5th Easter Sunday (year A)

(John 14:1-12)

John 14:1 ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

John 14:2 In my Father’s house there are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you;

John 14:3 and when I have gone and prepared a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, so that where I am, you may be too.

John 14:4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.’

John 14:5 Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?’

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus is about to leave his disciples. His death on the cross will surely trouble their hearts, shake their faith, and purify it of all the imperfections that had accumulated upon it over the years. Faith must be shaken from time to time; otherwise, the dust of the superstructures that the minds and thoughts of men constantly add to it becomes too great. The death on the cross of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, must shake the faith of the people of the Covenant in order to give it its proper and true heavenly dimension. Every earthly thought must be measured against faith in the crucified and risen Messiah. It is a grace when our faith is shaken by God. A faith that is not pure, not aligned with God’s thoughts, always produces turmoil. If Jesus’ disciples wish to have a purified faith, they must begin to believe in the crucified Messiah. This is where the true journey of faith begins for every person.

Jesus presents his death as a round-trip journey. But where is Jesus going, and why is he going? He is going to his Father’s house. He is going to prepare a place for his disciples. In his Father’s house there are many mansions, many places. No one can count them. These places, however, must be prepared and assigned. Jesus goes, prepares the places, and assigns a specific place to each of his own. Everyone in Heaven can have their own home or dwelling. Heaven has no limit of space.

Jesus does not merely leave, does not merely go, does not merely prepare a place for each of his own, but he returns. He returns to take all his disciples with him. Where he is, they too must be. Where he dwells, they must dwell. This is the truth of love: eternal communion; being one with the beloved for all eternity. A love that divides, separates, or fades away is not love. Love is endless. Only Jesus can bestow eternity and truth upon our love. Those without Christ will never know the truth and eternity of his love. They cannot, because only Christ is eternity and truth. Our society has lost the truth and eternity of love. This means it has lost Christ.

The disciples already know – or at least ought to know – where Jesus is about to go and also the path he must take. The place is the Father’s house, his Heaven. The path is the cross. It is the cross that is the ladder by which Jesus ascends to his Father. Jesus had pointed to this path both as his own path and as the path of every one of his disciples. However, this path was impossible for them to accept, as their faith had not yet been shaken by the death on the cross.

Thomas says with extreme clarity and simplicity that they do not know where Jesus is going. If one does not know where the other is about to go, how can one know the path he must take? To Thomas, Jesus replies with equal simplicity: “I am the way, the truth and the life”. “I am the way”: In the Old Testament, the way was the Law, but Jesus is the way that brings to fulfilment every other path previously laid out. It is the perfect, complete way, to which nothing can be added and nothing taken away. Whoever wishes to go to the Father must walk in his Word.

“I am the truth”: Truth is the very essence of God, which is the essence of Christ Jesus. It is the essence of both his divinity and his humanity. Jesus is the truth that makes us conform to him. No one else is the truth. Whoever wishes to be true, to become true, must be made a partaker of this one and only truth that makes every person true.

“I am the life”: Jesus’ life is eternal life; it is the life of God, which must be shared with all who believe in his name. Jesus is the new tree of life. Whoever feeds on him becomes eternal life, just as Christ is eternal life. Whoever does not feed on him will never become eternal life. They will remain in their falsehood and in their death.

Now Jesus speaks a thought that deserves our full attention: “No one comes to the Father except through me.” This statement allows for no exceptions. Whoever wishes to go to God must do so through Christ, through his way, his truth, his life. Whoever does not wish to go to God through Jesus Christ simply does not go to God. Jesus Christ is not one of many paths leading to the Father. He is the only way. There are no others. This means that no religion possesses the way, the truth, and the life to reach the Father. Only Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. All religions, at best, are impure, imperfect, and unfulfilled ways, truths, and lives—not brought to their fulfilment—or they are even false and deceitful ways, truths, and lives. Not even the Old Testament is the way, the truth and the life. It is an incomplete way. It lacks the truth and eternal life. Truth and eternal life are given by Christ.

Today, many children of the Church no longer possess this faith. They do not know that salvation is to be accomplished today. It is today that salvation is found only in Christ. No one else can make the true man. Where the true man is not made, there salvation is not fulfilled. The true man must be built on earth, in history. This is the mission of the Church.  

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an 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

(Available on Amazon)

4th Easter Sunday (year A)

(1 Peter 2:20b–25)

(Psalm 22)

1 Peter 2:20 ... But if, whilst doing good, you endure suffering patiently, this is pleasing to God.

1 Peter 2:21 For to this you have been called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his footsteps:

1 Peter 2:22 he committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth,

1 Peter 2:23 when he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that, having died to sin, we might live for righteousness; 

1 Peter 2:25 By his wounds you have been healed. You were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

It is a grace for those who know God to suffer unjustly. It is not the suffering itself that is grace, but the opportunity that God grants, through the injustice endured, to be freed from one’s own pride. What glory would there be, in fact, in enduring suffering because we have done wrong? If one suffers because one has sinned, having transgressed the law of God and of men, this affliction or suffering is not by grace, but by fault. This suffering, if lived in conversion, in the patience of Christ, becomes and is transformed into grace. It is grace, however, insofar as it helps to redeem one’s own guilt; it also helps to free us from our pride, if all is accepted in humility. Glory does not lie in punishment, but in the redemption of punishment and in the holiness that arises from punishment redeemed and sanctified by the humility with which it is lived.

