yet'; directing the whole of believing humanity towards a goal beyond space and time, where the unfinished today finds its fulfilment and meaning, and where unfinished time becomes fulfilled eternity.

 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

 The Church and Israel according to St Paul - Romans 9-11

(Buyable on Amazon)

(Jn 8:1-11)

John 8:1 Jesus then set out for the Mount of Olives.

John 8:2 But at dawn he went into the temple again, and all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.

John 8:3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery, and placed her in the midst,

John 8:4 they say to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in flagrante adultery.

John 8:5 Now Moses, in the Law, commanded us to stone women like this one. What sayest thou?"

John 8:6 This they said to test him and to have something to accuse him of. But Jesus stooped down and began to write with his finger on the ground.

John 8:7 And when they persisted in questioning him, he lifted up his head and said to them, "Whoever of you is without sin, let him cast the stone at her first.

John 8:8 And bowing down again, he wrote on the ground.

John 8:9 But when they heard this, they went away one by one, beginning from the eldest to the last.

Only Jesus remained with the woman there in the midst.

John 8:10 Then rising up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

John 8:11 And she answered, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and henceforth sin no more."

Significant is the verb that John uses to indicate that Jesus goes to the temple: "paraginomai". The verb is composed of the preposition "para", meaning "near, towards" and the verb "gignomai", meaning "to become". Jesus' going to the temple therefore is a becoming near and becoming more and more that temple which is not only the house of his Father, but also the figure of his new body, in which a new worship pleasing to God will be celebrated.

The context in which the story is set is that of the temple and more precisely, as v. 20 emphasises with extreme precision, the "place of treasure" which was also called the women's courtyard, because it marked the boundary beyond which women could not enter. So when the scribes and Pharisees lead the woman caught in the act of adultery by Jesus, he was teaching in the women's hall or treasury. The story of the adulteress therefore fits within the teaching activity of Jesus, and in some way is part of it.

The scribes and Pharisees lead a woman to Jesus. She is placed in the middle. It is not said exactly where, but the idea is that she is placed between the two sides, between Jesus and the religious authorities. So we find ourselves between two opposing sides in the middle of which the object of contention is placed, not so much the woman, stripped of all identity and dignity, but what she represents: a case of Torah violation. The issue therefore immediately shifts from the woman to the Mosaic Law, which condemns her to stoning. A comparison that becomes more evident in v. 5 where Moses is opposed to Jesus: 'Moses commanded us... What sayest thou?

"This they said to test him and to have something to accuse him of". On trial, therefore, is not only the woman, but with her also Jesus, who is faced with an aut aut aut: to go against Moses, upholding his critical position towards the way of understanding the Torah; or to agree with Moses, denying his position. But Jesus finds a third way: twice, in v. 6 and v. 8, it is pointed out that Jesus "began to write with his finger on the ground". John, therefore, seems to want to draw attention to Jesus' bizarre behaviour. People have wondered what Jesus was writing on the ground with his finger, and rivers of ink have been spilled in the most disparate hypotheses, which, when all is said and done, have remained so. But here the problem is not the content, that is, what Jesus was writing, but Jesus' writing itself; it is this gesture that the evangelist points out to his reader and not what Jesus wrote: "stooping down, he began to write with his finger on the ground". Moreover, it should not be forgotten, Jesus was writing on the floor of the women's hall, which was made of stone. What he wrote with his finger therefore could not remain imprinted and therefore could not even be read. 

