5th Easter Sunday [18 May 2025]

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! Already in this first week Pope Leo XIV is giving us, in a calm and profound manner, some marching directions to be well interiorised. I invite you not to miss any of his speeches, all of which are always read out and never delivered off the cuff. Why? It is interesting to seek an answer. Today then there will be the homily of the beginning of his Petrine ministry and therefore in a certain sense programmatic of the pontificate of which he will show the style. 

*First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles (14:21b-27)

From Antioch of Syria, Paul and Barnabas had departed by ship to the south coast of what we today call Turkey, passing through Cyprus; they had stopped at Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium (today Konya), Lystra and Derbe and everywhere, as we saw last Sunday, Paul and Barnabas first addressed the Jews, receiving a rather "mixed" reception. Enthusiasm on the part of some who converted and violent rejection on the part of others who opposed them decisively to the point of driving them out, and it was in Antioch of Pisidia that they decided to address not only the Jews, but also those who were called 'God-fearing', that is, practitioners of the Jewish religion although not yet integrated through circumcision, and therefore, strictly speaking, still pagans. This is why Paul says that God through them had "opened to the Gentiles the door of faith" (v.27).  On the return journey of this first missionary journey Paul and Barnabas retrace the same itinerary in the opposite direction and visit again the communities they had recently founded that were already suffering persecution because Luke specifies that Paul and Barnabas exhorted them to remain steadfast in the faith, saying that we must pass through many tribulations to enter the kingdom of God (v.22). Jesus had already used similar expressions: "the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation" (Lk 17:25)... or, addressing the disciples of Emmaus: "Should not Christ have suffered these things in order to enter into his glory?" (Lk 24:26).God does not impose trials or sufferings on us in a preventive manner, but because of the hardness of the human heart, the true prophets encounter persecution until the world is converted to love, justice, and sharing. Paul and Barnabas are therefore concerned to strengthen the faith and courage of the new converts by also watching over the good organisation of the communities. First they appointed leaders, the 'elders', the Greek term 'presbyteros' (from which our term 'priest' derives) and, after praying and fasting, they entrusted them to the Lord. Luke insists on the importance of prayer and fasting because it is not only the organisation that is taken care of, but prayer and fasting are equally important. Indeed, an evangeliser who no longer prays will soon no longer evangelise. Luke notes that they entrusted the leaders of the new communities to the Lord to act with courage and responsibility as Paul and Barnabas had entrusted themselves to the grace of God and continued their journey telling the members of the community of Antioch of Syria all that God had done with them. Luke speaks both of the work that the apostles had done and of what God had done with them, and this makes us realise that the mission entrusted by God to believers is a work of God entrusted to man and a work of man sustained, accompanied, continually inspired by God. 

*Responsorial Psalm (144 (145), 8-13)

Of Psalm 144 (145), chosen for this fifth Sunday of Easter, there are only six verses here, while in total there are twenty-one as many letters as there are letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It is an alphabetical psalm, an acrostic, and each verse begins with one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, in alphabetical order. It is therefore a psalm of praise for the covenant: a way of saying that our whole life, from A to Z (in Hebrew from aleph to tav), is immersed in God's covenant and tenderness. But why this Psalm 144 (145) today and why only these six verses? First of all, this psalm is part of the Jewish prayer of every morning, and the dawning of a new day evokes for the believing Jew the dawning of the final day, of the future world and renewed creation. For us Christians, at this Easter time, the psalm reminds us that the Day of God's final kingdom has already begun, before our eyes, with the resurrection of Christ. Moreover, in Jewish spirituality, the Talmud (i.e. the teaching of the rabbis of the first centuries after Christ) states that he who recites this psalm three times a day "may be certain to be a child of the future world". For us Christians, the future world of which the Jewish faith speaks is precisely the creation renewed by Jesus Christ, and the six verses chosen for today constitute a condensation of this revelation, and the psalm harmonises perfectly with the tones of the Easter season, in particular, with the other readings of this Sunday.  The first verse: "Merciful and gracious is the Lord, slow to anger and great in love" is the best summary of all biblical revelation: in fact, it is the name God gave of himself to Moses (Ex 34:6).The second verse: 'Good is the Lord towards all, his tenderness is spread over all creatures' is an enormous discovery for mankind that we owe precisely to the chosen people; a theme already present in the Old Testament: God loves all mankind and his plan of love, as St Paul says, concerns the whole of humanity. We sense a particular resonance of this in the Acts of the Apostles and especially in the first reading of this Easter Sunday, which insists that the proclamation of God's love is not reserved for the Jews, but is for all nations. Furthermore, this psalm, especially in the verses read today, insists on God's kingship: 'To make known to men your deeds and the splendid glory of your kingdom, your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, your dominion extends to all generations'. Four times the word "kingdom" returns (once "dominion") and the words "deeds" and "exploits", which in the Bible always refer to the liberation from Egypt: God liberated his people then and liberates them now, and this until the final liberation, which is the victory over death. A psalm therefore particularly suited to the Easter season because the Risen One experiences God's kingship in his flesh. When Israel composed this psalm, the insistence on God's kingship, or his dominion, was a way of affirming that they would never rely on idols because their only King and Lord is God, the God of love. When Christians pray this psalm, they know well that in Christ, the servant king, humble in the Passion and triumphant over death, they see the presence of the King of the universe: "He who has seen me has seen the Father," Jesus told the apostles (Jn.14:9).

NOTE: Reading the entire psalm one notices a profound similarity with the Lord's Prayer: one addresses God as Father - "Our Father... give us... forgive us... deliver us from evil..." - a Father who is the God of mercy and pity as the psalm expresses it. He is also addressed as King: 'Thy Kingdom come'.  In fact, all the phrases that Jesus collected in the Lord's Prayer were already part of the customary prayers of the Jewish people

Depending on whether one counts the sign Sin/Shin as one or two letters (the same symbol is sometimes pronounced Sin, sometimes Shin), one would count 21 or 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Grammarians distinguish the two letters Sin and Shin and the alphabet counts 22 letters, but the psalmist uses only the letter Shin and therefore the psalm counts 21 verses.

*Second Reading from the Book of Revelation of Saint John (21:1-5a)

"Behold, I make all things new": a new heaven, a new earth, a new Jerusalem; this is our future, our "a-coming", that is, what is to come. Gone are the tears, the death, the groans, the cries, the sadness... all this belongs to the past: the first heaven and the first earth are gone. In other words, the past is past, accomplished. John warned us: his book is a book of visions, revealing the future to give courage to face the present. The first heaven and the first earth refer back to the biblical account of creation and to understand this passage of Revelation we must refer back to the book of Genesis which in the first chapter presents "the first creation" of which Revelation states that it was totally good: "God saw what he had made, and behold, it was very good" (Gen 1:31). Despite this, however, every day we see tears, cries, sadness, death as Revelation repeats and the cause lies in the account of the forbidden fruit (Gen.3) explaining what corrupted the goodness of creation. The root of all suffering is the rift created between God and mankind with the original suspicion that destroys the Covenant and drives mankind down paths that only lead to failure. The chosen people heard, through the prophets, the call to the way of the Covenant which is the only way to true happiness. It is necessary for God to truly dwell among us so that we may be His people, and He may be our God. Restoring the Covenant as a dialogue of love is Israel's thirst throughout its history, and many prophets announce what the author of Revelation now sees fulfilled. Isaiah writes: "Behold, I create a new heaven and a new earth...the past shall no longer be remembered, it shall no longer come to mind...There shall no longer be heard in it voices of weeping, nor cries of distress...There shall no longer be a child who lives but a few days, nor an old man who does not complete his days" (Isaiah 65:17-20). But why symbolically is the renewal of all things represented by the disappearance of the sea even though Israel is not a people of sailors? The reason is that the creation of the universe, in the Bible, is read from the birth of the chosen people, and this birth, i.e. the coming out of slavery in Egypt, was a victory over the sea: God made the land appear dry to allow the passage of his people; the saved people crossed the sea on foot and the forces of evil, slavery and oppression were swallowed up. Later, in the New Testament, the Son of God made man manifested his victory over evil and its forces by walking on water. Now the victory is total, the Apocalypse suggests: the sea has disappeared and with it every form of evil: suffering, crying, death. Humanity and the entire universe await the fulfilment of the plan that God had when he created the world: to establish with humanity a Covenant without shadows, an eternal dialogue of love as it appears in the theme of the wedding between God and humanity always present in the Bible. One thinks of the prophets Hosea or Isaiah and the Song of Songs, and in the New Testament, the wedding story of Cana, to name but one. Here, in our passage from Revelation, this promise emerges from two images: that of the new Jerusalem, "ready as a bride adorned for her husband" (v.2) and from the expression "God with them" (v.3) where "with" expresses the covenant of love, a spousal covenant. "Then I heard a mighty voice, coming from the throne, saying, 'Behold the tent of God with men! He will dwell with them and they will be his people and he will be the God-with-them" (v.3. ). Moreover, the centre of the new creation bears the name of the holy city - 'behold, the new Jerusalem "descends from God"' - the city that for centuries has symbolised the expectation of the chosen people, and the very name Jerusalem means 'City of justice and peace' 'descending from God' and for this reason is called 'new'. The new Jerusalem is not just a human work because the kingdom of God, which we await and in which we seek to collaborate, is at the same time in continuity and in rupture with this land. We are therefore invited to collaborate with God and our efforts contribute to the renewal of creation through God's intervention that will transfigure our efforts.We also perceive this in St Paul's letter to the Romans: "The sufferings of the present time are not comparable to the future glory that will be revealed in us. For the ardent expectation of creation is directed towards the revelation of the sons of God...for creation too will be delivered from the bondage of corruption, to enter into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God. For we know well that the whole creation groans and suffers until now in labour pains" (Rom 8:19-22).