“But if, whilst doing good, you endure suffering with patience, this will be pleasing before God.” The Christian must not do evil. The Christian is one who lives in truth, in the holiness of Christ, in the imitation of Christ. He must remain in goodness, and from the goodness in which he dwells he must bear every suffering with patience. This is the path of his sanctification, as it was also for Christ.

Peter now says that this is our calling (v. 21). Suffering is intended to free us from all vainglory, pride and spiritual arrogance. “For Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you might follow in his footsteps”: There is a difference between us and Christ, and it is a great one. We suffer because of our sins and our iniquities. We suffer for ourselves. Christ, on the other hand, did not suffer for his own sins. Christ suffered for us. For our sake, he endured the Passion, the cross and death. By suffering for us, he left us an example, so that we might follow him along the Way of the Cross, carrying our own cross. Christ is our model. He suffered as a righteous man, because of the justice he proclaimed. This is the truth of Christ, and these are the footsteps we must follow.

Jesus always remained in the greatest righteousness: that of loving always, of not repaying evil with evil, or insults with insults, refraining from any threat of vengeance. He responded to evil with good, to hatred with love, to insults with prayer, to abuse with forgiveness. This is the example He has left us. Jesus “entrusted his cause to the one who judges righteously”: it will be the Father who defends his cause. God, however, defends Christ’s cause in the divine way, not in the human way. The divine way is the glorious resurrection of his body and the transformation of his body of flesh into a body of spirit, so that the risen Christ now dies no more.

Christians too are called to entrust their cause into God’s hands. The Lord will know what to do and when to do it to restore the righteous to their rightful place, the righteous who now suffer unjustly because of human sin. Whoever gives their life to God, whether in joy or in suffering, will have their life safeguarded by God. How? No one will ever know this. This knowledge belongs to God alone and to no one else.

Thus Peter continues: “He bore our sins in his body on the wood of the cross”: Jesus is not merely an example of how to endure suffering. He is also the sacrament of eternal life. Jesus did not bear his own sins on the wood of the cross. He was innocent, holy, without blemish. On the cross, in his body, he bore our sins, to remove them from the world. He removed them by hanging them on the cross, nailing them to it, and thus destroyed them forever. Whoever wishes to may now destroy their own sins. They destroy them by having them forgiven in the name of Christ, but also by bearing the root of pride and lust upon the cross of suffering. Every Christian is called to make this truth their own, “so that, no longer living for sin, we might live for righteousness”: Christ bore our sins on the cross to take them away, so that we might no longer live for sin, but for righteousness.

What is righteousness? It is the perfect fulfilment of the Father’s will in our lives. We live to fulfil the Father’s will. We live to realise the Word in our lives. We can do this thanks to Christ who bore our sins on the cross, in his body, to take them away from the world. After Christ died on the cross, anyone who wants and desires it can live without sin; they can live exclusively for righteousness. “By his wounds you have been healed”: We have been healed from the wounds of sin. If we have been healed, we can live as healthy people, and we live as healthy people by doing God’s will. If we have been healed, we can carry the cross as Christ did; we can go all the way in fulfilling God’s will. If we have been healed, we can master and submit to God’s will every impulse of pride, vainglory and arrogance. If we have been healed, we can face suffering by carrying our own cross, just as Christ did.

“You were like sheep going astray”: without Christ, one is like a stray sheep, without a shepherd, a sheep left to its own devices, exposed to every temptation and every sin. This is the condition of those who do not know the Lord. They are without a fold, without a shepherd, without pasture, without a destination, constantly exposed to being killed. Without Christ, one is already in the realm of darkness and evil. “But now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls”: By embracing the faith, by receiving the Word, Christ is welcomed as Shepherd and Guardian, guide and support of one’s soul. With Christ, Shepherd and Guardian, the Christian soul walks in safety. This is why Psalm 22 says: “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want; he leads me to green pastures; he restores my soul by still waters. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” 

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an 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

(Available on Amazon)

Third Easter Sunday (year A)

Psalm 15

Psalm 15:1 A Miktam. A psalm of David. Protect me, O God; in you I take refuge. 

Psalm 15:2 I said to God, ‘You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.’

Psalm 15:3 My love is for the saints who are on the earth, the noble ones.

Psalm 15:4 Let others hasten to build idols; I will not pour out their blood libations, nor will I utter their names with my lips.

Psalm 15:5 The Lord is my portion and my cup; in your hands is my life.

Psalms 15:6 For me the lot has fallen on delightful places; my inheritance is splendid.