In order to understand Jesus' behaviour, it is necessary to read carefully: "bowed down"; it is the attitude of one who approaches from the top down, almost as if to meet something or someone, who is lower than oneself. At this point Jesus "began to write with his finger on the ground". Here is what counts: "writing with his finger" on the earth, which we know, however, to be "stone". Jesus therefore bent down and wrote with his finger on the stone. To reinforce this concept there is the same verb to write which, unlike the one in v. 8, is here rendered with a particular verbal form: "katégraphen", whose primary meaning is not to write, but to engrave, to scratch, emphasising more the action of a stonemason than that of a scribe. And this is exactly what Ex 31:18 says: "When the Lord had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the testimony, TABLES OF STONE, WRITTEN BY GOD'S FINGER". God too therefore went down to Mount Sinai and there with his finger wrote his Law on stone. Jesus' behaviour therefore exactly reproduces that of God at Sinai. Jesus is therefore here rewriting the Mosaic Law with the very authority of God, reproducing its behaviour, thus declaring outdated not so much the Torah, but the way of approaching it and understanding it, according to the logic of the letter, stifling the spirit it carried.

Judaism could not transcend the physicality of the Law expressed in the letter. In fact, his adversaries "persisted in questioning him" (v. 7). Thus, Jesus challenges them, turning the accusation levelled at the adulteress against them: 'Let him who is without sin among you cast the stone at her first'. To their insistence Jesus, therefore, responds by inviting them to reflect on their common condition as sinners, since no one before God can in any way consider himself righteous and holy. The Torah must therefore be reread and recomposed from God's perspective and not man's; this is why Jesus is rewriting the Torah according to God's logic and feeling and has all the authority and power to do so.

V. 9 notes how they all went away, thus denouncing their inability to judge, because one sinner cannot stand as judge towards another sinner. Judaism with its world of the letter that accuses and condemns has disappeared, making way for a new reality, that of the Father's love that has given itself to man in the Son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God in Jesus is therefore rewriting his Law according to the logic no longer of the letter, but of the spirit that vivifies it. The judgement therefore is to be carried out in forgiveness and mercy.

The account of the adulteress closes with a statement: no verdict has been passed; no judgement has been accomplished. The trial that had been established against Jesus and the woman has dissolved, for this is the time of mercy and salvation and not of judgement. The Mosaic Law loses its harsh face as a judge that condemns without appeal to flow into the economy of love and grace. That is why the representatives and supporters of the Law have disappeared and only Jesus remains, the new Moses who is rewriting with the finger of God a new law, one founded on the spirit that gives life and does not take it away.

V.11 closes with the exhortation to resume and continue that journey of regeneration that began with the encounter with Jesus expressed with that "from now on" that marks a clear break between the before and the after; a new journey begins: "from now on sin no more". In our normal understanding, not sinning means not committing sins, that is, not committing violations, whereby sinning is a doing or not doing what the divine Law commands us to do. But the expression in question goes far beyond this reductive view. In fact, the verb 'amartánō' (to sin) in the first instance does not mean to sin, but to deviate, to take a wrong turn, to stray from the truth, to fall short of the goal, to fail; hence, in the second instance, also to sin, the meaning of which, however, must be understood within those meanings from which it derives. Consequently, Jesus' invitation "not to sin" is not an invitation not to violate the Mosaic Law any more, but rather to take note of how the woman, from her encounter with Jesus, has been generated to a new life ("from now on") and in this newness of life must beware of deviating and abandoning her, not so much because someone might condemn her again, but because "from now on" abandoning her already contains in itself the sense of failing that ultimate goal towards which one has set out: God, in whose life we have already been made partakers in Christ.

At this point no one, neither the Law nor God, will condemn us any longer, because we would condemn ourselves and God can no longer do anything, because, paraphrasing St Augustine, that God who created us without us, cannot save us without us. In other words, salvation is now a gift that has been placed in our hands; it is up to us to adhere to it existentially or not. And here it is not a matter of observing some commandment or not, a banal as well as deceptive way of feeling right with God, but of keeping our existential orientation towards Him, which only the Word can nourish and sustain, preventing us from sinning, that is, from failing our first and last objective: God! And this goes far beyond the observance or non-observance of some precept.