*From the Gospel according to John (13:31- 35)

The first sentences of this text are like variations on the theme of "glory":

"When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him, and will glorify him now': all this may seem a little complicated to us, but in fact it is a very Jewish way of speaking: it expresses the reciprocity of the relationship between the Father and the Son, or rather their profound union: 'He who has seen me has seen the Father', writes John (14:8) and again: 'I and the Father are one' (10:30). "The Son of Man is glorified, or God is glorified in him", means that the Son is a reflection of the Father and we note once again how much effort is required to understand the language of Jesus and his contemporaries.  At the very moment when Judas goes out on the night of the betrayal, Jesus fulfils his vocation to be the reflection of the Father. But John did not understand this immediately because together with the apostles they had helplessly witnessed his passion and death; they had experienced this succession of events as a moment of horror and only later did John understand that this was in fact the moment of Jesus' glory: because it was there that the Son revealed how far the Father's love reaches. And since the Son betrayed, abandoned, persecuted by all, he alone continues against all, to be only love, kindness, forgiveness, he reveals to the world how far the Father's love reaches, an infinite love. And then - and this is the second part of our text - those who contemplate this mystery of God's mad love become capable in their turn of loving like him. Jesus in fact clearly connects the two things: he says that now he will reveal to the world how far the Father's love goes and he specifies: "now I give you a new commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you", but he also adds that only now will you be able because you will draw on my own love. In reality, the novelty is not the commandment to love; Jesus does not invent the commandment of love that already exists in the teaching of the rabbis of his time. What is new is to love like him, but not only "in his way", that is, to the point of giving one's life, rejecting all power, dominion and violence. What is new is to love 'really like him', that is, being completely led by his Spirit. Only thus can we understand in a completely new way the famous phrase: "By this all will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for one another". This is not just a commandment, but rather a statement: we are truly his disciples because it is his own Spirit that guides our behaviour. God knows how difficult everyday love is, and if we succeed in our communities in loving one another, the world will be forced to admit this evidence: that the Spirit of Christ is at work in us. We are therefore first of all invited to an act of faith: to believe that his Spirit of love dwells in us, that his resources of love dwell in us: that we possess unsuspected capacities to love, because they are his, and then it becomes possible to love 'like' him, because we allow his Spirit to act in us. However, we know from experience that it is not at all easy to love those around us, indeed with some it is even impossible to speak of love and forgiveness. Jesus certainly did not ignore this when he commanded his disciples to love one another; but we must not confuse love and sensitivity. Jesus showed with gestures of what love we must love one another when at the Last Supper he washed the feet of the apostles and concluded by saying: 'I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you'. This, then, is what it means to love 'as' he loved us! If we think about it, it is possible by his Spirit to serve one another, even those for whom we feel no sympathy. But faithfulness to this commandment is vital for us because it is by this that our communities are judged. For Jesus, the most important thing is not the quality of our speeches, our theology and knowledge, nor the beauty of our celebrations, but the quality of the love we offer one another. Jesus cried out on that last dramatic evening: "Now the Son of Man has been glorified (i.e. revealed as God), and God has been glorified in him. Humanity is introduced into the glory, the presence, the life of God, through the event of Christ's passion-death-resurrection. And now introduced into God's 'glory' (i.e. Christ's sacrifice), his disciples can live entirely under the sign of love, since God is love and his presence shines through them as well. All we have to do is believe it and let the Spirit work in us.

+Giovanni D'Ercole

4th Easter Sunday, Good Shepherd Sunday [11 May 2025]

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! We are in a decisive week for the Church, and the biblical texts of this Sunday help us to better understand the mission of the new pontiff, successor of Peter, who is called to firmly maintain the trust of the Christian people in Jesus the true Shepherd who knows and loves all his sheep. Yes, we are his and we belong to him. The disciples of Jesus, throughout history, really need to rest on the certainty that no one can snatch them from the hand of the Father!

*First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles (13, 14.43-52)  

We are in the synagogue of Antioch of Pisidia (in the heart of Asia Minor, today western Turkey) on a Saturday for the celebration of Shabbat. There are many people there with some differences: there are Jews by birth, some proselytes, that is, people who are not Jewish but have converted to the Jewish religion whom Luke calls "converts to Judaism" and pagans called "God-fearers" because having been attracted to the Jewish religion they go to the synagogue on the Sabbath for Shabbat, but even though they know the Jewish Scriptures they do not accept circumcision and all the Jewish practices. When Paul arrived in the city he went to the synagogue and first of all wanted to speak to his Jewish brothers about Jesus of Nazareth. The apostles were all Jews who recognised Christ as the Messiah and tried to convince other Jews to convert to Christ. Paul, preaching in the synagogues, thought that when all the Jewish people are converted, the conversion of the Gentiles will take place, since God's plan foresaw two stages: the choice of the chosen people to whom he revealed himself (this is the election of Israel) and the chosen people are entrusted with the task of proclaiming salvation to the Gentiles.  Of this "logic of election" of God's plan, the prophet Isaiah writes: "I have established you as the light of the nations, that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth" (Is 49:6) and, again in this logic, Jesus also told the apostles at the beginning: "Do not go among the Gentiles... go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt 10:5). From the first Saturday, Paul and Barnabas therefore go to the synagogue where they receive a favourable reception that gives them hope that some will become Christians. The following Saturday they return to the synagogue and many people go to hear them. This success of theirs, however, begins to annoy the Jews who "when they saw that crowd, they were filled with jealousy and with insulting words opposed Paul's statements". Luke calls "Jews" those Jews who categorically refuse to recognise Jesus as the Messiah. On the contrary, the pagans (i.e. the God-fearing) seem more favourable as he notes immediately afterwards: 'The pagans rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord, and all who were destined for eternal life believed'.  In Antioch of Pisidia Paul decides to change his plans: if only a few Jews accept, and the hope of converting the entire Jewish people to Christ must be abandoned for the time being, the rejection of the majority of the Jews must not, however, delay the proclamation of the Messiah to the Gentiles. In this regard, he knew well that it will be the "little Remnant", of whom Isaiah speaks at length (cf. chapters 1- 12 of the book of the prophet Isaiah), who will save Israel and all mankind. Paul understands that the little Remnant formed by Paul and Barnabas with all those who want to follow them, must take on the vocation of apostles of Israel and the pagan nations and says: "It was necessary that the word of God be proclaimed to you first, but since you reject it and do not judge yourselves worthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles" and from that moment they direct their missionary energy first of all to the "God-fearing" and then to the Gentiles. As is clear, here in Antioch of Pisidia there was a decisive turning point in the lives of the early Christians.

*Responsorial Psalm (99 (100) 1-3.5) 

This psalm was composed specifically to accompany a thanksgiving sacrifice and is called the 'psalm for todah' (in Hebrew, 'thanks' is said todah).

