Feb 7, 2025 Written by 

Bread of the Life

The words and gestures of the Lord touch our hearts: He takes the bread in his hands, pronounces the blessing, breaks it and offers it to the disciples, saying: “Take; this is my body” […]

And thus, with simplicity, Jesus gives us the greatest sacrament. His is a humble gesture of giving, a gesture of sharing. At the culmination of his life, he does not distribute an abundance of bread to feed the multitudes, but breaks himself apart at the Passover supper with the disciples. In this way Jesus shows us that the aim of life lies in self-giving, that the greatest thing is to serve. And today once more we find the greatness of God in a piece of Bread, in a fragility that overflows with love, that overflows with sharing. Fragility is precisely the word I would like to underscore. Jesus becomes fragile like the bread that is broken and crumbled. But his strength lies precisely therein, in his fragility. In the Eucharist fragility is strength: the strength of the love that becomes small so it can be welcomed and not feared; the strength of the love that is broken and shared so as to nourish and give life; the strength of the love that is split apart so as to join all of us in unity.

And there is another strength that stands out in the fragility of the Eucharist: the strength to love those who make mistakes. It is on the night he is betrayed that Jesus gives us the Bread of Life. He gives us the greatest gift while he feels the deepest abyss in his heart: the disciple who eats with Him, who dips the morsel in the same plate, is betraying Him. And betrayal is the worst suffering for one who loves. And what does Jesus do? He reacts to the evil with a greater good. He responds to Judas’ ‘no’ with the ‘yes’ of mercy. He does not punish the sinner, but rather gives His life for him; He pays for him. When we receive the Eucharist, Jesus does the same with us: he knows us; he knows we are sinners; and he knows we make many mistakes, but he does not give up on joining his life to ours. He knows that we need it, because the Eucharist is not the reward of saints, no, it is the Bread of sinners. This is why he exhorts us: “Do not be afraid! Take and eat”.

Each time we receive the Bread of Life, Jesus comes to give new meaning to our fragilities. He reminds us that in his eyes we are more precious than we think. He tells us he is pleased if we share our fragilities with him. He repeats to us that his mercy is not afraid of our miseries. The mercy of Jesus is not afraid of our miseries. And above all he heals us from those fragilities that we cannot heal on our own, with love. What fragilities? Let’s think. That of feeling resentment toward those who have done us harm — we cannot heal from this on our own; that of distancing ourselves from others and closing off within ourselves — we cannot heal from that on our own; that of feeling sorry for ourselves and complaining without finding peace; from this too, we cannot heal on our own. It is He who heals us with his presence, with his bread, with the Eucharist. The Eucharist is an effective medicine for these closures. The Bread of Life, in fact, heals rigidity and transforms it into docility. The Eucharist heals because it unites with Jesus: it makes us assimilate his way of living, his ability to break himself apart and give himself to brothers and sisters, to respond to evil with good. He gives us the courage to go outside of ourselves and bend down with love toward the fragility of others. As God does with us. This is the logic of the Eucharist: we receive Jesus who loves us and heals our fragilities in order to love others and help them in their fragilities; and this lasts our entire life. In the Liturgy of the Hours today, we prayed a hymn: four verses that are the summary of Jesus’ entire life. And they tell us this: as Jesus was born, he became our travelling companion in life. Then, at the supper he gave himself as food. Then, on the cross, in his death, he became the “price”; he paid for us. And now, as he reigns in Heaven he is our reward; we go to seek the One who awaits us [cf. Hymn at Lauds on Corpus Christi, Verbum Supernum Prodiens].

May the Blessed Virgin, in whom God became flesh, help us to embrace the Eucharist with a grateful heart and to make a gift of our life too. May the Eucharist make us a gift for all others.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 6 June 2021]

20 Last modified on Friday, 07 February 2025 05:42
don Giuseppe Nespeca

Giuseppe Nespeca è architetto e sacerdote. Cultore della Sacra scrittura è autore della raccolta "Due Fuochi due Vie - Religione e Fede, Vangeli e Tao"; coautore del libro "Dialogo e Solstizio".

Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The works of mercy are “handcrafted”, in the sense that none of them is alike. Our hands can craft them in a thousand different ways, and even though the one God inspires them, and they are all fashioned from the same “material”, mercy itself, each one takes on a different form (Misericordia et misera, n.20)
Le opere di misericordia sono “artigianali”: nessuna di esse è uguale all’altra; le nostre mani possono modellarle in mille modi, e anche se unico è Dio che le ispira e unica la “materia” di cui sono fatte, cioè la misericordia stessa, ciascuna acquista una forma diversa (Misericordia et misera, n.20)
At this moment, the Lord repeats his question to each of us: “who do you say that I am?” (Mt 16:15). A clear and direct question, which one cannot avoid or remain neutral to, nor can one remand it or delegate the response to someone else. In this question there is nothing inquisitional (Pope Francis)
In questo momento, ad ognuno di noi il Signore Gesù ripete la sua domanda: «Voi, chi dite che io sia?» (Mt 16,15). Una domanda chiara e diretta, di fronte alla quale non è possibile sfuggire o rimanere neutrali, né rimandare la risposta o delegarla a qualcun altro. Ma in essa non c’è nulla di inquisitorio (Papa Francesco)
Love is indeed “ecstasy”, not in the sense of a moment of intoxication, but rather as a journey, an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self towards its liberation through self-giving, and thus towards authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God (Deus Caritas est n.6)
Sì, amore è « estasi », ma estasi non nel senso di un momento di ebbrezza, ma estasi come cammino, come esodo permanente dall'io chiuso in se stesso verso la sua liberazione nel dono di sé, e proprio così verso il ritrovamento di sé, anzi verso la scoperta di Dio (Deus Caritas est n.6)
Before asking them, the Twelve, directly, Jesus wants to hear from them what the people think about him, and he is well aware that the disciples are very sensitive to the Teacher’s renown! Therefore, he asks: “Who do men say that I am?” (v. 27). It comes to light that Jesus is considered by the people as a great prophet. But, in reality, he is not interested in the opinions and gossip of the people (Pope Francis)
Prima di interpellare direttamente loro, i Dodici, Gesù vuole sentire da loro che cosa pensa di Lui la gente – e sa bene che i discepoli sono molto sensibili alla popolarità del Maestro! Perciò domanda: «La gente, chi dice che io sia?» (v. 27). Ne emerge che Gesù è considerato dal popolo un grande profeta. Ma, in realtà, a Lui non interessano i sondaggi e le chiacchiere della gente (Papa Francesco)
In the rite of Baptism, the presentation of the candle lit from the large Paschal candle, a symbol of the Risen Christ, is a sign that helps us to understand what happens in the Sacrament. When our lives are enlightened by the mystery of Christ, we experience the joy of being liberated from all that threatens the full realization (Pope Benedict)
Nel rito del Battesimo, la consegna della candela, accesa al grande cero pasquale simbolo di Cristo Risorto, è un segno che aiuta a cogliere ciò che avviene nel Sacramento. Quando la nostra vita si lascia illuminare dal mistero di Cristo, sperimenta la gioia di essere liberata da tutto ciò che ne minaccia la piena realizzazione (Papa Benedetto)
And he continues: «Think of salvation, of what God has done for us, and choose well!». But the disciples "did not understand why the heart was hardened by this passion, by this wickedness of arguing among themselves and seeing who was guilty of that forgetfulness of the bread" (Pope Francis)

Due Fuochi due Vie - Vol. 1 Due Fuochi due Vie - Vol. 2 Due Fuochi due Vie - Vol. 3 Due Fuochi due Vie - Vol. 4 Due Fuochi due Vie - Vol. 5 Dialogo e Solstizio I fiammiferi di Maria

duevie.art

don Giuseppe Nespeca

Tel. 333-1329741


Disclaimer

Questo blog non rappresenta una testata giornalistica in quanto viene aggiornato senza alcuna periodicità. Non può pertanto considerarsi un prodotto editoriale ai sensi della legge N°62 del 07/03/2001.
Le immagini sono tratte da internet, ma se il loro uso violasse diritti d'autore, lo si comunichi all'autore del blog che provvederà alla loro pronta rimozione.
L'autore dichiara di non essere responsabile dei commenti lasciati nei post. Eventuali commenti dei lettori, lesivi dell'immagine o dell'onorabilità di persone terze, il cui contenuto fosse ritenuto non idoneo alla pubblicazione verranno insindacabilmente rimossi.