 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

 The Church and Israel according to St Paul - Romans 9-11

(Buyable on Amazon)

(2Cor 5,17-21)

4th Sunday in Lent (year C)

2Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away, behold new things have come into being.

2Corinthians 5:18 But all this comes from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation.

2Corinthians 5:19 For it was God who reconciled the world to himself in Christ, not imputing their trespasses to men, and entrusting to us the word of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:20 We therefore act as ambassadors for Christ, as if God were exhorting through us. We beseech you in the name of Christ: be reconciled to God.

2 Corinthians 5:21 He who knew no sin, God dealt with him as sin on our behalf, that we might become through him the righteousness of God.

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold new things are born." Paul gives an essay of his view according to faith. Literally from the Greek it is: 'If one in Christ a new creation', without a verb. He does not say: 'If one believes in Christ...', but says 'If one in Christ'; he does not use the verb to be. If one is placed in Christ, that is, if there is this identification with Christ, then one is another reality, a new creature. What has come into being with Christ's resurrection is a new reality.

Faith makes us one with Christ, because it makes us one body in Christ. Christ is the newness of God. Christ is the new man who came to make all things new. If we are in Christ, we share in his newness of love and truth. What is the consequence of this newness? The abandonment of old things. Old, for Paul, is all the past lived without Christ or in expectation of him.

Another consequence is this: the old things in Christ no longer exist; if we make them exist, then we are no longer vitally united to Christ; we are in Christ by reason of our baptism, but we are not in Christ as a participation in his grace and truth.

This is another great principle of Pauline anthropology, which is then Christian anthropology. Having become new creatures in Christ obliges us to live as such. It obliges us to live in newness of life, and the newness of life for Paul is only one: to reproduce the life of Christ in our members, because we are his body.

The Church not only has the obligation to proclaim Christ, it also has the obligation to help each member of Christ to develop all the newness that Christ has created in him through his holy Spirit. The Church must be a teacher and guide so that each of her children manifests Christ in deeds and thoughts. That is why, in addition to being missionary, she must also be the formator of those who already believe in Christ. Without this work of formation, the mission itself vanishes. The Christian mission cannot be carried out except by those who live of Christ, in Christ and for Christ. It is the Church's task to commit all her energy so that God's people may grow in truth, grace, holiness and spirituality.

The Church will not be able to do this if it loses sight of being light in the midst of men. A light that fades is no longer seen by anyone; whereas a light that grows and grows ever larger can attract men from far and wide. This is the way of the Church: the spiritual, doctrinal, sapiential formation of her children.

"All this, however, comes from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation". Here we come to the great theme of reconciliation. Why is Paul writing this letter? To reconcile with the Corinthians. So he arrives at the summit by emphasising the love of Christ who gave himself; this is the cause that reconciles, that brings back together. Reconciliation is through Christ, but on this the disagreements begin, or rather the falsehoods begin. Everyone affirms redemption through Christ, but not redemption at the creation in us of the newness that is Christ. One cannot affirm that man has been made a new creature in Christ without affirming that he is called to live this new life.

A redemption conceived only as final salvation, without the newness that Christ has produced in us, is a Protestant redemption, it is not biblical redemption, it is not Catholic redemption, because this is not the redemption that Jesus Christ came to work in our midst.

"For it was God who reconciled the world to himself in Christ". Paul now explains what reconciliation consists in. By sin, man has contracted a guilt before Him. This guilt deserves a penalty, which is man's eternal death. God, by Christ's sacrifice offered on the cross, by His obedience unto death and death on a cross, no longer imputes this guilt. So the important action was done by Christ and he entrusted the apostles with the ministry of reconciliation. There is a quarrel, between God and man; it is evident that God is right and man is wrong. At this point, to achieve reconciliation, what is to be done? In the world he who is wrong pays! There is the penalty and there are the costs of the trial: the one who is wrong pays; after that one gets right and is reconciled. Here, on the other hand, reconciliation takes place by not making the wrongdoer pay, and this announcement of reconciliation without payment of the penalty and costs is entrusted to the apostles.

