The true God, nature, and authentic man

(Mk 8:27-33)

Jesus guides his intimates away from the territory of the ideology of power and the sacred centre of the official religious institution, so that they detach themselves from their own stronghold.

The territory of Caesarea Philippi was enchanting, renowned for fertility and lush pastures - an area famous for the fecundity of flocks and herds.

That sort of earthly paradise at the source of the Jordan was so humanly attractive that Alexander the Great considered it to be the home of the god Pan and the Nymphs.

Even the disciples were fascinated by the landscape and the affluent life of the inhabitants of the region; not to mention the magnificence of the palaces.

Christ asks the apostles - practically speaking - what people expected of Him. And the reminder of the context alludes to the comforts that pagan religion offered.

Moved by curiosity and eager for material fulfilment, the crowd of amazed people around the Son of God was creating a great noise, only apparent.

Now there is a turning point: the atmosphere changes, opposition increases and questions pile up; the crowd thins out and the Master finds himself increasingly alone.

While the gods were showing that they knew how to shower their worshippers with goods - and a sumptuous court life that beguiled all - what did the Lord offer?

In short, the apostles were continuing to be influenced by the propaganda of the political and religious government, which ensured prosperity.

Thus Jesus "instructed" them, so that they could overcome the blindness and crisis produced by his Cross, by the commitment required in view of the gift of self.

The Son of God is not only a continuer of the Baptist's clear-headed attitude, never inclined to compromise with the courts and opulence; nor is He one of the many restorers of the law of Moses... with the zeal of Elijah.

On this issue, in the first Christian communities there were lively distances with paganism, but there were also particular contrasts with the world of the synagogues.

Frictions of no small importance were those that arose between Jews converted to the Lord and traditionally observant Semites.

Indeed, the sacred books spoke of great figures who had left their mark on the Israel history, and were to reappear to usher in the messianic times.

There was a lack of understanding in everyone. And difficulty in being able to embrace the new proposal, which seemed to guarantee neither glory nor material goals.

Faith does not easily accord with early human impulses: it is disconcerting for the obvious views and drives.

So in the Gospel passage the Master contradicts Peter himself, whose opinion remained tied to the conformist and popular idea of «the» [v.29: «that»] expected Messiah.

The leader of the apostles must stop showing Christ which way to go «behind» (v.33) him!

Simon can go back to being a pupil; and has to stop drawing ways, by kidnapping God in the name of God…

Hence the ‘messianic secret’ imposed on those who preach it in that equivocal way (v.30).

The «Son of man» (v.31) does not assure us worldly success, nor absence of conflict. Only guarantees freedom from all ties to power, and regenerating Love.

[Thursday 6th wk. in O.T.  February 20, 2025]

He first asked them: "Who do men say that the Son of man is?". They answered him saying that some of the people said John the Baptist restored to life, others Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. The Lord then directly questioned the Twelve: "But who do you say that I am?". Peter spoke enthusiastically and authoritatively on behalf of them all: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God". This solemn profession of faith the Church continues to repeat since then. Today too, we long to proclaim with an innermost conviction: "Yes, Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God!". Let us do so in the awareness that Christ is the true "treasure" for whom it is worth sacrificing everything; he is the friend who never abandons us for he knows the most intimate expectations of our hearts. Jesus is the "Son of the living God", the promised Messiah who came down to earth to offer humanity salvation and to satisfy the thirst for life and love that dwells in every human being. What an advantage humanity would have in welcoming this proclamation which brings with it joy and peace!

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 24 August 2008]

2. Jesus had already asked the group of the 12 Apostles to profess their faith in his person. At Caesarea Philippi, after questioning his disciples about the people's opinion of his identity, he asks: "But who do you say that I am?" (Mt 16:15). The reply comes from Simon Peter: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (16:16).

Jesus immediately confirms the value of this profession of faith, stressing that it stems not only from human thought idea but from heavenly inspiration: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Mt 16:17). These statements, in strongly Semitic tones, indicate the total, absolute and supreme revelation: the one that concerns the person of Christ, Son of God.

Peter's profession of faith will remain the definitive expression of Christ's identity. Mark uses this same expression to begin his Gospel (cf. Mk 1:1) and John refers to it at the end of his, saying that he has written his Gospel so that you may believe "that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God", and that in believing you may have life in his name (cf. Jn 20:31).

3. In what does faith consist? The Constitution Dei Verbum explains that by faith, "man freely commits his entire self to God, making 'the full submission of his intellect and will to God who reveals'" (n. 5). Thus faith is not only the intellect's adherence to the truth revealed, but also a submission of the will and a gift of self to God revealing himself. It is a stance that involves one's entire existence.