‘Miktām’ is a word of some debate. It derives from ‘katam’ (to engrave, to carve). It indicates something that has been carved and is therefore a permanent inscription, carved because of its importance. The Septuagint translates it as “stēlographia” (an engraved inscription); stēlē was the word for “tombstone” (referring to the inscription carved upon it). Therefore, “miktām” indicates that this type of Psalm (there are several miktām Psalms), although connected with death, points towards the hope of resurrection. This is particularly true of Psalm 15, but can also be found in the others; in any case, what is “carved” in these Psalms must be gleaned from reading the Psalm itself.

Miktām has also been understood as a psalm to be recited in a low voice, almost in silence, with great humility, because in this psalm we ask God not to leave us in the tomb of death (v. 10). St Jerome, in fact, translates “Of David” as: “Humilis et simplicis David”.

It is a psalm of trust; it is the prayer in which a man of God expresses his trust in the Lord. Protection is sought from God. One wishes to take refuge in God: “Protect me, O God: in you I take refuge”. The righteous take refuge in God and ask for his protection. Note the twofold movement: a) on the one hand, God protects the faithful (a descending movement); b) on the other, the faithful entrust themselves totally to God (ascending movement). This psalm, we might almost say, describes the concept of the Sacraments, that is, the meeting point between God’s grace descending (thus the Lord at work) and man drawing upon that grace and worshipping God.

“You are my Lord; without you I have no good.” Here is the faith of the righteous, of the God-fearing. God is his Lord. “Without you I have no good.” This man’s good lies solely in the Lord. Nothing would be good for him without the highest good, which is God, who is not only the source from which good comes, but is “the good”, is “the only good”. This is true profession of faith.

“For the saints, who are on earth, noble men, is all my love.” The “saints” and the “noble men” are the people with whom the righteous man, the one consecrated to God, associates. He recognises the value found in communion with the saints, with those whom God has set apart, and in whom His holiness is reflected.

The new CEI translation (that of 2008) renders it as: “to the idols of the land, to the mighty gods went all my favour”, rendering the text—which is already difficult in Hebrew—utterly incomprehensible. It is difficult to understand how qeḏôšîm can be translated as “idols” rather than “saints”. Yet the translations of the LXX and the Vulgate had made a very clear choice, and this is the one that emerged in the 1974 CEI translation: “For the saints, who are on earth, noble men, is all my love”.

“Let others hasten to build idols: I will not pour out their libations of blood nor utter their names with my lips.” It is a profession of faith made in reverse. The devout worshipper of the true God undertakes not to encourage idolatrous worship. One of the characteristics of idolatry is the “libation of blood”, which may also refer to human sacrifice, especially of children. There must be no communion whatsoever with idols. The distance must be absolute. Not even their name must be uttered. On the lips of the true worshipper there must be only the name of his God. Idols do not deserve the honour of being named.

“The Lord is my portion and my cup; in your hands is my life.”

Here we find priestly symbols. We know that in the division of the land of Canaan following the conquest, the tribe of Levi did not have a specific territory but only cities of residence. Those consecrated to worship were not to be involved in social structures, but were to act as intermediaries between God and the people. The priests’ land was God himself, and this concretely meant the right to receive the tithes offered by the tribes for their sustenance. The psalmist, therefore, through imagery, expresses this dedication of the priest to his God.

1.  The Lord is for him a “portion of inheritance”, that is, “a part of a territory”. 

2.  The Lord is for him his “cup”, that is, his host, his family member who welcomes him.

The “cup” is a sign of God’s hospitality towards his faithful. It is God who offers the cup, just as – from a strictly human perspective – it is the one who receives guests into his own home who offers them the cup. At the Last Supper, who offers the cup? It is Jesus, the host; he is the guest in the Latin sense (for the Romans, in fact, the guest is the one who hosts and not the one who is hosted).

For the righteous and pious man, the Lord is his portion of inheritance and his cup. The inheritance of the righteous is not the earth, nor the things of this world. His inheritance is the Lord alone. The Lord alone is his cup of salvation, of true life. This man expects nothing from the earth. It is the Lord, in the present and in the future, who is his life, his well-being, his prosperity; for this reason, his life is in the hands of his God. This is total surrender; he wishes to belong solely to God, always in his hands.

“My lot has fallen on delightful places; my inheritance is splendid.” The “lot” was the drawing of lots using sticks of varying lengths, signifying that judgement on a difficult matter was left to God. We might also understand it as: “My destiny is in Your hands.” For the psalmist, the Lord is a “delightful place”; He is the most beautiful, prosperous and precious land of all the territories obtained by the various tribes. For the psalmist, the Lord is a “magnificent inheritance”, the most important asset to be safeguarded and passed on. This is a vision of great faith. God is seen as the only true good, the one that will never fail. The concept of the land shifts from its concrete meaning to become the place of encounter with God. In a spiritual sense, it is the search for God that will last until the end of our lives.

This is also a truth of the Church, yet believed by few, lived by few. It is a faith that is simply overwhelming, for it frees us from all anxieties concerning the things of this world and gives our lives a divine breath.  