Already from the first verses, it is clear that it is meant to accompany a celebration in the Temple: 'Hail... serve... present yourselves to him with exultation'. Just as a hymn book can often be found at the entrance to churches, so the book of Psalms is the Jerusalem Temple's book of canticles suitable for various types of celebrations. This psalm was composed for a thanksgiving sacrifice and, in Israel, when thanks are given, it is always for the covenant. A very short psalm, each line evokes the entire history and faith of Israel and almost every word recalls the Covenant. After all, the heart of the tradition, faith and prayer of this people, the memory that is transmitted from generation to generation is this common faith: election, deliverance, the Covenant. After all, the whole Bible is here. Let us examine a few words: 'Acclaim', the word used indicates a special acclamation reserved for the new king on the day of his coronation and therefore means that the true king is God himself. "Acclaim the Lord": in the Hebrew text, the word Lord is expressed with the four letters YHWH (the Tetragrammaton), which we do not even know how to pronounce or translate because God is beyond our comprehension, and God revealed Himself by this name during the burning bush to Moses (Ex 3). Moses discovered on that occasion the greatness of God, the Totally Other. At the same time Moses receives the revelation of God's total closeness: 'I have seen, yes, I have seen the misery of my people... I have heard their cry... I know their sufferings'. "All the earth": anticipating a future event, Israel already glimpses the day when all mankind will come to acclaim its Lord. Indeed, in the psalms we always find the two themes linked: the election of Israel and the universalism of divine salvation. "Recognise that the Lord alone is God": here is Israel's profession of faith: Shema Israel: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One". "Serve the Lord in joy": in Israel's memory, the Egypt of slavery will be called the "house of bondage". Henceforth, the chosen people will learn 'service' as the choice of free men, and hence the exodus can be said to have been for the Jewish people the transition 'from slavery to service'. "He has made us and we are his": this formula is not a reference to the creation, but to the liberation from Egypt: the people do not forget that they were slaves in Egypt and that God made them free, from fugitives he made the Jews a people. Throughout the Sinai crossing Israel learnt to live in the Covenant proposed by God and the expression "He has made us and we are His" became a customary Covenant formula. The first article of Israel's 'Creed' is not I believe in God the Creator, but I believe in God the Deliverer. 

NOTE: The Bible was not written in the order in which we read it: it did not begin by recounting the creation, then the events of the life of the chosen people, as in a report. Reflection on creation only came much later. Having experienced God as the liberator, Israel realised that this work of liberation has been going on since the creation of the world, and the reflection on creation stems from faith in a liberating God. The ancient formula 'We, his people' typical of the Jewish faith is a reminder of the Covenant, because God, in proposing the Covenant, had promised: 'You shall be my people and I will be your God'.  The expression then "We, his people and the flock of his people" is typical of Israel where the flock was the wealth of the owner, his boast, but also the object of his solicitude and care, and it was for the needs of the flock that the nomadic shepherd would move his tent in the desert, following the clumps of grass for the animals' nourishment. In the same way God moved with his people as they walked in the Sinai desert. Finally "His love is forever" is a refrain of the Covenant that we know well because it recurs in other psalms and here it is joined to the following verse with another traditional formula: "His faithfulness from generation to generation": "love and faithfulness" is one of the few ways to speak of God without betraying him

*Second Reading, from the book of Revelation of St John the Apostle (7:9 -17)  

 The reference to the "immense multitude that no one could count" recalls God's promise to Abraham of an innumerable descendants: "I will make your descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth: if one could count the grains of dust, one could count your descendants!"(Gen 13:16); and a little further on: "Look at the sky and count the stars, if you can...so shall your descendants be!" (Gen 15:5); and again: "I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore" (Gen 22:17). Revelation, the last book of the Bible, makes us contemplate God's project realised: a multitude composed of all nations, races, peoples and languages, four terms to indicate the whole of humanity, as Isaiah had announced: "All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God" (Is 52:10). The salvation of which Isaiah speaks is the elimination of all hunger, thirst, and tears, and in chapter 49 we read verbatim: "They shall hunger and thirst no more; the fierce wind and the sun shall smite them no more. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them to springs of water" (Is 49:10). And, above all, salvation is the presence of the One who is at the root of true happiness: "full of compassion", says Isaiah and John translates here: "He who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them". When he uses this expression, his readers know what he is referring to: the Jewish people have always aspired to this - that God would 'pitch his tent' in their midst, that is, that God would dwell permanently in their midst: it is the mystery of closeness, of intimacy, of permanent divine presence. In this regard, we note that John in the gospel used the same terms for Christ: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14). In the Jewish people, some already had the honour of living, in a certain way, an anticipation of this intimacy: they were the priests, who served God day and night in the Temple of Jerusalem, a visible sign of God's presence. Here the sacred author glimpses the day when all mankind will be introduced into intimacy with God: 'I saw an immense multitude, which no one could count...all stand before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple'. To describe this immense multitude he uses images from the Jewish liturgy and the Christian liturgy: all this enriches the text while making it complex. When referring to the Jewish liturgy, John alludes to the feast of the Tents or Tents (Sukkot), a feast that is a remembrance of the past and an anticipation of the future promised by God. It recalls the time spent in the desert when one discovered the Covenant proposed by the neighbouring God and lived for eight days in specially built huts. At the same time, the eight days heralded God's promised future, the new creation (as the figure eight reminds us each time, a foretaste of the triumph of the Messiah and with him the fulfilment of God's plan consisting of happiness for all). Among the rituals of the Feast of Tents, John recalls the palms carried in processions around the altar of sacrifices in the Temple of Jerusalem. In fact, in such processions each person waved a bunch (the lulav) composed of various branches, including a palm tree (lulav), a sprig of myrtle (Hadas), a sprig of willow (Aravah) along with a citron (Etrog) lemon-like fruit while chanting "Hosanna", which means both "God gives salvation" and "we pray thee, Lord, give us salvation". Let us read the text of Revelation uncut: "I saw: behold, an immense multitude, which no one could count... they stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and with palms in their hands. And they cried with a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!"  Another rite of the Feast of Tanah was the rite of the "Water Libation" (Nisuakh haMayim), the procession to the pool of Siloe on the eighth and last day of the feast, carrying water in procession to sprinkle the altar, a rite of purification prefiguring the final purification promised by God through the prophets, especially Zechariah: "On that day, living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea" (Zech 14:8). It was precisely during a Feast of Tabernacles, on the eighth day, that Jesus said (and it is again St John who reports this): "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me, and drink who believes in me. As the Scripture says, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:37). Here, in echo, John predicts: "The Lamb who stands in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd and will lead them to the springs of the waters of life". From the Christian liturgy, St John has taken the white robe of the baptised and the blood of the Lamb, the sign of the life given, to tell us that all that the Feast of Tents symbolically announced is now fulfilled. In Jesus Christ the expectation of God's people for a definitive purification, a new Covenant, God's perfect presence with us, is fulfilled. Through Baptism and the Eucharist, humanity participates in the life of the Risen One and thus enters into God's intimacy for good.

NOTE: In the immense multitude (v. 9) tradition identifies the Church even though at the end of the first century Christians were not many. However, there is a possible different interpretation: in the preceding verses (v. 3-8), John describes a first crowd ("the servants of our God" whose "forehead is marked with the seal") and it is believed to be the baptised, i.e. the Church. The immense crowd clothed in white robes (the wedding garment) would then be the multitude of the saved, in the line of the Servant theology (cf. the four hymns of the second book of Isaiah), with which the Johannine writings, and not only them, are all imbued. Therefore the immense crowd (vv9 ff.) would be the "multitude" justified by the Servant: "The righteous, my servant, will justify the multitudes" (Is 53:11). Confronted then with persecution, Christians found here a reason to resist because they knew that their sacrifice was a seed of salvation for the multitude.*From the Gospel according to John (10:27-30)

Right after the text proposed to us in this Sunday's liturgy, St John writes: "The Jews again picked up stones to stone him" (v.31). Why did they react so strongly and what had Jesus said that was so extraordinary? In reality, he did not take the initiative but merely answered a question.The evangelist narrates that he was in the Temple in Jerusalem, under the portico called 'Solomon's Portico', and the Jews, in order to corner him, asked him: 'How long will you keep us in uncertainty? If you are the Christ, tell us openly' (v24). In short, we are faced with a kind of ultimatum, such as: Are you the Christ (i.e. the Messiah) or not, say it clearly once and for all. Instead of answering "yes, I am the Messiah", Jesus speaks of "his" sheep, but it is the same thing because the people of Israel willingly compared themselves to a flock: "We are God's people, the flock he leads", this expression recurs often in the psalms, in particular, in this Sunday's psalm: "He has made us and we are his, his people and the flock of his pasture"; a flock often mistreated, neglected, or misguided by the successive kings on David's throne. It was known, however, that the Messiah would be an attentive shepherd, so Jesus truly presents himself as the Messiah. His interlocutors understood this very well and Jesus takes them much further because when speaking of "his" sheep he dares to say: "I give them eternal life and they will not be lost for ever and no one will snatch them out of my hand" (v. 28). But who can ever give eternal life? The expression 'to be in the hand of God' was customary in the Old Testament as we find for example in Jeremiah: 'As clay is in the hand of the potter, so you are in my hand, house of Israel!" (Jer 18:16), or in the book of Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes): "The righteous, the wise, and their deeds are in the hand of God" (Qo 9:1), and also in Deuteronomy: "I make dead and alive, I wound and I heal, and no one can deliver from my hand" (Deut 32:39), and a little further on: "All the saints are in your hand" (Deut 33:3). Jesus refers to all this and adds: "No one can snatch them out of the hand of the Father" (v.29), equating "my hand" and "the hand of the Father". And he does not stop there because he says: "I and the Father are one" (v.30) which is to say: "yes, I am the Christ, that is, the Messiah" making himself equal to God, himself God. For his interlocutors, this was unacceptable because they expected a Messiah who was a man but could not imagine that he could be God: faith in the one God was so strongly affirmed in Israel that it was practically impossible for fervent Jews to believe in the divinity of Jesus. Professing daily the Jewish faith: 'Shema Israel', 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord', they could not tolerate hearing Jesus say: 'I and the Father are one'. This explains why the fiercest opposition to Jesus came from the religious leaders. The reaction was immediate and as they prepared to stone him, they accused him of blaspheming by making himself God. Once again, Jesus came up against the incomprehension of those who had been waiting for the Messiah with greater fervour and this is a constant reflection in John: "He came among his own, and his own did not receive him". The whole mystery of Christ is contained in this, and also, in filigree, his trial. And yet, all is not lost; Jesus faced misunderstanding, even hatred, he was persecuted, eliminated, but some believed in him; John himself says this in the Prologue of his gospel: "He came among his own, and his own did not receive him... but to those who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God" (John 1:11-12). And we know well that it is thanks to these that the revelation has continued to spread. From that little Remnant was born the people of believers: "My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life'. In spite of the opposition that Jesus encounters here, in spite of the already foreseeable tragic outcome, there is undoubtedly in these words a language of victory: "No one will snatch them out of my hand"... "No one can snatch them out of the hand of the Father": one perceives here an echo of another phrase of Jesus reported by the same evangelist: "Have courage, I have overcome the world" (Jn 16:33). Jesus' disciples, throughout history, really need to rest on the certainty that no one can snatch them from the hand of the Father.