The Council also recalls that this faith requires "the grace of God to move [man] and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth'" (ibid.). In this way we can see how, on the one hand, faith enables us to welcome the truth contained in Revelation and proposed by the Magisterium of those who, as Pastors of God's People, have received a "sure charism of truth" (Dei Verbum, n. 8). On the other hand, faith also spurs us to true and deep consistency, which must be expressed in all aspects of a life modeled on that of Christ.

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 18 March 1998]

Today’s Gospel passage (cf. Mk 8:27-35) turns to the question that permeates the whole Gospel of Mark: who is Jesus? But this time Jesus himself poses it to his disciples, helping them to gradually address the question of his identity. 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. He also does not agree that his disciples should answer the questions with pre-packaged formulas, quoting well-known individuals from Sacred Scripture, because a faith that is reduced to formulas is a short-sighted faith.

The Lord wants his disciples of yesterday and today to establish a personal relationship with him, and thus to embrace him at the centre of their life. For this reason he spurs them to face themselves honestly, and he asks: “But who do you say that I am?” (v. 29). Today, Jesus addresses this very direct and confidential question to each of us: “You, who do you say that I am? All of you, who do you say that I am? Who am I for you?”. Each person is called to respond, in his or her heart, allowing each one to be illuminated by the light that the Father gives us in order to know his Son Jesus. And it can also happen to us, as it did to Peter, that we passionately affirm: “You are the Christ”. However, when Jesus tells us clearly what he told the disciples, that is, that his mission is fulfilled not on the wide road to success, but on the arduous path of the suffering, humiliated, rejected and crucified Servant, then it can also happen that we, like Peter, might protest and rebel because this contrasts with our expectations, with worldly expectations. In those moments, we too deserve Jesus’ healthy rebuke: “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God, but of men” (v. 33).

Brothers and sisters, the profession of faith in Jesus Christ cannot stop at words, but calls to be authenticated by practical choices and gestures, by a life characterized by God’s love; it calls for a great life, a life with an abundance of love for neighbour. Jesus tells us that to follow him, to be his disciples, we must deny ourselves (cf. v. 34), that is, the demands of our own selfish pride, and take up our own cross. Then he gives everyone a fundamental rule. And what is this rule? “For whoever would save his life will lose it” (v. 35). Often in life, for many reasons, we go astray, looking for happiness only in things, or in people whom we treat as things. But we find happiness only when love, true love, encounters us, surprises us, changes us. Love changes everything! And love can also change us, each one of us. The witnesses of Saints proves it.

May the Virgin Mary, who lived her faith by faithfully following her Son Jesus, help us too to walk on his path, generously spending our life for him and for our brothers and sisters.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 16 September 2018]

9 February 2025 V Sunday Ordinary Time Year C

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! 

I add at the end of the commentary on the Readings some notes that help to better enter into the text and are also useful for lectio divina or catechesis. 

*First Reading From the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (6, 1- 8)

 In the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C (this year replaced by the liturgy of the Presentation of the Lord) we read the account of Jeremiah's vocation, today instead that of Isaiah: both great prophets and yet both confess their littleness. Jeremiah proclaims that he is unable to speak, but since it is God who has chosen him, it is God himself who will give him the necessary strength. Isaiah, for his part, is seized by a sense of unworthiness but it is always God who makes him 'pure'. The prophets' vocation is always a personal choice on God's part that demands complete adherence, the result of decisive awareness: "To send and to go" are the terms of every vocation and Isaiah too responds in full. If Jeremiah is a priest but it is not known where he received the divine call, Isaiah, on the other hand, who was not a priest, places his vocation in the temple of Jerusalem: "In the year that King Ozias died, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne". When Isaiah says: I saw, he is communicating a vision to us, and since the prophetic books are studded with visions, we must be able to decode this language. Isaiah gives us a valuable clue and states that all this happened in the year of the death of King Ozias who reigned in Jerusalem from 781 to 740 B.C. When King Solomon died (in 933 B.C., almost two centuries earlier), the kingdom of David and Solomon was divided: there were two kingdoms with two kings and two capitals. In the South, Oziah reigned over Jerusalem; in the North, Menaem reigned over Samaria. Ozias was leprous and died of this disease in Jerusalem in 740 B.C. It was therefore in that year that Isaiah received his prophetic calling. Subsequently, he preached for about forty years and died a martyr's death under King Manasseh of Judah, according to an accredited tradition, sawn in two with a wooden saw. He remains in Israel's collective memory as a great prophet, particularly as the prophet of God's holiness. 'Holy! Holy! Holy is the Lord of hosts! The whole earth is full of his glory': the Sanctus of our Eucharistic celebrations thus goes back to the prophet Isaiah, although perhaps this acclamation was already part of the temple liturgy in Jerusalem. God is 'Holy': in the biblical sense this means that He is totally Other than man (Qadosh), that is, He is not in the image of man, but as the Bible states, it is man who is created in the image of God. In Isaiah's vision God is seated on a lofty throne, smoke spreads and fills all space, a voice thunders so loudly that the places tremble: "All the earth is full of your glory". The prophet thinks of what happened to Moses on Mount Sinai, when God made a covenant with his people and gave them the Tablets of the Law. The book of Exodus recounts: "Mount Sinai was all smoking, because the Lord had descended there in fire; the smoke rose like that of a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled greatly..." (Ex 19:18-19). Isaiah, in his littleness, feels a reverential awe: "Oh alas! I am lost, for a man of unclean lips am I... yet mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts'.  Isaiah's fear is above all an awareness of our smallness and the unbridgeable gap that separates us from God. God, however, does not stop and says: "Do not fear". In Isaiah's vision, the word is replaced by gesture: 'One of the seraphim flew towards me, he held a burning coal in his hand... he touched my mouth'. It purifies him because the prophet is purified by the Word that enables him to enter into a relationship with God. Calling God "The Holy One of Israel" also affirms that He is the Totally Other and at the same time close to His people, so that His people can feel Him as their God.  Throughout the Bible God appears as the one who wants to become the 'Holy One' for the whole of humanity, the God who loves us and wants to remain with us all. 