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an exegetical commentary 

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

Jesus Christ, true God and true Man in the mystery of the Trinity

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

(Available on Amazon)

(1 Peter 1:3–9)

1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; in his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1 Peter 1:4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading. It is kept in heaven for you,

Peter knows what the new reality is that has been created in the Christian and which must be given to every person. It is grace that descends from God. To God, who has given us such a great gift, a hymn of blessing and praise must rise from our hearts. The hymn of blessing is not only gratitude for the gift God has given us; it is also an awareness of the gift. Whoever does not know the gift does not even recognise it and therefore does not bless the Lord. Failure to bless is a sign of not possessing God’s gift. Whoever does not bless the Lord does not know what the Lord has done for him and through him. Hence arises the duty to teach the truth of God, His work.

One cannot teach all this in truth unless one teaches who Christ is in truth. Every ‘diminution’ of Christ becomes a ‘diminution’ of glory and blessing in relation to the Father. Today we see a ‘diminished’ Christian precisely because of the ‘diminution’ that has been made of Christ. But the Father too is ‘diminished’ precisely because of the ‘diminution’ that is taught about the Lord Jesus. Whoever wishes to exalt the Christian must exalt the truth of Christ in all its splendour. Peter holds high the truth of Christ and consequently holds high also the truth of the Father and of the Christian.

The God whom Peter blesses is the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. He is Father by eternal generation. Before the creation of the world, the Word was with God and was God, because he was begotten by the Father in the ‘today’ of eternity. This ‘today’ is before time, it is timeless, it is eternal. From all eternity and for ever, God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father begets the Son, the Son is begotten by the Father, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. From all eternity and for ever, this is the life of God.

God is blessed because of his ‘great mercy’. Mercy is the richness of divine love, of his heart rich in compassion and pity, which are directed towards man. On the one hand there is God who has everything; on the other there is man who is destitute, devoid of every good. God bends down to this man and fills him with grace.

God’s great mercy is regeneration, new birth, new life, a new calling. These divine gifts are given to us “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”. The Father raised Christ, His Son, from the dead. He gave new life to His body. This new life is granted to every Christian. Every Christian is enveloped by the newness of Christ, that is, by His resurrection to new life in Christ Jesus. The Christian has died to what he was before; he has been born into the new life lived in the Risen Jesus.

In Christ we have been begotten for a living hope: this hope is eternal life, which already begins in this world. The Christian is one who bears in his life the signs of Christ’s resurrection; he is one who can live as one who has risen together with Christ already on this earth. The Christian can free himself from sin. The Christian can live by truth, charity, justice and freedom. The Christian can be in the world without belonging to the world. This is the living hope. It is a living hope because it draws its life from the resurrection of Jesus at work within him. Where the resurrection of Christ is not at work, all hope is dead. Living hope is a green tree that bears fruit in every season. Dead hope is a dry tree, good only for being thrown into the fire.

“For an inheritance that does not corrupt, is not defiled and does not fade. It is kept in heaven for you.” The resurrection of Christ does not exhaust its fruits on this earth, and the living hope nourished within us does not end with our death. The Christian does not place hope in the things of the world for the present time. The Christian’s hope is to be called to an eternal inheritance. All the inheritances of this world are corrupted, rot, become tainted, and are swept away by time and history. It is enough to observe what is happening around us to realise that everything passes away. Man can trust in nothing, hope for nothing, expect nothing from the earth and from history. What history creates, history also destroys, and what man does, man also brings to ruin. The inheritance, however, to which the Lord calls us is eternal; it does not end, it does not diminish; indeed, it can become ever greater.

This inheritance is not preserved for us on earth, but in heaven. God awaits to hand it all over to us. For this inheritance, it is truly worth losing everything, every single thing, even our very lives. For this inheritance, we must also be willing to go to the cross, like Christ. What is the point of preserving our bodies for a few days only to then lose both body and soul in the eternal fire? What is the point of having a moment’s inheritance of the world, when the world then takes back that inheritance and our very souls? What is the point of selling Christ for thirty pieces of silver, when history then takes the thirty pieces and even our soul? This is the service history renders us. It gives us nothing for a moment: just long enough to gaze upon it with our eyes, and then robs us of our eternal good. God, however, does not! He asks us for the nothingness of history—which is, after all, His own—to give us the fullness of Himself and His eternal Kingdom. 

https://www.movimentoapostolico.org/formazione/parola-commentata/nuovo-testamento/27-prima-lettera-pietro.pdf

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an 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

(Available on Amazon)

Easter, «The Resurrection of the Lord»

Mt 26:14–27:66 [5 April 2026]

(Col 3:1–4)

Colossians 3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God;

Colossians 3:2 set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Colossians 3:3 For you have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God!