+Giovanni D'Ercole

Communion: Root of Being, Dreaming Energy re-reading History

(Jn 13:16-20)

In the context of the washing of the feet, Jesus reminds us that the true disciple should have no illusions: he will have no less persecution than the Master.

An «envoy» is no more important than the One who sends him (v.16). Jesus doesn’t elect Twelve Apostles as if they were leaders destined to have fabulous positions.

The disciples are "sent" in this sense, like the Son by the Father. Within this flow they become a revealing light, fully, without closure.

In short, one of the ways of washing one another's feet (v.14) is precisely to come and feel properly «sent» - depicting a kind of dreamy concatenation: Jesus and God himself, passing through us.

We can only become a continuation of the Mystery surrounding the Person of Christ if we are aware that we are not "more" than others - let alone the Master.

In I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed), Manzoni narrates that the marquis successor to Don Rodrigo [«good man, not an original»] serves the guests at Renzo and Lucia’s wedding table.

Then, however, he withdraws to dine aloof with Don Abbondio: «of humility, he had as much as it took to put himself below those good people, but not to be their equal».

It used to be done this way: social etiquette dictated it.

A style in which, in order to be liked, one accepted to adapt to (impromptu) gestures of almsgiving and benevolence, among excellent, well-mannered people - obviously safeguarding the prominence of positions.

Falling into line with the models does not get us out of the cages; on the contrary, it hides us in the illusion of a change that is not actually taking place, because the bogus order remains, despite the altruism of appearances.

The portent to which we are called and sent is not to make room for convenient feelings, but to move from our own summit to the level of others and to stand shoulder to shoulder with them, to give everyone the emotion of feeling adequate.

From service to Communion: a unique climate [not always “according to manners” but authentically our own and dreamy] of intimate power that develops blooms, triggering impossible recoveries.

From here the story is re-read.

It is the way of Bliss (v.17) - that of the living Lord. The core of the outgoing Church: adding to beautiful and practical teachings the essential dimension, which points downwards.

In action, the profound being of the Friend who has the freedom to descend is expressed. He reveals himself to be a promoter of the unfortunate, not a subtle prevaricator.

Such is the plausible and amiable path, the evangelizing Way of our Roots. Which does not demand "resilience" in relationships, only from the "inferiors" of the world.

«I Am» of Ex 3:14 becomes - without effort - the communal and welcoming People of the servants filled with self-given dignity.

The eternal element of the Logos is preserved and developed by his envoys and the ministerial, 'apostolic' church: both in its original and founding character and in its connection to the history of each one.

To internalize and live the message:

What does it mean to you to go from serving to Communion? Do you consider it an annoying excess?

Is it enough for you to make others feel good at times, as a protagonist and in a smug way, or do you strive to make them feel adequate?

[Thursday 4th wk. in Easter, May 15, 2025]

Pointing downwards, from service to Communion

Jn 13:16-20 (.21-38)

An "envoy" is no more than the one who sends him (v.16). The new CEI translation specifies that Jesus does not elect Twelve Apostles as if they were leaders and phenomena destined to have fabulous positions.

His own are quite ordinary people, sent to proclaim; they are not leaders endowed with office, but with a humble task: to be themselves and wash the feet of others. This is their stuff.

The ministerial Church is not that of characters with titles and roles, but of authentic service, not of manner: humble and non-conformist.

We can only become a continuation of the Mystery that envelops the Person of Christ if we are aware that we are not dual photocopies, nor 'more' than others - let alone the Master.

In I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed) Manzoni recounts that the Marquis successor to Don Rodrigo ['good man, not an original'] serves the guests at Renzo and Lucia's wedding table.

But then he withdraws to dine aloof with don Abbondio: "he had as much humility as it took to put himself below those good people, but not to be their equal".

This was the way it used to be done: social etiquette dictated it.

Style a la mode, thanks to which, in order to be liked, one accepted to adapt to (extemporary) gestures of begging and benevolence, among very good people - obviously safeguarding the prominence of positions.

But aligning ourselves with the models does not get us out of the usual cages; on the contrary, it hides us in the illusion of a change that is not actually taking place. This is because the bogus order remains, despite the altruism of appearances - put on for the sake of circumstantial goodness.

The portent to which we are called and sent is not to make room for convenient sentiments.

The real 'figure' is to move from our external summit to the level of others and to stand shoulder to shoulder with them, to give everyone the emotion of feeling adequate.

From service to Communion: a unique climate [not always 'according to etiquette' but authentically our own and dreaming] of intimate power that develops blossoms, triggering impossible recoveries.

From here one rereads history.

Yet everyone wonders with what energies to implement it, if at times we ourselves feel incomplete, uncertain in operating; not up to the mark.

In the context of the washing of the feet, Jesus reminds us that the disciple should have no illusions: he will not have as a dowry a splendid career, worldly recognition, or less persecution from the Master.

According to an ancient mentality, to mistreat an ambassador or messenger was to offend those he represented; to accept him was to recognise his honour.

Here we come to the root of the unveiling mission: accepting the envoy honours Christ, and in him God himself (v.20).

The apostles are 'sent' in this sense, like the Son by the Father. Within this flow they become a revealing light, fully, without closure.

In short, one of the ways of washing one another's feet (v.14) is precisely to come and feel properly 'sent' - representing Jesus and God Himself, who pass through us.

It is the way of bliss (v.17) - that of the living Lord. The core of the outgoing Church: adding the essential dimension to beautiful and practical teachings.

Such is the plausible and lovable path, evangelising our Roots. Journey that does not ask for "resilience" in relationships, only to the "inferiors" of the world.

Salvation in the divine dimension, which assumes value. Redemption operated from within the conscience, which finds esteem and face, and free ferment that opens hope, orienting.

In action, the profound being of the Friend who has the freedom to descend is expressed.

He reveals himself to be a promoter of the unfortunate, not a subtle prevaricator.

In making each exodus, our vocational trait carries within it a precious treasure chest, the awareness of the intimate Source of the apostolate, and its precious concatenation that transforms the past into the future.

The resulting sense of completeness and radical significance is effective. 

It is so for those who discover, encounter, feel alive, their missionary Source - and witness to it.

By simply and naturally expressing oneself, without forcing or artificiality - it is at the same time for the brothers to be recognised.

In short, the service of the ministerial community is not in the dimension of servitude, but of a flow of primal energies, of cloth; wave upon genuine wave.

In all this, development after development, we re-actualise the epiphany of the Logos in Christ. In the today of being people [shaky yet convinced, tenacious] bound by a fraternal figure of weight.

"I Am" of Ex 3:14 becomes - without effort - the communal and welcoming People of servants filled with self-given dignity.

The eternal element of the Word is preserved and developed by his envoys and by the ministerial, 'apostolic' church: both in its original and founding character, and in its connection to the history of each person.To internalise and live the message:

What does it mean for you to move from serving to communion? Do you consider it an annoying excess?

Is it enough for you to make others feel good at times, as a protagonist and in a complacent way, or do you strive to make them feel adequate?