Three additional notes: 

1.The book of Isaiah comprises sixty-six chapters: however, it is not by a single author because it is a collection of three collections. Chapters 1 to 39 are largely the work of the prophet who here recounts his vocation (within these 39 chapters, some pages are probably later); chapters 40 to 55 are the work of a prophet who preached during his exile in Babylon (in the 6th century BC); chapters 56 to 66 record the preaching of a third prophet, a contemporary of those who had returned from exile in Babylon.

2.Holiness is not a moral concept, nor an attribute of God, but is the very nature of God; in fact, the adjective divine does not exist in Hebrew and is replaced by the term holy, which means Totally Other than man: we cannot reach him by our own strength because he infinitely exceeds us, to the point that we have no power over him. The prophet Hosea writes: "I am God and not man; in your midst I am the holy God" (Hos 11:9). Therefore in the Bible no human being is ever considered holy, at most one can be 'sanctified' by God and thus reflect his image, which has always been our calling. 

3.In some language translations, the expression 'The Lord of hosts' is rendered as 'the Lord of the universe', probably to appeal to a sensibility that resents the idea of a God of hosts and at the same time to express a universalistic sense of God's action. 

*Responsorial Psalm (137 /138,1-5.7c-8)

This psalm conveys a feeling of deep joy and from the very first verse everything is said. The expression 'give thanks' is in fact repeated several times: 'I give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart... I give thanks to your name'. The believer is the one who lives in God's grace and simply acknowledges it, with a heart full of gratitude. Here the believer is the people of Israel who, as always in the psalms, speak and give thanks for the covenant God has offered them. This is understood from the repetition of the name 'Lord', which returns several times in these verses. "Lord" is the Name of God, the so-called "tetragrammaton", consisting of four consonants (YHWH), revealed to Moses at Sinai in the episode of the burning bush (Ex. 3). The four Hebrew letters are: yod, he, vav, he and the exact pronunciation has been lost over time, as the original vowels are not indicated in the Hebrew text. We generally say 'Yahweh', a sacred name that is rarely pronounced out of respect. It is almost always replaced by Adonai ("Lord") or HaShem ("The Name") during the reading. God revealed himself to Moses during the Exodus on Sinai, also under the name 'Love and Loyalty', and we hear it here too: 'I give thanks to your name for your love and faithfulness'. This same expression "Love and Faithfulness" recurs several times in other psalms and throughout the Bible, a precious discovery of Israel, thanks to the Spirit of God: "I am the Lord, the merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness" (Ex 34:6). It is no coincidence that the revelation of God's tenderness occurs after the episode of the golden calf, i.e. at a time of severe infidelity of the people because it was in their repeated infidelities that Israel experienced God's mercy. God's faithfulness sung unceasingly in the temple of Jerusalem: "I prostrate myself towards your holy temple" (v.2) and the psalm continues: "I give thanks to your name for your love and your faithfulness". As it appears in the life of the prophet Isaiah, the gap that separates us from God, unbridgeable by meritorious deeds, is bridged by God himself by inviting us into his intimacy. And in this psalm we discover what God's holiness consists of: Love and faithfulness. At the end of the psalm we read "your love" is forever and "your right hand saves me", a further reference to the Exodus where it is said that He has delivered us "with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm" (Deut 4:34). Israel knows that it is the recipient of Revelation, the confidant of God, but it also realises that it must become His prophet by proclaiming His Love and Faithfulness to all mankind. This is the meaning of the verse: 'All the kings of the earth shall give thanks to thee, O Lord, ... when they hear the words of thy mouth' (v.4). Only when Israel has fulfilled its mission as a witness of God, then can one truly sing: 'I thank thee, O Lord, with all my heart' and... 'All the kings of the earth will thank thee, O Lord'. The psalm ends with a prayer: 'Do not forsake the work of your hands', which means: Continue despite our infidelities. The two phrases should be read together: 'Lord, your love is forever ... do not forsake the work of your hands. His everlasting love gives us assurance that he will never forsake the work of his hands, and for this we do not cease to give thanks: "The Lord will do all things for me" (v.8).