It should be pointed out that Christian reconciliation is not only the non-charging of the sins committed. This is only one part of reconciliation. Christian reconciliation on the one hand confesses the forgiveness of sins, on the other hand it is incorporation into Christ, it is being made new creatures in Christ. All these aspects of reconciliation are essential and must be taught, otherwise reconciliation can also be reduced to a purely legal fact. The Lord does not impute sin to us, but we remain as we are. This is not the Christian truth of reconciliation, but is Calvinist doctrine.

"We therefore act as ambassadors for Christ, as if God were exhorting through us. We beseech you in the name of Christ: be reconciled to God." The teaching now turns into a heartfelt invitation to accept God's gift. It is not enough that God has reconciled the world in Christ: it is urgent that each one of us allow ourselves to be reconciled in Christ by God, and allow ourselves to be reconciled by accepting the word of the gospel, the truth of Christ, into our hearts. Letting oneself be reconciled with God, inviting every man to welcome the word of salvation, is the ever new invitation that the Church must make to every man. This is the way of salvation. Others do not exist.

The missionary action of the Church begins with a strong invitation to conversion. The invitation to conversion, to reconciliation must be explicit, clear, evident. It cannot be assumed, nor made by half sentences or allusions. This is not the method of Jesus Christ, it is not the style of Paul, it is not the way of the saints.

 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 10,1-6.10-12)

3rd Sunday in Lent (year C)

1Corinthians 10:1 For I do not want you to be ignorant, O brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, all crossed the sea,

1Corinthians 10:2 all were baptized in relation to Moses in the cloud and in the sea,

Paul, in this passage, refers us to the history of the past, to the lesson of history. He reminds us of the deeper meaning of history, which is the history of salvation. It is said that history is a teacher of life, but the pupils learn nothing. Paul instead says that from the history of Israel one must learn. The history of Israel is not just any history, but it is a way in which divine revelation was historically manifested. Revelation, in fact, was not manifested through the explanation of concepts, but through certain historical facts that are then also read and interpreted. The history of Israel is an exemplary history, so it is right and proper, if one wants to understand Jesus Christ, to see all the sacred history that prepares him. Among other things, this also accustoms us to reading our own little personal history, which is also salvation history because the Lord walks with us.

"For I do not want you to be ignorant": The Corinthians were supposed to know the facts narrated here, but the apostle wants them to know the typological significance that these facts have, and which is not to be ignored. Jesus Christ is the end result of a long journey, and we must know the journey that preceded it. Paul is very respectful of Israel's history and feels he must tell it. He refers us to these examples from the past that are extraordinary events, but they are also events of sin, and yet always instructive because they show what God's way is.

"Our fathers". Christians can consider the ancient Israelites as their fathers, because the Church succeeded the synagogue, and they are the true heirs and children of Abraham.

"They were all": Three times Paul repeats this expression. As if to say that salvation had been given to all. For all were led by the cloud, that is, by the presence of God, and all crossed the sea. All gained freedom from slavery and all were guided by God on the way to the promised land. Hence, on God's part, no exclusion, no preference towards some at the expense of others. He brought all his people out of Egypt, for all he parted the sea, for all he willed the cloud. All were in the condition of grace and truth that would enable them to conquer the promised land and possess it forever.

This universality of grace and truth for Paul is akin to a baptism. There is an immersion also of the children of Israel, even though their baptism is merely a figure of that instituted by Jesus Christ. However, there is a true immersion of the Israelites in the sea and in the 'cloud' and this immersion for them is true salvation, true deliverance.

Israel lived under the cloud, that mysterious cloud that guided the Israelites through the desert and sheltered them from the sun: signifying the presence of God, the Shekinah. To be under the cloud is to be under God's protection. They crossed the sea and were baptised: the passage from the land of slavery, which is Egypt, to the promised land, takes place through the crossing of the Red Sea, and this is a baptism because it signifies the detachment from the slavery of Egypt, liberation and purification, and the journey to the promised land.