Colossians 3:4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Saint Paul exhorts Christians to live their new life to the full. The Christian is invited to realise in concrete terms, in daily life, the mystery that was accomplished in him on the day he was baptised into Christ. On that day, he truly rose to new life with Christ; he was truly enveloped in the glory of the Resurrection; he was truly taken up into heaven with Christ, for spiritually and sacramentally he is in heaven. The Christian is the body of Christ, and the body of Christ is in heaven, seated at the right hand of God; therefore, the Christian too is seated at the right hand of God. In the risen Christ, the Christian too has already made the crossing from this shore to the shore of heaven.

This is his new reality. If he is in heaven, if he is seated at the right hand of God, a new spirituality has been born for him: he must no longer seek the things of the earth, he must seek the things of heaven. But with his body of flesh he is still on earth. He is on earth but to seek the things of heaven, the things of God. On earth he is like a gleaner. The gleaner is in a harvested field. There is much chaff, there are few ears of corn. He must be able to gather all the ears of corn, leaving the chaff in the field. The chaff does not nourish him; the good grain, however, does nourish him. If he gathers chaff instead of ears of corn, he is doing a futile task. So it is with the Christian. He is on earth: there are things that do not belong to heaven, but there are also those that manifest and reveal heaven. He must be able to discard, leave behind, and abandon everything that does not reveal heaven—indeed, that distances one from heaven—in order to devote himself solely to the things that are of heaven, which bring heaven down to earth, for they bring truth, justice, charity, and every other heavenly virtue into this world.

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” The “things above” are the will of God; the things of the earth, on the other hand, are the will of men. The Christian must walk amidst temptation. On the one hand there are the interests of Christ, which are the building up of the kingdom of God and His righteousness. On the other hand there are the thoughts of man, diametrically opposed to the thoughts of Christ. Those who allow themselves to be overcome by human thoughts forget heaven. How can we act so as not to think of earthly things but of those above? First and foremost, we must have sound discernment between heavenly things and earthly things. Those who do not separate, discern or distinguish live in perpetual confusion. They do earthly things thinking they are heavenly, and do heavenly things as if they were earthly. Having made the necessary distinction, we must bring about the death of sin and the resurrection to the life of truth, aided in this by the grace of God, which we must draw upon daily through unceasing prayer offered up to God, in the awareness that man lives surrounded by the things of the world, and if he neglects the purpose for which he lives, he immediately allows himself to be drawn to the earth, forgetting heaven.

“For you have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God”! St Paul now gives the profound reason that must always inspire the Christian in the constant pursuit of heavenly things. The earth would belong to us if we were still alive. In reality, everything that belongs to the earth no longer belongs to the Christian, for he has truly died in the body of Christ. If he has died, if he has been transformed into a body of glory, he can no longer feed on the things of the earth. He has changed nature; he is a different man; he is no longer the one born according to Adam. Now he is born according to Christ. Just as Christ no longer belongs to the earth, so the Christian can no longer belong to the earth.

This is a mysterious reality. Our life is now hidden with Christ in God. The life we live in our body should be merely an apparent life—that is, a life that appears, but which is not the true life—because the true life of the Christian is that which he lives in his spirit. The true life of the Christian is that which is hidden with Christ in God. It is hidden because it is a life as one raised with Christ. He lives this life in his body of flesh but only as a means to clothe himself wholly in Christ, as a moment in which he strives towards heaven, until the perfect realisation of Christ is completed in him. What the Christian lives in the flesh is only a temporary life, lasting but a few moments. He lives it because something is still lacking for the full realisation of Christ in him. He must therefore act like the gleaner. He must take only what nourishes his spirit, which has been recreated and renewed in Christ Jesus. This is the Christian’s vocation, his mission on earth. But if he does not consider himself a new man in Christ, everything will ultimately be in vain. Everything will prove to be futile. It is then of no value to uphold some principle of sound morality. The Christian is not one who must live for the fulfilment of some moral principle. The Christian must live to bring to fulfilment on earth the mystery that has already been fulfilled for him in Christ. He must live his new, true life; he must abandon his outward life; indeed, he must make this outward life a ladder to reach the true life that is hidden with Christ in God. This is the true vocation of the Christian and this is the daily work he must carry out.

“When Christ, your life, is revealed, then you too will be revealed with him in glory.” The Christian now lives in the time of faith and not of vision. If he could see how much Christ has wrought in him through his Holy Spirit on the day of his baptism, he would be breathless; he would not believe his own eyes. The mystery created at baptism is so lofty, so profound, so vast, that it would leave us awestruck if the Lord were to reveal it to our eyes. But this grace is difficult to realise. We must go to God by faith. We must trust in Him; we must make His Word the sole certainty of our lives.