Additional note. The Italian translation bears: "All the kings of the earth will give thanks to you, Lord" (v.4). Exegetes point out that here we are dealing with an unaccomplished or imperfect Hebrew verb that can indicate either future actions, habitual and repeated actions or continuous or incomplete actions in the past or present. Thus it could be validly translated with the present tense: 'May all the kings of the earth give thanks to you' or with a subjunctive: 'May all the kings of the earth give thanks to you' and it is obvious that in each choice the meaning changes somewhat.*Second Reading From the Epistle of St Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (15:1-11)

If today we reread what St Paul writes, it is because over these millennia, from generation to generation, the gospel has been passed on as in an uninterrupted relay race where, along the way, the 'witness' is handed on to the next person who in turn will hand it on to the next.  The Church is called upon to faithfully transmit the gospel. Paul, apart from the apparition on the road to Damascus, did not know and witness the life of Jesus of Nazareth; his sources are the Apostles of the first generation and for him, in particular, Ananias, Barnabas and the Christian community of Antioch of Syria. Thanks to them, he received the Gospel, which he transmits by summarising it in two sentences: Christ died for our sins and rose again on the third day, which can be summarised in just two words: died/resurrected, which constitute the two pillars of the Christian faith, and this is in accordance with the Scriptures, i.e. also with the Old Testament where, however, no explicit statements on the death and resurrection of the Messiah are found. The formula 'according to the Scriptures' does not therefore mean that everything was written in advance, but that everything that happened is in conformity with God's merciful plan. One could then replace the expression 'according to the Scriptures' with 'according to God's plan and promise'. Christ by dying on the cross wiped out our sins and, according to his own promise, rose again: death was conquered and it is easy to see that the entire Old Testament is filled with promises of forgiveness of sins, salvation and life. For example, in the Old Testament, the expression 'on the third day' evoked a promise of salvation and deliverance because to say that there will be a third day was equivalent to saying: 'God will intervene'. On the third day on Mount Moria, God rescued Isaac from death (Gen 22:8); On the third day, Joseph in Egypt restored freedom to his brothers (Gen 42:18); On the third day, the Lord appeared to his people gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai (Ex 19:11- 16); On the third day, Jonah, finally converted, returned to the land and to his mission (Gen 2:1). This is how the word of Hosea was interpreted: "He will restore us to life after two days; on the third day he will raise us up and we will live before him" (Hos 6:2). The third day is therefore not a chronological datum, but the expression of a hope: that of the triumph of life over death. To proclaim that Christ is risen on the third day according to the Scriptures is therefore to affirm that salvation is universal: the triumph of life and salvation are for all times and for all men, since Christ lives forever. Grafted into him we are already part of the new humanity made alive by the Holy Spirit. Paul recounts that he personally experienced this salvation by being a persecutor forgiven, converted and transformed into a pillar of the Church, and he will never forget this by testifying to the wonder of God's love for humanity: a love that is unconditional and continually offered. Paul, like Isaiah, like Peter, is deeply aware of his own sin; but he allows God's grace to work in him: 'By God's grace, however, I am what I am, and his grace in me has not been in vain. Indeed I have laboured more than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God which is me' (v.10). From a persecutor God made him an apostle, the most ardent, as from a timid youth, he made Jeremiah a courageous prophet and Isaiah, from a man with unclean lips, made him the 'mouth of God' and Peter, from a renegade, made him the foundation of his Church. The gospel to be shouted from the rooftops of humanity is precisely God's Love and Mercy for all.

.