"To be of Moses". Moses, the mediator of the old covenant, was a figure of Jesus Christ, and the Israelites led by him to the promised land were a figure of the Christians led by Jesus Christ to heaven. Now, just as Christians through baptism are incorporated into Jesus Christ and made subject to him as their Lord, whose laws they are bound to observe, so for the Israelites the mysterious cloud and the crossing of the Red Sea were a kind of baptism, whereby they remained subject to Moses and obliged to observe his laws. From that moment on, the people were separated from Egypt forever and belonged to the God who liberated them and to the prophet-mediator whom God gave them as their leader.

The mysterious cloud, a perceptible sign of God's presence, and of the favour He bestowed on His people, was a figure of the Holy Spirit, who is given in the baptism of Jesus Christ, and similarly the dry-foot passage through the Red Sea and the consequent deliverance from the bondage of Pharaoh, were figures of our deliverance from the bondage of sin through the waters of baptism.

Having stated this truth, Paul reminds us that it is not enough to come out of Egypt to have the promised land. The going out is one thing, the conquest and possession of the land is another. Between going out and conquering the land, there is a whole desert to cross. For the Israelites, the desert lasted for forty years; for Christians it lasts their whole life.

With baptism we come out of the slavery of sin, with a life of perseverance striving to conquer the kingdom of heaven we walk towards the glorious resurrection that will take place on the last day.

 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) 

(Gen 15:5-12.17-18)

Genesis 15:5 Then he led him out and said to him, "Look into the sky and count the stars, if you can count them," and he added, "Such shall be your offspring."

Genesis 15:6 And he believed the LORD, who credited it to him as righteousness.

Genesis 15:7 And he said to him, 'I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees to give you possession of this land.

"Then he led him out and said to him, Look into the sky and count the stars, if you can count them, and he added, Such shall be your offspring." God leads Abraham out of the human way of seeing. Earthly eyes do not see so much. But when they rise up to contemplate the infinite, God's promise takes on its full value and scope. The foundation is laid for a salvation that concerns man and is infinitely above created reality. 

"He believed the Lord, who credited it to him as righteousness". There are three components of Abraham's faith:

(a) Abraham believes (in Hebrew, the verb believe is "'āman" the same one that gives rise to the amen with which we conclude our prayers and means "to lean on...", "to trust in...". The patriarch trusts God and consigns himself and his future to him.

b) God "credited" this to him. The verb "accredit" is "ḥāšav", it is used in the Bible to indicate validly performed sacrifices. The new, true sacrifice to be offered to God is therefore the inner act of faith. It is no longer by grace that the Lord will give Abraham a numerous offspring. He will give it to him out of righteousness. God does not only give out of grace, he also gives out of righteousness.

c) "...as justice": Abraham becomes "righteous", that is, faithful to the covenant commitment that binds him to his God: faithful and righteous.

In what did Abraham believe? Not in a lineage limited and finite in time, but in an eternal lineage. And with that, the promise of a descendants becomes in itself the promise of salvation. In time, the figure of this salvation, which in reality will be a Saviour, will become more and more clearly delineated and manifested.

The act by virtue of which Abraham believed is the emblem and model of faith pleasing to God. Henceforth Abraham will live only by this divine promise, beyond and above all human appearances. It is not enough to come out of a world of perdition to find oneself immediately in a world of salvation. There is a time of patient waiting, of obedience, of perseverance, without which the journey stops halfway.

"And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee possession of this land". God tells Abraham that he was brought out of Ur of the Chaldees precisely to possess the land of Canaan. The first step of faith, which is that of coming out, seems to be attributable solely to the work of God. Abraham was brought out of Ur. It is not imputed to him in justice that he came out of the old life, but that he entered into the new one, which is faith in God's promise, faith in the future coming of a Saviour.