The Christian sees with the eyes of the flesh the falsehoods that surround and tempt him; he does not see with the eyes of his spirit the invisible truths that should instead draw him towards God. When will the Christian emerge from this world of illusion? When will the true life that he already put on on the day of his baptism—and which is now hidden with Christ in God—be revealed to him? For Saint Paul, all will be fulfilled on the day of the glorious resurrection on the last day. On that day we shall have the full vision of glory, and only then shall we understand the whole mystery of baptism. Now we must simply walk in the light of faith, trusting totally in Christ. Now is the time for obedience and for seeking the things that are of heaven. If, through faith, we seek the things above, we shall gradually taste, though without being able to see it, the mystery of our baptism. We shall contemplate it with the eyes of our spirit, we shall love it, we shall realise it. One thing must be certain: this is the world of appearances, of vanities, of darkness, of deception, of temptation. Those who have passed through this world, overcoming evil and seeking the things above, will be clothed in the glory of Christ in the kingdom of heaven. 

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an exegetical commentary 

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

Jesus Christ, True God and True Man in the Mystery of the Trinity

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

(Available on Amazon)

 (Mt 26:14–27:66)

Matthew 26:17 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?’

Matthew 26:18 He replied, ‘Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, “The Teacher sends word to you: My time is near; I will celebrate the Passover at your house with my disciples.”’

Matthew 26:19 The disciples did as Jesus had instructed them and prepared the Passover.

Matthew 26:20 When evening came, he sat down at table with the Twelve.

Matthew 26:21 Whilst they were eating, he said, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.’

Matthew 26:22 And they were deeply distressed and began to ask him one by one, ‘Surely not I, Lord?’

Matthew 26:23 He replied, ‘The one who has dipped his hand into the dish with me—he will betray me.

Matthew 26:24 The Son of Man is going, as it is written about him, but woe to the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for that man if he had never been born!’

Matthew 26:25 Judas, the betrayer, said, ‘Rabbi, is it I?’ He replied, ‘You have said so.’

The word ‘unleavened’ is formed from the privative ‘a’, meaning ‘without’, and ‘zymos’, which is yeast. Unleavened bread is bread made without yeast. According to Jewish tradition, on the eve of Passover, the 14th of Nisan, all yeast had to be removed from the homes, and so the bread was baked without yeast.

The disciples “approached” Jesus. This collegiality among the disciples highlights the ecclesial nature of the account. The Christological aspect, on the other hand, is highlighted by the fact that they all converge upon Jesus, thereby indicating his centrality; furthermore, they ask him where to prepare his Passover: “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover for you?” Jesus also emphasises that this time is his time (v. 18). Jesus is fully aware that the decisive time (kairòs) had come for the fulfilment of the Father’s plan. Kairos is the appointed time, the time of fulfilment.

There is a profound union between Jesus and the disciples; they form a sort of new entity. This involves the disciples being assimilated into Jesus’ own Passover, so that their remembrance of the Lord’s Passover is a way of making his Passover perpetually present and relevant amongst them; indeed, they themselves become the sign of the Lord’s Passover: “The Master sends word to you [...] I will celebrate the Passover at your house with my disciples”.

Jesus’ command to prepare his Passover “at the house of this man” is significant. Not “a man”, but “this man”. The definite article, whilst leaving the man anonymous, nevertheless identifies him within a category of people among whom Jesus has ordered his Passover to be celebrated. This “one” must in fact have been a disciple of Jesus, given that Jesus presents himself to him as the “Master says”. Who is this one? It intrigues us. Behold, this one is I who am reading. The Master sends word to me through his disciples that his time is near and he wishes to eat the Passover with me; he invites me to his supper. The Gospel is written for the reader, not for that one.

“When evening came”, Jesus sat down to eat “with the Twelve” (v. 20); and they eat this Passover, which is not theirs, but the Lord’s. They are part of it nonetheless; they take it in. Even the one who is about to betray Jesus is made, right to the very end, a participant in his Master’s redemptive destiny of death. But for him there will be no salvation: “it would be better for that man if he had never been born” (v. 24).

“One of you will betray me.” Jesus knows who it is that is about to betray him, yet he does not reveal it. Jesus spoke in the future tense, not the past. Had he spoken in the past: “One of you has already betrayed me”, everyone might have suspected the others, but not themselves. Since Jesus speaks in the future, everyone suspects themselves. Everyone thinks it might be they themselves who are betraying him, and asks the Lord: “Is it I, Lord?”. Jesus answers them all, yet in such a prudent and wise manner that he allows each to know it is not they, without however being able to identify who the traitor really is: “The one who has dipped his hand into the dish with me, he will betray me”. In those days there were neither spoons nor forks, but each of the guests took what he needed from the common dish with his hands. Everyone could know it was not him because he had not yet dipped his hand into the dish with Jesus. Yet no one knew who the betrayer was, because they did not know who had already dipped his hand into the dish with Jesus.

There is a certain distance between Judas and the other apostles, which the evangelist Matthew points out to us in the different ways they approach Jesus. Faced with the revelation of the betrayal that is about to take place, the disciples turn to Jesus, calling him ‘Lord’ (v. 22). Judas, on the other hand, sees in Jesus only a ‘Rabbi’ (v. 25) who has let him down. There has been no spiritual growth in him. The rabbi (teacher) is the one who tells you things; you learn them and then do them without him so that you too may become a teacher. It is true that Jesus is one who teaches you things, but above all he is one who loves you and gives his life for you. This is the radical difference between Lord and teacher.