*From the Gospel according to Luke (5:1-11)

 The first reading almost always recalls the gospel, and we perceive it very well today. We are not used to comparing the apostle Peter to the prophet Isaiah, yet the liturgy texts help us to do so by offering us the stories of their vocation. The scenarios are different: for Isaiah, everything takes place during a vision in the temple in Jerusalem; for Peter, on Lake Tiberias. Both, however, suddenly find themselves in the presence of God: Isaiah in his vision, Peter witnessing a miracle after a night out. The details provided by Luke leave no doubt. Peter says to Jesus: "Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing" and Jesus invites them to cast their nets again.  Then something extraordinary happens against all expectations and human experience. If, in fact, nothing was caught during the night, it is certainly even worse during the day, and all the fishermen who work at night know this. The miracle, however, takes place because at the simple word of Jesus, Peter, an experienced fisherman shows humble and boundless trust and obeys. the result was such an enormous quantity of fish that he risked breaking his nets. Both Peter and Isaiah react in the same way to God's irruption in their lives; both perceive his holiness and the gulf that separates them from him. Their expressions are similar: 'Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinner', exclaims Peter, while Isaiah says: 'Alas! I am lost, for a man of unclean lips I am'.  The teaching is clear: our sins, our unworthiness, do not stop God because he is content for us to become aware of them and present ourselves to him in truth. Only when we acknowledge our poverty, however, can God fill us with his grace. Peter and Isaiah are seized by a reverential fear before his presence: Isaiah sees a burning coal touching his mouth, Peter hears Jesus' words: 'Do not fear', and in the end both are called to the service of the same project of God, the salvation of mankind. Isaiah as prophet, Peter will become fisherman of men for their salvation. To the words of Jesus: "Fear not, thou shalt henceforth be a fisher of men" Peter does not respond directly, but together with the others performs a gesture of impressive simplicity: "And having pulled the boats ashore, they left everything and followed him". The disciples become Christ's co-operators even if the enterprise seems doomed to failure according to human judgement and they must always continue to cast their nets. This is the mystery of our collaboration in God's work: we can do nothing without him, and God does not want to do anything without us. As Paul says in the second reading, it is his grace that does everything: 'By God's grace I am what I am, and his grace in me was not in vain'. On closer inspection, the only cooperation that is asked of us is a trusting willingness as Peter does who courageously risks a new fishing attempt. And after the miracle he no longer calls Jesus Master, but Lord, the name reserved for God: he prostrates himself at his feet ready now to do whatever he says. Ultimately, it is thanks to the yes of Isaiah, of Peter and his companions, and of Paul, that we too are here today. The word of Jesus still resounds for us: "Put out into the deep and cast your nets for fishing" and it is our turn to respond: on your word we will cast our nets. For a miraculous catch, the secret is always to trust Christ, which is not easy but possible for everyone.

Additional note. In verse 6, the verb 'they caught a quantity of fish' is συνεκλεισαν (synekleisan), derived from the verb συγκλείω (synkleió), which means 'to enclose', 'to trap' or 'to enclose together' and means to catch the fish with the net by pulling them out of the sea in order to kill them. In his works, St Augustine often uses the image of fishermen to describe the work of the Apostles, especially Peter and Andrew, called by Jesus to become "fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19). Thus he notes in his Commentary on the Psalms (Psalm 91, Discourse 2): "They fish men, not to kill them but to vivify them; they fish, but to lead them to the light of truth, not to death. So when it comes to men, snatching them from the sea (symbol of evil) means saving them: taking men alive means preventing them from drowning, that is, saving them from the whirlpools of death: bringing them to breath, to Light, to Life.

+Giovanni D'Ercole

*Synthesis 9 February 2025 V Sunday Ordinary Time Year C

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! 

I add at the end of the commentary on the Readings some notes that help to better enter into the text and are also useful for lectio divina or catechesis. 

*First Reading From the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (6, 1- 8)

 In the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C (this year replaced by the liturgy of the Presentation of the Lord) we read the account of Jeremiah's vocation, today instead that of Isaiah: both great prophets and yet both confess their littleness. Jeremiah proclaims that he is unable to speak, but since it is God who has chosen him, it is God himself who will give him the necessary strength. Isaiah, for his part, is seized by a sense of unworthiness but it is always God who makes him 'pure'. The prophets' vocation is always a personal choice on God's part that demands complete adherence, the result of decisive awareness: "To send and to go" are the terms of every vocation and Isaiah too responds in full. If Jeremiah is a priest but it is not known where he received the divine call, Isaiah, on the other hand, who was not a priest, places his vocation in the temple of Jerusalem: "In the year that King Ozias died, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne". Isaiah gives us a valuable indication and states that this happened in the year of the death of King Ozias, who reigned in Jerusalem from 781 to 740 B.C. When King Solomon died (in 933 B.C., almost two centuries earlier), the kingdom of David and Solomon was divided: there were two kingdoms with two kings and two capitals. In the South, Oziah reigned over Jerusalem; in the North, Menaem reigned over Samaria. Ozias was leprous and died of this disease in Jerusalem in 740 B.C. It was therefore in that year that Isaiah received his prophetic calling. Subsequently, he preached for about forty years and died a martyr's death under King Manasseh of Judah, according to an accredited tradition, sawn in two with a wooden saw. He remains in Israel's collective memory as a great prophet, particularly as the prophet of God's holiness. 'Holy! Holy! Holy is the Lord of hosts! The whole earth is full of his glory': the Sanctus of our Eucharistic celebrations thus goes back to the prophet Isaiah, although perhaps this acclamation was already part of the temple liturgy in Jerusalem. God is 'Holy': in the biblical sense this means that He is totally Other than man (Qadosh), that is, He is not in the image of man, but as the Bible states, it is man who is created in the image of God. Calling God "The Holy One of Israel" also affirms that He is the Totally Other and at the same time close to His people, so that His people can feel Him as their God.  Throughout the Bible God appears as the one who wants to become the 'Holy One' for the whole of humanity, the God who loves us and wants to remain with us all. 