Give your life and quickly betray

(Jn 13:21-33, 36-38)

"I will lay down my life for you" - in order to lead.

The apostles would give everything to win, not to lose; to triumph, not to be mocked or fed, and to heal the world.

Better to negotiate. Rather than wash each other's feet!

That is why the Lord wants each of us diners to ask the question whether we are not involved in some betrayal.

Not to blame and plant ourselves there, but to meet each other: each is an admirer and an adversary of the Master.

We are splendour and darkness - coexisting sides, more or less integrated, even competitive.

It is the Resurrection that lurks in the effervescence of life, then redeeming the selfish motivations, and transfiguring the dark and frictional sides into collimating energies elsewhere.

Aspects that become like baby food, for each new genesis - which once they have emerged [planted in the earth and pulled up by the roots] can become strengths.

The road is only blocked in front of the person who continues to have his soul conditioned by old or à la page opinions and evils.

Nothing is revealed there; the miracle of the transmutation of our abyss will not take place.

The liturgy of the Word brings us into contact with a Jesus pervaded by a sense of weakness; his loneliness becomes acute.

In mission, we too are sometimes at the mercy of despondency: perhaps God has deceived us, dragging us into an absurd enterprise?

No, we are not deceived and abandoned to an ignoble logic, to a perverse generation: the power of life itself is strewn with tombstones and has various faces. Beneficial influences.

The favourable path is devoid of prestige, recognised tasks and majesty: they tend to placate us, and not dig in.

It is often disturbances that improve judgement.

The dripping can arouse the voice of the most authentic part of ourselves, become an incisive echo to find ourselves, and complete ourselves - bringing forward the pioneering heart, instead of holding it back.

The road of trial and imbalance awakens us from the harmful ageing of the spirit.

It recovers the opposing energies, the opposing sides, and the incompatible desires, the (allied) passions to which we have not given space.

Even in the torturing experience of limitation, God wants to reach out to our variegated seed, so that it does not allow itself to be despoiled - not even by the dismay of having drawn the morsel together and having been the traitor.

Nothing is crippling.

There is only one toxic, chronic sphere of death, which annihilates everything and has no active germs in it: that which obscures and detests primary change.

There the horizon narrows and all that remains is a chasm - or the blandness that infects to make us give up, and relentlessly retreat, deny and regress again.

All that remains are the fears, the half-choices, the neuroses silenced by the compromise that attempts to fill the precious sense of emptiness.

We are faced with a Lord reduced to nothing, so that we too can understand ourselves in our defections; in the episodes in which we camp useless and deviant contrivances, all measured, that fatigue in vain.

The story of the incomprehensible loneliness of Christ alongside the traitor and the renegade is written in our hearts.

It is all reality, but for salvation, for renewed intimacy and conviction.

The missionary vocation is extinguished and stagnates only by ballast of calculation and common mentality - where the naked poverty of the discordant being that we are does not shake (nor tinkle).

Without the abandonment undergone, man does not become universal, rather he tends to attenuate the best instruments of God's power.

On that steppe terrain He is giving us the friendship of a shift in our gaze.

Without the restlessness of deep and humiliating upheaval - without the surrender of one's humanity in extreme weakness - our unsatisfied puppet lingers, content.

Despite its admiration for values, it too becomes a residual larva. A caricature of the being we could be: women and men with a contemplative eye.

Completed from within, like Jesus.

To internalise and live the message:

What do I draw when the Lord asks me to risk?

What do unfriendly gestures, and rejection, in paradoxical outcomes mean to you?

To love is to create: Glory turning the page

Commandment Liberation. Cause Source

(Jn 13:31-35)

Mutual union is the Lord's ultimate will. Jesus entrusts his testament to the disciples with a radical novelty.

Love for one's neighbour was already among the ancient prescriptions, and Christ seems to trace its very formulation (Lev 19:18).

But the Son of God does not only allude to compatriots and proselytes of the same religion. He breaks down barriers hitherto considered obvious. 

Yet the great novelty is in the fundamental motivation.

Mutual love is on the same line as the encounter with oneself - where by grace and vocation lurks a possession of riches, growing perfections, that want to surface.

From such a treasure chest, knowledge, solid platform, arises the afflatus of being able to give life: but to increase it, make it full and cheer it up - not from external conditioning and tasks to be performed or exploited.

In fact, the commandment is 'new' not only because it is edifying and stimulating, but first and foremost because it reveals one's vocation and the intimate life of God, the relationship between the Father and the Son, assumed.

It is a manifestative bond, which becomes a foundation, a growing motive and a driving force; lucid energy, which gives us the ability to shift our gaze and turn the page: it ushers in a new age, a new kingdom.

The "new" commandment of love - Christ's only delivery - is the figure of the Easter victory, theophany and testimony of his authentic people: "not with measure" (Jn 3:31-36: 34).

The "without measure" is that of the mystical wedding between the two "natures", of the intimate friendship that penetrates the life of the Father.

Even in the waiting, the boundlessness vivifies existence and fulfils it, coming from the experience of substance and vertigo - already in itself.

It is the life of the Son in us: perception of a constitutive 'being'. Therefore without losing interest in the time of absence.

And of being able to change; intuition of a different (irreducible) "glory" with special characteristics.

Now the morality of religions no longer applies: ours is a vocational and paschal ethics, in the Spirit that renews the face of the earth.

Every purpose, every role, every ministry, is illuminated by the victory of life over death.

In this way, behaviour is configured to the Mystery.

We live in Christ, the new man: we are no longer under 'proper' duties and prescriptions. The baptismal attitude cannot be measured.

The anointing and the call received respond to the intimate passion, the sense of reciprocity and personal fullness, which transcend.

Thus they move eminent goals: in participation in the fullness of life, excess that cannot be assimilated to conformism and average horizons.

For a pious Israelite to have glory is to give specific weight to one's existence, and to reveal its full value - but in an elective sense.

"Was it true glory?" - Manzoni asks himself: from glory-vain and vain it rolls down. Quite another glory as the real Presence of God.

Here are the disagreements between community and humanity (persons in fullness); liturgy and reality, prayer and listening, theology and life, proclamations and behind the scenes.

While the Synoptics proclaim universal love, the author of the Fourth Gospel is concerned that the unexpressed testimony of the children is not a blatant denial of the holiness preached to others [by the 'elect'].

As Paul VI said: 'Contemporary man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers'. Not only for an appropriate and due evaluation of moral coherence, but because they refer to the Mystery, to divine Gold.

Only if we are placed on the same wave of beauty and fascination as the "Son of Man" do we contribute to not letting it fade away or exclude it: the more human we are without duplicity, the more Heaven is manifested within us.

Of course, it seems impossible to love "like" Him (v.34), but here the Greek expression has another way of reading it. The original term does not merely indicate an ideal horizon or the lofty measure - unattainable by effort.

"Kathòs" [adverb and conjunction] is endowed with generative as well as comparative value.

The key expression of the passage can be understood as: "Love one another because I have loved you unconditionally" or "Because I have loved you unconditionally, on such a wave of life, you can now love one another".

It means: making one's neighbour feel already enabled - adequate and free - is the only unreduced mark of faith in Christ.

In short, the Father is not the God of prescriptions: he does not absorb our energies, but generates and dilates them.

He does not pretend to suffocate and exhaust us.

The badge, the emblem of the full witness of children and outspoken communities is not its own production.

It retains an indestructible quality of elasticity and relationship that does not dismay, nor does it drop arms: it gives breath.

It is not the work of fanatical pro- and anti-subversives, nor of a devout individualism that preaches the 'salvation of one's own soul' - an exasperation of religious piety and the pedestrian retributive morality of 'merits'.

It is the unfolding of the action of the Son of Man (v. 31) that empowers the downtrodden and petty.

The Master is not content to be a gregarious follower, like the heterodox Judas, a zealous apostle in appearance.

"Son of man" indicates Jesus who manifests the Father, the man who makes manifest the divine condition.The Person who in his human fullness reflects the wholesome design of the Origins - possibility for all reborn in Christ.

The carnal feeling is in a hurry to regulate itself on the basis of goals and titles; of achievements and success, or of the beloved's perfections and prestige. 

It sets boundaries.

Divine Love (and that of children) is disproportionate, it has a different conduct: it prevents, it recovers; it does not break understanding, it helps.

Non-wandering Love knows the small, the uncertain and the weak. It knows that they only grow through the experience of the Gift, otherwise they get stuck.

If the Free does not supplant merit, no one grows stronger; on the contrary, all - even the energetic - shrink. Condemned to an external cloak of norms and doctrines, or of disembodied abstractions and sophistications.

That is why the 'Son of Man' - the genuine and full development of the divine plan for mankind - is not hindered by public sinners, but by those who suppose of themselves and would have the ministry of making it known!