Some might say: I believe in the existence of God, therefore I have faith in God. Believing that God exists does not necessarily entail a life of faith. Mere belief in the existence of God does not bring one into the life of God. True faith is more than mere mental assent to God's existence, it brings with it a radical change in how one stands before Him. Not to the God of my own thinking, but to the God who has historically manifested Himself. It is not enough to believe in a Creator God, we must believe in a God who is also Saviour.

And here the discourse of faith does not admit plurality of faiths. Faith, while presupposing the historical event of the death and resurrection of Christ, descendant of Abraham, Saviour of the world, necessarily entails the proclamation of this event, what we call by the name of Gospel. There can be no ecumenism unless we place before everyone the need for knowledge of the Gospel. One dialogues by announcing and one announces by dialoguing. Dialogue is not the search for a solution and a compromise that will please everyone, but to pass on the Word of God, the only one that saves, through the forms in which man can make it his own. Ecumenism must only deal with the form of the proclamation, it cannot and must not alter its substance.

There is only one door that leads to Paradise and that is the one opened by Christ and guarded by Peter. It is one thing to reflect on how the Gospel can be proclaimed to all, quite another to discuss salvation outside of Christ. One dialogues with those who do not believe for the purpose of proclaiming, one does not argue for failure to proclaim. There is no such thing as the good faith of those who do not believe; there is, and this is a fact, the bad faith of those who are deceived by Satan. Too many people believe in their own sincerity, goodness, to justify non-belief.

Why do we find the model of true faith in Abraham? Because listening to the Word of God in him overcomes and bypasses the ways of reason and the heart. Those who seek God must turn away and be wary of a faith other than that of Abraham. A precondition of faith is the willingness to come out of the old life (Ur of the Chaldees) and enter the new one (the promised land). He does not enter who has not gone out, and he has not gone out except he who is aware of sin. Having entered the faith in itself does not guarantee remaining in the faith. One can also fail and not be persevering to the end. 

For many Catholics, all it takes is Sunday Mass, confession once a year, a few good works, not killing, not stealing... and everything is done. What is missing is the idea that being a Christian means living for Christ and not for oneself. As far as the Protestant church is concerned, the affirmation of a salvation that is given solely and exclusively by faith in Christ, is resolved in the easy psychological type of faith, as the conviction that we are only asked to accept with our hearts and minds the salvation wrought by Jesus. And if we sin we can rest easy, because eternal life is already given by divine election. If salvation is already given and assured, we can also set aside the instruments and gifts of grace bestowed by Christ through his Church and Tradition, the only guarantees of a correct understanding and a true relationship with Revelation.

In Protestantism, it is enough to appeal to one's own conscience, on a path of self-confirmation and self-approval. All by oneself, on one's own, without effort, without being disturbed in one's convictions, in a maximum exaltation of that individualism that is increasingly asserting itself in the world as a sign of the dominion of the devil, prince of this world.

 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)

(Rom 10:8-13)

Romans 10:8 What does it say then? Near you is the word, on your lips and in your heart: that is, the word of faith which we preach.

Romans 10:9 For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

"What sayest thou then? Near you is the word, on your mouth and in your heart: that is, the word of faith which we preach." As Moses said that the word, that is, the law of God, was easy to know and to keep, so Paul says the same of the gospel. If the law has Christ as its end, if everything from Christ begins and ends in Christ, if all the word of Scripture conceals Christ, all the word of Scripture conceals the gospel, to which every word of the Old Testament leads and guides. "The word of faith which we preach" are the gospel truths necessary to believe in order to attain salvation, which, through the preaching of the apostles, are within the reach of all, so that all can say that they have them in their mouths and in their hearts, and there is no need to make long journeys or to endure great hardship in order to learn them. Christ is present in the word of faith that is proclaimed by the Church.