Three additional notes: 

1.The book of Isaiah comprises sixty-six chapters: however, it is not by a single author because it is a collection of three collections. Chapters 1 to 39 are largely the work of the prophet who here recounts his vocation (within these 39 chapters, some pages are probably later); chapters 40 to 55 are the work of a prophet who preached during his exile in Babylon (in the 6th century BC); chapters 56 to 66 record the preaching of a third prophet, a contemporary of those who had returned from exile in Babylon.

2.Holiness is not a moral concept, nor an attribute of God, but is the very nature of God; in fact, the adjective divine does not exist in Hebrew and is replaced by the term holy, which means Totally Other than man: we cannot reach him by our own strength because he infinitely exceeds us, to the point that we have no power over him. The prophet Hosea writes: "I am God and not man; in your midst I am the holy God" (Hos 11:9). Therefore in the Bible no human being is ever considered holy, at most one can be 'sanctified' by God and thus reflect his image, which has always been our calling. 

3.In some language translations, the expression 'The Lord of hosts' is rendered as 'the Lord of the universe', probably to appeal to a sensibility that resents the idea of a God of hosts and at the same time to express a universalistic sense of God's action. 

*Responsorial Psalm (137 /138,1-5.7c-8)

This psalm conveys a feeling of deep joy and from the very first verse everything is said. The expression 'give thanks' is in fact repeated several times: 'I give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart... I give thanks to your name'. The believer is the one who lives in God's grace and simply acknowledges it, with a heart full of gratitude. Here the believer is the people of Israel who, as always in the psalms, speak and give thanks for the covenant God has offered them. This is understood from the repetition of the name "Lord", which returns several times in these verses. "Lord" is the Name of God, the so-called "tetragrammaton", consisting of four consonants (YHWH), revealed to Moses at Sinai in the episode of the burning bush (Ex. 3). We generally say 'Yahweh', a sacred name that is rarely pronounced out of respect. God revealed himself to Moses during the Exodus at Sinai, also under the name 'Love and Loyalty' and we hear it here too: 'I give thanks to your name for your love and faithfulness'. This same expression "Love and Faithfulness" recurs several times in other psalms and throughout the Bible: "I am the Lord, the merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness" (Ex 34:6). In this psalm, we discover that God's holiness consists in Love and faithfulness. Israel realises that it must become His prophet by proclaiming His Love and Faithfulness to all mankind. It is only when Israel has fulfilled this mission that one can truly sing: 'I thank Thee, Lord, with all my heart' and... 'All the kings of the earth will thank Thee, Lord'. 

Additional note. The Italian translation reads: "They will give thanks to you, Lord, all the kings of the earth" (v.4). Exegetes point out that here we are dealing with an unaccomplished or imperfect Hebrew verb that can indicate either future actions, habitual and repeated actions, or continuous or incomplete actions in the past or present. Thus it could be validly translated with the present tense: 'May all the kings of the earth give thanks to you' or with a subjunctive: 'May all the kings of the earth give thanks to you' and it is obvious that in each choice the meaning changes somewhat.