“Woe to that man through whom the Son of Man is betrayed.” The Greek expression is “ouai” and was the typical expression of a funeral lament. Jesus weeps for Judas as if he were dead.

Judas was in the Upper Room, the holiest place at that moment, as if to signify that within the holiness of Christ and the Church there will always be the presence of the sinner. Just as Jesus Christ was betrayed by one of his disciples, so the Church will always be betrayed by her children. At the moment of greatest holiness, there will always be the moment of greatest betrayal.

Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an 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

(Available on Amazon)

Fifth Lent Sunday (year A)

(Rom 8:8–11)

Romans 8:8 Those who live according to the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 8:9 But you are not under the control of the flesh, but of the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to him.

Romans 8:10 And if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of justification.

Paul does not want anyone to harbour illusions: those who live according to the flesh cannot please God. From the acceptance of this truth arises within us the possibility of a new path. If, on the other hand, we allow ourselves to be overcome by illusion, any path upwards becomes impossible, and it will always be impossible as long as man harbours the illusion of pleasing God whilst in fact God is not pleased with him, because he is guided and led by his flesh. He cannot please God because the flesh seeks self-affirmation and the nullification of God; it seeks the deification of man and consequently the removal of man from God. Whoever lives according to the flesh is in rebellion against God; indeed, God is his enemy, for He is the One who takes away man’s space because He wishes to govern his life. To assert himself in his flesh, such a person desires the death of God.

This dramatic choice became a reality with Jesus Christ. He was put to the cross, because His presence demanded the death of the flesh into which man had fallen. The flesh killed God, hung Him on the wood of the cross, and removed Him from the picture. This opposition will accompany man throughout his life, and will ultimately result either in eternal death or eternal life, either forever far from God or forever close to God.

But we can and must please God. We can and must because we are not under the dominion of the flesh, but under the dominion of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. “But you are not under the dominion of the flesh,” says St Paul. This is the truth that every Christian must make their own. Escaping the dominion of the flesh means that man has truly been redeemed, set free; the long, arduous, peril-filled journey has begun that will lead him to the heavenly homeland, in complete freedom from all bondage.

Another truth that Paul never ceases to remind us of is that the Christian is under the dominion of the Spirit, as attested by the fact that the Spirit of God dwells within him. The flesh is falsehood, selfishness, disobedience, and separation from God. The Spirit, on the other hand, creates freedom, love, communion, obedience, and submission to God. Therefore, ‘if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to him’: an obvious and banal statement, were it not for the fact that all too easily one presumes to be of Christ. If the Spirit brings about the destruction of the flesh, if the Spirit creates the new man, if the Spirit leads the believer towards the fullness of life and truth, it is also true that whoever is without the Spirit of Christ cannot belong to Christ. He does not belong to Christ because he belongs to the flesh, and even though Christ bought him at a high price by shedding his blood on the cross, if man has returned of his own will under the dominion of the flesh, this man cannot belong to Christ. Belonging to Christ is not simply a matter of belonging due to the fact that, through the sacrament of baptism, man has come out from under the dominion of the flesh to enter into that of the Spirit. This is an initial, nascent belonging. It is necessary for this belonging to be transformed into the habitual indwelling of the Spirit within us. We are Christ’s; we belong to Him because He has bought us with His most precious blood, but we can freely depart from this belonging through our surrender to sin and death.

“And if Christ is in you”: Christ is in us if His Spirit dwells in us. The Spirit dwells in you if man remains in the truth. If the believer has truly conformed his way of life to the Spirit of Christ, then “Your body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of justification”. Man’s spirit has been filled with the life of Christ, but this life is not a fruit produced from within man, just as a tree naturally produces its fruit. This life comes to him from without; it comes to him because of justification, that is, because of God’s will to make man righteous in Christ.

Justification does not occur automatically, without the participation of man’s will. It is accomplished in man through an act of faith in Christ. Justification is not without faith, for otherwise man would be deprived of his will. Now, what makes men human is precisely the will; without it, they are no longer human. God allows a man to end up in eternal darkness rather than deprive him of his very essence as a man. This is the tremendous mystery of man’s ontological constitution, and within this ontological constitution lies also the mystery of sin. Those who advocate a purely objective justification in which every man is saved and redeemed, those who propose the abolition of hell or its temporary nature, these do not realise that by advocating such theories they destroy themselves in their ontological reality, for they declare themselves not to be men, that is, beings not endowed with will and self-determination.

Unfortunately, today man no longer knows himself, and he does not know himself because he does not know God, and not knowing God, he cannot even know himself. That man does not know himself is attested precisely by the fact that he has destroyed himself in his ontological reality. But the destruction of man attests to another terrible reality. If man does not know himself, it is because the Spirit of truth does not dwell within him. If the Christian does not know himself, it is a clear sign that he has returned to the flesh, for only those who are in the flesh do not know God, and the ignorance in which he lives is to his grave detriment.