Divine glory has nothing to do with uniforms, coats, cockades or epidermal badges; it is manifested in the Communion without prior interdictions, in the service that is rendered to the inadequate and unmanifested - from which to hope for zero.

Nothing that can then be supplemented by adding a little something - a mere 'completion' - to the norms of the First Covenant [which did not insist on God-likeness but on mass obedience].

Fundamentalist inclinations, or circumstantial and à la page manners, the lust for worldly prestige - in reality - divide.

The conviviality of differences encompasses, dilates, accentuates the amalgam and unites, enriching. It opens to the unusual and unimaginable.

Founders of religions propose a worldview and are static models of behaviour.

They do not propose a growing offer (Jn 14:12: "greater works"). Widely personal invitations - deep and sharp, more so than their own.

Jesus is not a predictable 'model' to be imitated.

He is above all - we repeat - a Motive and an Engine: let us love like and because Christ. Living by Him, each one.

We risk everything because we are within an Event that we have seen, within a Relationship that not only persuades, but leads us and generates beyond; not in a downward spiral.

We are no longer under a Law that appoints God by obligation, but in the challenge of a gesture that re-creates and gradually fulfils, making our weakness strong.

So much so that the shadow sides become resources and amazement. All without depersonalising; on the contrary, emphasising uniqueness.

This is the 'new' commandment.

"Kainòs" is a Greek term that marks difference, eclipses the rest - in the sense that it sums up, surpasses and replaces. It supersedes all commandments: obvious and conditional.

And there will not be a better one, because our hope is not Heaven (ready), but Heaven on earth.

More than the too far of the old final Paradise with invariable fare and predictable fulfilment. Modic, conformist, sectoral; even there articulated according to roles.

And pyramidal.

do not be afraid to swim against the tide in order to meet Jesus, to direct your attention upwards to meet his gaze. The “logo” of my Pastoral Visit portrays the scene of Mark delivering the Gospel to Peter, taken from a mosaic in this basilica. Today, symbolically, I come to redeliver the Gospel to you, the spiritual children of St Mark, in order to strengthen you in the faith and encourage you in the face of the challenges of the present time. Move ahead with confidence on the path of the new evangelization, in loving service to the poor and with courageous testimony in the various social realities. Be aware that you bear a message meant for every man and for the whole man; a message of faith, of hope and of love [...].

Dear friends, the mission of the Church bears fruit because Christ is truly present among us in a quite special way in the Holy Eucharist. His is a dynamic presence which grasps us in order to make us his, to liken us to him. Christ draws us to himself, he brings us out of ourselves to make us all one with him. In this way he also inserts us into the community of brothers and sisters: communion with the Lord is always also communion with others. 

For this reason our spiritual life depends essentially on the Eucharist. Without it, faith and hope are extinguished, love cools.

[Pope Benedict, Assembly for the Closing of the Pastoral Visit Venice 8 May 2011]

5. Together with all Christ's disciples, the Catholic Church bases upon God's plan her ecumenical commitment to gather all Christians into unity. Indeed, "the Church is not a reality closed in on herself. Rather, she is permanently open to missionary and ecumenical endeavour, for she is sent to the world to announce and witness, to make present and spread the mystery of communion which is essential to her, and to gather all people and all things into Christ, so as to be for all an 'inseparable sacrament of unity' ".

Already in the Old Testament, the Prophet Ezekiel, referring to the situation of God's People at that time, and using the simple sign of two broken sticks which are first divided and then joined together, expressed the divine will to "gather from all sides" the members of his scattered people. "I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I the Lord sanctify Israel" (cf. 37:16-28). The Gospel of John, for its part, considering the situation of the People of God at the time it was written, sees in Jesus' death the reason for the unity of God's children: "Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad" (11:51-52). Indeed, as the Letter to the Ephesians explains, Jesus "broke down the dividing wall of hostility ... through the Cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end"; in place of what was divided he brought about unity (cf. 2:14-16).

6. The unity of all divided humanity is the will of God. For this reason he sent his Son, so that by dying and rising for us he might bestow on us the Spirit of love. On the eve of his sacrifice on the Cross, Jesus himself prayed to the Father for his disciples and for all those who believe in him, that theymight be one, a living communion. This is the basis not only of the duty, but also of the responsibility before God and his plan, which falls to those who through Baptism become members of the Body of Christ, a Body in which the fullness of reconciliation and communion must be made present. How is it possible to remain divided, if we have been "buried" through Baptism in the Lord's death, in the very act by which God, through the death of his Son, has broken down the walls of division? Division "openly contradicts the will of Christ, provides a stumbling block to the world, and inflicts damage on the most holy cause of proclaiming the Good News to every creature". 

[Ut Unum sint]

The Christian does not walk alone: he is embedded in a people, in a secular history and is called to put himself at the service of others. 'Memory' and 'service' are the key words of Pope Francis' reflection during the Mass celebrated at Santa Marta on Thursday 30 April. History - and therefore the memory one has of it - and service are, the Pontiff said, the "two traits of the Christian's identity" on which "today's liturgy" makes us reflect.

The reference is given by the passage from the Acts of the Apostles (13:13-25) in which we read that Paul, on arriving in Antioch, "as he usually did, went on the Sabbath to the synagogue" and there "was invited to speak". This was, in fact, "a custom of the Jews of that time" when a guest arrived. Having taken the floor, Paul 'began to preach Jesus Christ'. But, the Pope stressed, 'he did not say: "I preach Jesus Christ, the Saviour; he came from Heaven; God sent him; he saved us all and gave us this revelation. No, no, no'. To explain who Jesus is, the apostle "begins to tell the whole story of the people. We then read in Scripture: "Paul stood up and beckoned with his hand and said, 'Listen, the God of this people of Israel chose our fathers...'". And, starting with Abraham, Paul "tells the whole story".

It is not a random choice. In his reflection, Francis pointed out how the same thing was done by 'Peter in his speeches, after Pentecost', and also 'Stephen, before the Sanhedrin'. They, that is, "did not announce a Jesus without history", but "Jesus in the history of the people, a people that God has been making walk for centuries to arrive at this maturity, at the fullness of time, as Paul says". From this account we understand that "when this people arrives at the fullness of time, the Saviour comes, and the people continues to walk because this Saviour will return".

Here, then, the Pope reiterated, is one of the traits of Christian identity: 'it is to be a man and woman of history, to understand that history does not begin with me and ends with me'. Everything began, in fact, when the Lord entered history.

To comfort this, the Pontiff recalled the "very beautiful" psalm recited at the beginning of the Mass: "When you advanced Lord with your people and when you opened the way for them and dwelt with them - I remember that God walked with his people - the earth trembled, the heavens shouted. Admirable'. So 'the Christian is a man and woman of history, because he or she does not belong to himself or herself, he or she is part of a people, a walking people'. Hence the impossibility of thinking of 'a Christian egoism'. In other words, there is no perfect Christian, 'a laboratory spiritual man or woman', but always a spiritual man or woman inserted 'in a people, which has a long history and continues to walk until the Lord returns'.

Looking precisely at this concrete story that has unfolded over the centuries and continues to this day, the Pontiff added that if we assume "to be men and women of history", we also realise that this is "a story of God's grace, because God advanced with his people, opened the way, lived with them". But it is also 'history of sin'. And the Pope recalled: 'How many sinners, how many crimes...'. Also in the passage from the Acts of the Apostles, for example, 'Paul mentions King David, who was holy', but who 'before becoming holy was a great sinner'. And this, he emphasised, is true 'also today' when everyone's 'personal history' must take on 'their sin and the grace of the Lord who is with us'. For God accompanies us in sin 'to forgive', accompanies us 'in grace'.

It is therefore a very concrete reality that spans the centuries, the one recalled by Francis in his homily: "We," he said, "are not rootless", we have "deep roots" that we must never forget and that go from "our father Abraham to today".

Understanding, however, that we are not alone, that we are closely linked to a people that has been walking for centuries, also means understanding another characteristic trait of the Christian and that is "what Jesus teaches us in the Gospel: service". In the passage from John proposed by the liturgy on Thursday of the fourth week of Easter, "Jesus washes the disciples' feet. And after he had washed their feet, he said to them, 'Truly, truly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a sent one greater than he who sent him. Knowing these things, you are blessed if you put them into practice. I have done this with you, you do the same with others. I have come to you as a servant, you must make yourselves servants of one another, serve''.

It is clear, the Pontiff pointed out, that 'Christian identity is service, not selfishness'. Someone, he said, might retort: 'But Father, we are all selfish', but this 'is a sin, it is a habit from which we must detach ourselves'; we must then 'ask for forgiveness, may the Lord convert us'. Being a Christian, in fact, 'is not an appearance or even a social conduct, it is not a bit of making up one's soul, so that it may be a bit more beautiful'. To be a Christian, the Pope said decisively, "is to do what Jesus did: to serve. He came not to be served, but to serve'.