There are three truths that we must grasp in this sentence of Paul. The first is this: the word of the gospel, which is the word of Christ, is not foreign to man, it is not distant from him, not in a spatial-temporal sense, but in an existential sense. Man's existence yearns for this word, he seeks it. After all, every human search is a search for truth. Because of sin, this search loses its essence, but it is still a search for one's own being. Man seeks himself, but he does not find himself, and he does not find himself because he cannot find himself in Christ. Only by finding Christ does man find himself, but to find Christ one must find the word of Christ.

The second truth is this: the word must be preached, announced, proclaimed, so that every man hears it and by hearing it adheres to it through faith. If preaching is lacking, then the word remains distant from man, and if the word remains distant, Christ also remains distant. When the Church has done this, it will have helped man in his search for Christ, it will have helped man to find himself, to be himself. The Church exists to give Christ. This is the purpose and mandate the Church has received. That is why preaching is the very essence of the Church. Christ gives himself through the word, and without the word, Christ does not give himself, and if he does not give himself, those who seek him seek him in vain. For this the Church is responsible. The true sin of the Church, the only one she must always repent of, is the failure to evangelise, the failure to proclaim, the failure to preach the word of Jesus.

The third truth directs us instead to 'the word of faith'. The word is of faith because it announces a mystery that only by faith can be accepted and only by faith can one adhere to it. Without faith, the word remains a mute word. Faith and word are an inseparable unity. There could be the word without faith, but faith does not reveal the mystery, because the mystery is not revealed by the word, but by the Spirit who reveals himself to the heart and only manifests himself if there is faith in the heart.

What do we see today? One observes that Christ is as if forgotten. Traces of him are being lost. The word of preaching is purged of all content inherent in Christ, his truth and grace. What prevails in many today is the proposition of an entirely human, earthly, sometimes even diabolical justice. If the preaching of faith is omitted, Christ is omitted, righteousness according to faith is omitted, grace and truth are omitted. What remains? Man and his sin remains. 

"For if thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus is Lord, and shalt believe with thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." He who is professed in faith is Jesus Lord. Professing with one's mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in one's heart that God raised him from the dead is the way to salvation. This means not only admitting the historical fact of the resurrection, but also accepting, from the depths of the soul, the whole work of salvation accomplished by Christ.

This confession must be an explicit testimony. Adherence to Christ can never be a private fact, lived intimately in one's own heart, in which it must still be rooted, but it must be publicly witnessed. One cannot be an anonymous Christian, a Christian of silence. The Christian is he who before the world confesses that Jesus is Lord, the Word, the only-begotten of the Father who became flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary and who in his humanity and not only in his divinity was constituted Lord of every man. The term Kyrios (Lord) was used in the LXX Bible to translate YHWH and what Paul is telling us is that the confession of faith consists in believing that Jesus is the Messiah and that he is 'one' with Yahweh.

This confession must be clear-cut. There can be no gaps. That is why it is necessary for the Christian to confess with his mouth that Jesus is Lord, consubstantial with God by divine nature, consubstantial with man by human nature. If there is no right confession about the person of Jesus, one cannot be saved, because the Jesus we confess would no longer be the Jesus of God, but a Jesus modelled on human thoughts, and therefore an idol. Everything that man constructs with his mind is simply an idol, and the idol does not save. Instead, the Son of God who came in the flesh for the redemption of the world saves, and the Son of God who came in the flesh is the Lord of man.

It is not enough, however, to proclaim righteous faith with the mouth; the heart must also participate in it, and the heart participates in it by making the truth that is professed its own. From the profession of the mouth and the faith of the heart comes salvation for man. The salvation that Paul envisages is not simply deliverance from sin. Salvation is possessing the life of Christ and making this life the guiding principle of our life: actions, words, thoughts. This is why deliverance from sin alone is a very reductive concept of salvation.

 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 15,54-58)

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)