*Second Reading From the Epistle of St Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (15:1-11)

Paul, apart from the apparition on the road to Damascus, did not know or witness the life of Jesus of Nazareth; his sources are the Apostles of the first generation and thanks to them, he received the Gospel, which he in turn transmits by summarising it in two sentences: Christ died for our sins and rose again on the third day, which can be summarised in just two words: died/rose which constitute the two pillars of the Christian faith and this is in accordance with the Scriptures, i.e. also the Old Testament where, however, no explicit statements on the death and resurrection of the Messiah are found. The formula 'according to the Scriptures' does not therefore mean that everything was written in advance, but that everything that happened is in conformity with God's merciful plan. One could then replace the expression 'according to the Scriptures' with 'according to God's plan and promise'. Christ by dying on the cross wiped out our sins and, according to his own promise, rose again: death was conquered and it is easy to see that the entire Old Testament is filled with promises of forgiveness of sins, salvation and life. For example, in the Old Testament, the expression 'on the third day' evoked a promise of salvation and deliverance because to say that there will be a third day was equivalent to saying: 'God will intervene'. On the third day on Mount Moria, God rescued Isaac from death (Gen 22:8); On the third day, Joseph in Egypt restored freedom to his brothers (Gen 42:18); On the third day, the Lord appeared to his people gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai (Ex 19:11- 16); On the third day, Jonah, finally converted, returned to the land and to his mission (Gen 2:1). This is how the word of Hosea was interpreted: "He will restore us to life after two days; on the third day he will raise us up and we will live before him" (Hos 6:2). The third day is therefore not a chronological datum, but the expression of a hope: that of the triumph of life over death. To proclaim that Christ is risen on the third day according to the Scriptures is therefore to affirm that salvation is for all times and for all men, since Christ lives forever. As a persecutor, God made St Paul an apostle, as a timid youth, he made Jeremiah a courageous prophet, and Isaiah, as a man with unclean lips, made him the 'mouth of God', and Peter, as a renegade, made him the foundation of his Church. 

*From the Gospel according to Luke (5, 1-11)

 The first reading almost always recalls the gospel, and we perceive this very well today. We are not used to comparing the apostle Peter to the prophet Isaiah, yet the texts of the liturgy help us to do so by offering us the stories of their vocation. The scenarios are different: for Isaiah, everything takes place during a vision in the temple in Jerusalem; for Peter, on Lake Tiberias. Both, however, suddenly find themselves in the presence of God: Isaiah in his vision, Peter witnessing a miracle after a night out. The details provided by Luke leave no doubt. Peter says to Jesus: 'Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing' and Jesus invites them to cast their nets again.  Then something extraordinary happens against all expectations and human experience. If, in fact, nothing was caught during the night, it is certainly even worse during the day, and all the fishermen who work at night know this. The miracle, however, takes place because, at the simple word of Jesus, Peter, an experienced fisherman shows humble and boundless trust and obeys. the result was such an enormous quantity of fish that he risked breaking his nets. Both Peter and Isaiah react in the same way to the irruption of God in their lives; both perceive his holiness and the gulf that separates them from him. Their expressions are similar: 'Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinner', exclaims Peter, while Isaiah says: 'Alas! I am lost, for a man of unclean lips I am'.  The teaching is clear: our sins, our unworthiness do not stop God because he is content for us to become aware of them and present ourselves to him in truth, and when we recognise our poverty, God can fill us with his grace. To the words of Jesus: "Fear not, thou shalt now be a fisher of men" Peter does not respond directly, but together with the others he performs a gesture of impressive simplicity: "And having pulled the boats ashore, they left everything and followed him". The disciples become Christ's co-operators even if the enterprise seems doomed to failure according to human judgement and they must always continue to cast their nets. It is the mystery of our collaboration in God's work: we can do nothing without him, and God does not want to do anything without us. The word of Jesus still resounds for us: 'Put out into the deep and cast your nets for fishing' and it is up to us to respond: at your word we will cast our nets. 

Supplementary note. In verse 6, the verb "they caught a quantity of fish" is derived from the Greek verb synkleió, which means "to enclose", "to trap" or "to enclose together" and means to catch fish with a net by snatching them out of the sea in order to kill them. St Augustine often uses the image of fishermen to describe the work of the Apostles, particularly Peter and Andrew, who were called by Jesus to become "fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19). In his Commentary on the Psalms (Psalm 91, Sermon 2) he writes: "They fish men, not to kill them but to make them alive; they fish, but to lead them to the light of truth, not to death. So when it comes to men, snatching them from the sea (symbol of evil) means saving them: taking men alive means preventing them from drowning, that is, saving them from the whirlpools of death: bringing them to breath, to Light, to Life.

+Giovanni D'Ercole

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us. On this Sunday, 2 February 2025, we celebrate the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple of Jerusalem

*First Reading From the book of the prophet Malachi (3,1-4) 

We are in the presence of a mysterious prophetic fragment seen by many as a testimony of universalism, freedom and hope. However, it is not easy to understand how to accept this text. Why does the prophet Malachi insist so much on the Temple, on the Levites (or priests), on offerings and on everything related to worship? To understand this insistence, the historical context must be taken into account. Malachi writes around 450 BC, at a time when there was no longer a king in Israel descended from David, the country was under Persian rule, and the Jewish people were ruled by priests. This is why the author insists on God's covenant with the priests who were God's representatives to his people. Malachi recalls the privileged bond between God and the descendants of Levi, but witnesses a degeneration in the conduct of this priestly caste and it was therefore very important to recall the ideal and responsibility of the priesthood. The covenant with the priests was at the service of God's covenant with his people, and it is precisely this covenant that is spoken of here: 'Immediately shall the Lord whom you seek enter into his temple; and the angel of the covenant whom you long for, behold, he is coming'. Malachi addresses all those who wait, who desire, who seek, and announces to them that they have not waited, sought, desired in vain, and their desire, their expectation will be fulfilled. And this will soon come to pass.