Hence some of the Pontiff's suggestions for the daily life of each of us. First of all, "think about these two things: do I have a sense of history? Do I feel part of a people walking from afar?". Useful might be 'to take the Bible, the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 26, and read it'. Here, he said, one encounters "the memory, the memory of the righteous" and "how the Lord wants us to be 'mindful'", that is, to remember "the path our people walked". It is also good for us to think: "in my heart, what more do I do? Do I let others serve me, do I serve others, the community, the parish, my family, my friends, or do I serve, am I in service'?

"Memory and service", then, are the two attitudes of the Christian, those with which one also participates in the Eucharistic celebration "which is precisely memory of the service that Jesus did; real memory, with Him, of the service He rendered us: giving His life for us."

[Pope Francis, S. Marta homily in L'Osservatore Romano 01/05/2015]

(Jn 15:9-17)

Jesus has just used the image of the 'vineyard' to configure the character of the new people and the 'circulation of life' with those who believe in Him. 

The allegory of the vine and the branches is now translated into existential terms.

The propagation of divine dynamism in us initiates a current and communication of love. Movement of authentic love: which Comes.

It is an uninterrupted Flow of resemblances of the divine condition.

Transparent Syntony with generative value, brought by the Son: «as» and «for the reason that» [I have loved you] (v.12 Greek text).

The Lord does not ask to “be loved” [from ourselves, we would not be trustworthy], but to 'receive' God's way - the Gift that descends from the Father and from Him.

The Joy that springs forth from this will not be one of euphoria or exaltation: it is the fruit of an awareness that combines the divine proposal of 'non-possessive resemblance' with our capacity to make space within.

And in that gap, meeting our deepest sides - not detaching ourselves from the Core, to become external.

Abiding in the Father-Son circulation of love, we are enveloped by a personal Happiness.

It intuits the meaning and uniqueness of our 'seed' and effortlessly changes the way we see life, suffering, relationships, and Joy.

«Greater love hath no man than this, that one lay down his life for his friends» (v.13).

Difference between religiosity and Faith? Friendship, which is stronger than both cerebral alchemy and voluntarism.

The Friend shares intentions, cultivates communion of life.

The «servant» (v.15) remains untrustworthy and resentful, because he is a mere executor of others' orders - which do not concern the irreducible hidden 'roots', the Source from which the heart draws and which belongs to him (v.16).

So the trustworthy Friend is glad not only when he fulfils himself, but also when he can expand and brighten the life of his beloved. He willingly ousts himself from the first seat in favour of the beloved.

Jn does not speak of love of enemies as Mt 5 does in the Sermon on the Mount, but insists on mutual love [inner community of believers] as a relationship with the divine life itself.

Here we see a particular concern for individuals and the climate between friends of Faith, who must first themselves overthrow positions of privilege - and embody the spirit of selflessness and truth that they preach to others.

In this way, the Lord does not ask us for “fruits” [multiple external works, often tinged with exhibitionism] but for 'one' single work: Love without duplicity, qualms, forcing, dissociation.

In the unique and unprecedented personalisation of the «Fruit» (v.16), Christ does not remain a Model to be imitated, but a real Life that continues in us.

Unique tiger in the engine; inviting and accommodating within the mystery of the founding Eros, which dilates the I into the Thou:

In Friendship, in the opposing feelings that surface, in the growing unity of thought and aspiration; in the people everyone approaches, in the communion of desire and circumstance... the wills unite.

In such divine-human Empathy [more persuasive than voluntarism] the codes of conduct, or the extrinsic, conditioned project, to which they (first) bow, now weave a dialogue; finally they make team - by Name.

Here is the kindling and pouring out of Communion, on a high ground of understanding; without concealed conflicts. With a broad mind, which overcomes the obsession of discomforts and comparisons.

With amniotic mind, capable of giving birth to novelty without servitude.

In short, in the Ideal as in the Dream we prefer Friendship.

And we walk the Way of Faith in the Crucified One - that of the authentic and happy «Fruit»: of the 'snub and imbalance of love'.

[St Matthias, May 14]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

“Non iam dicam servos, sed amicos” - “I no longer call you servants, but friends” (cf. Jn 15:15).

Sixty years on from the day of my priestly ordination, I hear once again deep within me these words of Jesus that were addressed to us new priests at the end of the ordination ceremony by the Archbishop, Cardinal Faulhaber, in his slightly frail yet firm voice. According to the liturgical practice of that time, these words conferred on the newly-ordained priests the authority to forgive sins. “No longer servants, but friends”: at that moment I knew deep down that these words were no mere formality, nor were they simply a quotation from Scripture. I knew that, at that moment, the Lord himself was speaking to me in a very personal way. In baptism and confirmation he had already drawn us close to him, he had already received us into God’s family. But what was taking place now was something greater still. He calls me his friend. He welcomes me into the circle of those he had spoken to in the Upper Room, into the circle of those whom he knows in a very special way, and who thereby come to know him in a very special way. He grants me the almost frightening faculty to do what only he, the Son of God, can legitimately say and do: I forgive you your sins. He wants me – with his authority – to be able to speak, in his name (“I” forgive), words that are not merely words, but an action, changing something at the deepest level of being. I know that behind these words lies his suffering for us and on account of us. I know that forgiveness comes at a price: in his Passion he went deep down into the sordid darkness of our sins. He went down into the night of our guilt, for only thus can it be transformed. And by giving me authority to forgive sins, he lets me look down into the abyss of man, into the immensity of his suffering for us men, and this enables me to sense the immensity of his love. He confides in me: “No longer servants, but friends”. He entrusts to me the words of consecration in the Eucharist. He trusts me to proclaim his word, to explain it aright and to bring it to the people of today. He entrusts himself to me. “You are no longer servants, but friends”: these words bring great inner joy, but at the same time, they are so awe-inspiring that one can feel daunted as the decades go by amid so many experiences of one’s own frailty and his inexhaustible goodness.

“No longer servants, but friends”: this saying contains within itself the entire programme of a priestly life. What is friendship? Idem velle, idem nolle – wanting the same things, rejecting the same things: this was how it was expressed in antiquity. Friendship is a communion of thinking and willing. The Lord says the same thing to us most insistently: “I know my own and my own know me” (Jn 10:14). The Shepherd calls his own by name (cf. Jn 10:3). He knows me by name. I am not just some nameless being in the infinity of the universe. He knows me personally. Do I know him? The friendship that he bestows upon me can only mean that I too try to know him better; that in the Scriptures, in the Sacraments, in prayer, in the communion of saints, in the people who come to me, sent by him, I try to come to know the Lord himself more and more. Friendship is not just about knowing someone, it is above all a communion of the will. It means that my will grows into ever greater conformity with his will. For his will is not something external and foreign to me, something to which I more or less willingly submit or else refuse to submit. No, in friendship, my will grows together with his will, and his will becomes mine: this is how I become truly myself. Over and above communion of thinking and willing, the Lord mentions a third, new element: he gives his life for us (cf. Jn 15:13; 10:15). Lord, help me to come to know you more and more. Help me to be ever more at one with your will. Help me to live my life not for myself, but in union with you to live it for others. Help me to become ever more your friend.

Jesus’ words on friendship should be seen in the context of the discourse on the vine. The Lord associates the image of the vine with a commission to the disciples: “I appointed you that you should go out and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide” (Jn 15:16). The first commission to the disciples, to his friends, is that of setting out – appointed to go out -, stepping outside oneself and towards others. Here we hear an echo of the words of the risen Lord to his disciples at the end of Matthew’s Gospel: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations ...” (cf. Mt 28:19f.) The Lord challenges us to move beyond the boundaries of our own world and to bring the Gospel to the world of others, so that it pervades everything and hence the world is opened up for God’s kingdom. We are reminded that even God stepped outside himself, he set his glory aside in order to seek us, in order to bring us his light and his love. We want to follow the God who sets out in this way, we want to move beyond the inertia of self-centredness, so that he himself can enter our world.

[Pope Benedict, homily 29 June 2011]

1 "As I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love" (Jn 15:10).

The Acts of the Apostles remind us today of the choice of the Apostle Matthias appointed to fill the post left vacant following the betrayal and death of Judas. The Church celebrates Saint Matthias, included in the group of the Twelve with this election, shortly after the departure of Christ Jesus. This is a very significant event. Following the tradition of the old covenant, in which God bound Himself to the twelve tribes of Israel, Christ called twelve apostles. After the ascension, the early Apostolic Church considered it its duty to re-establish this number that had been so prominent and sanctified in the divine economy.