The Christian does not have a vocation to mediocrity, or simply to avoid sin. The Christian possesses a vocation to the highest holiness. He is called to develop every gift of grace and truth so that it may bear the greatest fruit. Minimalism, mediocrity and superficiality are not the Christian’s vocation. His vocation is, rather, to attain conformity to the Lord Jesus. Today we are forgetting the vocation we have received. We are living as though we had no vocation to fulfil, indeed as though our body were condemned to sin. Instead, St Paul tells us that a Christian is either one who is taken and led by the Holy Spirit, or is not a Christian.   

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an 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

(Available 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) 

Ps 17 (18)

This monumental ode, which the title attributes to David, is a Te Deum of the king of Israel, it is his hymn of thanksgiving to God because he has been delivered from all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. David acknowledges that God alone was his Deliverer, his Saviour.

David begins with a profession of love (v. 2). He shouts to the world his love for the Lord. The word he uses is 'rāḥam', meaning to love very tenderly, as in the case of a mother's love. The Lord is his strength. David is weak as a man. With God, who is his strength, he is strong. It is God's strength that makes him strong. This truth applies to every man. Every man is weak, and remains so unless God becomes his strength.

God for David is everything (v.3). The Lord for David is rock, fortress. He is his Deliverer. He is the rock in which he takes refuge. He is the shield that defends him from the enemy. The Lord is his mighty salvation and his bulwark. The Lord is simply his life, his protection, his defence. It is a true declaration of love and truth.

David's salvation is from the Lord (v. 4). It is not from his worthiness. The Lord is worthy of praise. God cannot but be praised. He does everything well. It is enough for David to call upon the Lord and he will be saved from his enemies. Always the Lord answers when David calls upon him. David's salvation is from his prayer, from his invocation.

Then David describes from what dangers the Lord delivered him. He was surrounded by billows of death, like a drowning man swept away by waves. He was overwhelmed by raging torrents. From these things no one can free himself. From these things only the Lord delivers and saves.

David's winning weapon is faith that is transformed into heartfelt prayer to be raised to the Lord, because only the Lord could help him, and it is to Him that David cries out in his distress. This is what David does: in his distress, he does not lose himself, he does not lose his faith, he remains whole. He turns his faith into prayer. He invokes the Lord. He cries out to Him. He asks Him for help and succour. God hears David's voice, hears it from his temple. His cry reaches him.

God becomes angry because He sees His elect in danger. The Lord's anger produces an upheaval of the whole earth. The earth trembles and shakes. The foundations of the mountains shake. It is as if a mighty earthquake turned the globe upside down. The spiritual fact is translated into such a profound upheaval of nature that one has the impression that creation itself is about to cease to exist. In this catastrophe that strikes terror, the righteous is rescued.

The Lord frees David because he loves him. Here is the secret of the answer to the prayer: the Lord loves David (v. 20). The Lord loves David because David loves the Lord. Prayer is a relationship of love between man and God. David invokes God's love. God's love responds and draws him to safety.

"Wholesome have I been with him, and I have guarded myself from guilt" (v. 24). David's conscience testifies for him. David prayed with an upright conscience, with a pure heart. This he says not only to God, but to every man. Everyone must know that the righteous is truly righteous. The world must know the integrity of God's children. We have a duty to confess it. It is on integrity that truly human relationships can be built. Without integrity, every relationship is tightened on falsehood and lies.

"The way of God is straight, the word of the Lord is tried by fire" (v. 31). What is the secret because God is with David? It is David's abiding in the Word of God. David has a certainty: the way indicated by the Word of God is straight. One only has to follow it. This certainty is lacking in the hearts of many today. Many do not believe in the purity of God's Word. Many think that it is now outdated. Modernity cannot stand under the Word of God.

"For who is God, if not the Lord? Or who is rock, if not our God?" Now David professes his faith in the Lord for all to know. Is there any other God but the Lord? God alone is the Lord. God alone is the rock of salvation. To seek another God is idolatry. This profession of faith must always be made aloud (remember the 'Creed'). Convinced people are needed. A faith hidden in the heart is dead. A seed placed in the ground springs up and reveals the nature of the tree. Faith that is in the heart must sprout up and reveal its nature of truth, holiness, righteousness, love and hope. A faith that does not reveal its nature is dead. It is a useless faith.

"He grants his king great victories; he shows himself faithful to his anointed, to David and his seed for ever" (v. 51). In this Psalm, David sees himself as the work of God's hands. That is why he blesses him, praises him, magnifies him. God's faithfulness and great favours for David do not end with David. God's faithfulness is for all his descendants. We know that David's descendants are Jesus Christ. With Jesus God is faithful for ever. With the other descendants, God will be faithful if they are faithful to Jesus Christ.

Here, then, the figure of David disappears to make way for that of the perfect king in whom the saving action that God offers the world is concentrated. In the light of this reinterpretation, the ode entered the Christian liturgy as a victory song of Christ, the 'son of David', over the forces of evil and as a hymn of the salvation he offered.

 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)