And the election designated a man who, like the other apostles, had been a "witness to the resurrection of Christ". This is the essential condition. Matthias witnessed how Jesus "kept the commandments of the Father and abided in his love" (cf. Jn 15:10). Now he will testify that, in response, the Father glorified Jesus by raising him.

2 In every age, the successors of the apostles and missionaries have gone forth to bring this testimony of Christ to new places, to other peoples. Here with you it is from the 4th century that Saint Servatius came to establish the Church in Maastricht and throughout your region. And how can we fail to recall here St Willibrord, an ardent pastor who proclaimed the Good News, who baptised thousands of men and women who thus discovered the gift of faith and entered the Christian community! And yet you venerate many bishops for their holiness; and it is a whole people with consecrated men and women who have formed in this diocese a rich religious tradition, attested by the building of many places of prayer and imprinted throughout your culture.

Today, dear brothers and sisters, it is with joy that I meet in you the Church established here for sixteen centuries to profess Christ, he who "faithfully kept the commandments of the Father and abided in his love". I am happy to greet my brother in the episcopate, Monsignor Johannes Baptist Gijsen, pastor of this diocese of Roermond. My cordial greetings also go to your auxiliary, the priests, the men and women religious, the members of the secular institutes, the seminarians of Rolduc, the lay adults and young people; I know that they all strive to participate actively in the life of the diocese. I also greet those who have come from other dioceses and also from other countries: Germany and Belgium.

3 We have heard the words of Jesus at the vigil of his passion: "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love" (Jn 15:10). What are these commandments?

First of all, the commandment of brotherly love: Christ wishes that, by observing his commandment, by loving one another as he loves them, his disciples may be closely united with one another and at the same time united with his Father. This is my deepest wish for all the communities of the Church in the Netherlands: in your parishes, in the many institutions where you are involved, may you find in the word of Christ the inspiration of your action and the meaning of your common life. There is no other model or other support for the Church than the one who "loved us as the Father loved him".

All of you who are concerned with proclaiming the Gospel and building up the Church, you who gather in prayer, you who perform all the tasks related to the education of the young, you who serve the sick and the poorest of our brothers and sisters, you who commit yourselves to the necessary solidarity with people beyond all borders, lend a hand: Together you continue the community founded by Christ, formed around the apostolic ministry, united by the love of the Father, called to live the same life of God into which the Redeemer introduces us: "As the Father has loved me, so I also have loved you. Abide in my love" (John 15, 9). "I have chosen you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide" (Jn 15:16).

4 Christ called, first of all, the Twelve to share the love that he lives fully in the communion of Father, Son and Spirit. They were to form the centre of the new community, the community of divine life in the midst of men. And it has been from this model that the Church has been built up through the centuries.

Today, Christ calls us, in imitation of him, to open our lives to others with the gift of ourselves and thus to know the happiness of fruitful generosity. Not only does it reveal to us the marvellous mystery of the Trinity and the uninterrupted exchange of love between the divine persons, but it also invites us to live the same exchange in our turn, where forgetting oneself leads to giving everything to the other, where one does not keep the life received from God for one's own exclusive benefit, but offers it to the Lord by sharing one's many gifts with one's neighbour.

The first place, where God's life of love is shared, is the family. The family, in which one is brought into the world, in which one commits one's life to one another, to one another, is the first place where love created in the image of God can make alive its likeness to the Creator. It is true that in our times the situation of the family knows many contradictions. It is discredited by some who reject what they consider its constructions; but it is appreciated by many others who spontaneously see in it the true place of happiness, as surveys show.

Certainly all families have their limitations and fall short of their high calling. But we know what wounds those who are deprived of what the family environment naturally brings to their development as children, as adolescents, as men and women. For her part, the Church is so aware of this that she never ceases to remind us of the importance of solid family building, the indissoluble character of the commitment that is the foundation of marriage, the nobility of love expressed in the language of body and spirit.

Everyone knows to what extent the Second Vatican Council, in the pastoral constitution Gaudium et spes, and Pope Paul VI, particularly in the encyclical Humanae vitae, extolled the place of the family in society, the greatness of the institution of marriage, of responsible fatherhood and motherhood, and specified the requirements of a correct ethic based on Christian tradition. In 1980, the Synod of Bishops continued its reflection on this point, culminating in the apostolic exhortation Familiaris consortio.

5 Let me simply say again to the families of the Netherlands how great is their role in the development of each person. The vocation of the human person is to love and be loved. And it is to highlight this vocation that we must always return to the word of Christ and the apostles who reveal to us the inexhaustible source of love, which is the very life of God. It is in the bosom of a united and stable family that the discovery is first made. This is where one is received unconditionally without having to justify one's presence. Moreover, the more fragile and vulnerable one is, the more secure one is in the tenderness of others. It is here that one learns to exist. It is here that one progressively builds one's personality. It is here, again, that we discover that we are not at the centre of the world; we get to know different people in depth in a mutual enrichment. One learns to be loved, to love the other, to love oneself. There one also makes the discovery of trial, conflict and suffering; the family is then the place where love can go so far as to 'give one's life' for those one loves, according to the very words of Jesus, and thus to support the one who goes through the storm, to heal wounds, to know what joy gives a necessary self-mastery for a good relationship with the other, and what happiness comes from a reconciliation in truth.

6 Enriched by his family experience, man can better fulfil his role in society. In this regard, I would like to quote the words of the exhortation Familiaris consortio: "Relations between the members of the family community are inspired and guided by the law of 'gratuitousness' which, respecting and fostering in each and every person personal dignity as the only title of value, becomes cordial welcome, encounter and dialogue, disinterested availability, generous service, profound solidarity. Thus the promotion of an authentic and mature communion of persons in the family becomes the first and irreplaceable school of sociality' (John Paul II, Familiaris consortio, 43). The family is the place where one prepares oneself to face life's difficulties, to not resign oneself to ease or break-ups, to give up fighting human misery. It is in the family that one acquires the personal freedom and discernment that allow one not to be at the mercy of social pressures, sometimes harmful. Thanks to the maturity developed in the family environment, one can make a positive contribution to the human and Christian history of society.

7 Finally, how can we not remember that the Second Vatican Council described the family as 'a domestic sanctuary of the Church' (Apostolicam actuositatem, 11)? It means that the Church is present in the life of the family that knows the friendship of Christ and receives his word: "You are my friends if you do what I command you ... but I have called you friends" (Jn 15:14.15). It means to say that the small family community participates in the life of the large ecclesial community, especially in the celebration of the sacraments; and all this is manifested especially in the Sunday Eucharist. It also means that the family's mission, particularly its educational mission, is like a true ministry through which the Gospel is transmitted and spread, to such an extent that family life as a whole becomes a path to faith, to Christian initiation, to life following Christ. In the family aware of such a gift, as Paul VI wrote: 'all members evangelise and are evangelised' (Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 71). For these reasons I rejoice with you for having created, in this diocese, a Family Pastoral Centre that will not fail to bear much fruit. It is in the family that the various vocations of young Christians can be born and die, and particularly vocations to priestly service or religious life; you know this, in a country such as yours that has sent so many missionaries on the roads of the world, and where priests have been numerous in the still recent past. In the face of today's challenges, may God enable the families of the Netherlands to see their children answer the Lord's call and consecrate their lives to his service!

8 Dear brothers and sisters, I know that it is often a heavy task for your families to ensure each other's development, to fulfil their role in social life, to be the support point for the life of the Church. In every country, the public authorities have a role to play in defending and supporting the institution of the family. If the family is prevented from developing normally or if too many concessions are made to anything that harms it, the difficulty becomes too great. I hope that family policy, in your country, as in all of Europe, will respect and favour more the fundamental reality that, in society, is the family.

9 At the end of our meditation on the fulfilment of our mission in the Church and in the Christian family, let us turn together to the Mother of Christ. She is also the Mother of the Church. Your diocese of Roermond has chosen her as patroness with the title 'Immaculate Conception'. Many shrines are dedicated to her in this area and you go there to pray.

O Mary, you who lived in the intimacy of the Father, the Son and the Spirit, you who gave flesh to the Word of God, you who had the experience of family life in Nazareth, you who participated with the apostles in the birth of the new people of God, remain with us! Stay with us, to educate us in true love in all the communities to which we belong! May they be places of life and truth, of charity and peace, of courage and hope!

O Mary, remain close to this people whom I visit today! I entrust it to your motherly heart. O Mary, help the Christians of the Netherlands to be witnesses of the resurrection today like the apostles of your Son. Help them to preserve and continue the work of evangelisation begun by Saint Servatius. Keep their hearts ready in expectation of the Master's return, that he may find them faithful to the Gospel he has given them! Help them to live in the unity in which the disciples of your Son are recognised! And may they, following your example, keep in their hearts the words of Jesus: 'Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love' (Jn 15:9-10).

[Pope John Paul II, homily in Maastricht 14 May 1985]