"And immediately he will come", the Hebrew word pit'ôm indicates both swiftness and nearness, and is as strong as the expression that follows: "here he comes". The two synonymous expressions 'immediately he will enter' and 'here he comes' frame (include) the announcement of the Lord's coming. "Immediately shall he enter into his temple, the Lord whom you seek; and the angel of the covenant whom you long for, behold, he is coming". The angel of the covenant comes to re-establish the covenant: first of all with the sons of Levi, but above all, through them, with the whole people, and we understand that this angel of the covenant is God himself. In the Bible, in order not to name God directly out of respect, the expression 'the Angel of God' is often used. It is therefore about the very coming of God. In his small book of just four pages in our Bible, Malachi speaks several times of the day of his coming; he calls it the 'day of the Lord' and each time this day appears both desirable and disquieting. For example, in the verse that immediately follows the text of today's liturgy, God says: "I will come to you for judgment" (v. 5), that is, I will deliver you from evil. This is desirable for the righteous but fearsome for those who live in evil and work evil. God's intervention is a discernment that must take place within us on the day of judgement and a messenger must precede the coming of the Lord who will call all people to conversion. As Malachi writes: "I will send my messenger to prepare the way before me. Later, Jesus will quote precisely this prophecy referring to John the Baptist. Asking the people who they had gone to see, he will say that John the Baptist is "more than a prophet. He is he of whom it is written: Behold, I send my messenger before you; he shall prepare your way before you" (Mt 11:7-10 and Lk 7:27).  With these words, Jesus identified himself as the Angel of the covenant coming to his temple and we will understand this better by delving into St Luke's Gospel today, feast of the Presentation of the Lord 

*Responsorial Psalm 23/24 (7, 8, 9, 10)

"Lift up, O ye gates, your foreheads, lift up ancient thresholds, and let the King of glory come in". This expression is solemn and somewhat surprising since it is difficult to imagine that the gates would rise. We are in a poetic context and the hyperbole serves to express the majesty of this King of glory who solemnly enters the Temple of Jerusalem. The expression 'king of glory' refers to God himself, the Lord of the universe. Our thoughts go back to the great feast of the Dedication of the first Temple, performed by King Solomon around 950 BC. In our imagination we see again the huge procession, the steps packed with worshippers... As we read in Psalm 67/68: "Your procession appears, God, the procession of my God, of my king, in the sanctuary. Singers precede, zither-players follow, along with maidens playing tambourines" (Ps 67:25-26). The Dedication of the first Temple by Solomon is described in the first book of Kings. On that occasion Solomon gathered the elders of Israel, the heads of the tribes, and the princes of the families of the children of Israel in Jerusalem, to bring up the Ark of the Lord from the city of David, that is, from Zion in the month of Etanim, the seventh month, during the Feast of Tabernacles. When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests brought up the Ark, the tent of meeting, and all the sacred objects that were in the tent, and so many small and large cattle were sacrificed that they could not be counted nor enumerated. The priests placed the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord in its place, in the inner chamber of the House, the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim. The cherubim, in the Bible, do not resemble the little angels of our imagination, but are winged animals with human faces, more like large Egyptian sphinxes. In Mesopotamia, they were the guardians of temples. In the Temple of Jerusalem, above the Ark of the Covenant stood two gilded wooden statues depicting these beings. Their outstretched wings above the Ark symbolised the throne of God. In this context, we can imagine the crowd and a choir singing: 'Lift up, O gates, your foreheads, lift up ancient thresholds, and let the king of glory enter'. And another choir replies: 'Who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and valiant, the Lord valiant in battle'. Behind the terms recalling war, which may surprise us today, we must read the memory of all the battles Israel needed to win a living space. Ever since the giving of the Law on Sinai, the Ark accompanied the people of Israel in every battle, a sign of God's presence in the midst of his people. The most common assumption is that this psalm is very old, since all trace of the Ark has been lost since the Babylonian exile. No biblical text clearly mentions it either during or after the exile, but it is known that it ended up as part of the booty taken away by Nebuchadnezzar during the taking of Jerusalem. Was it later hidden by Jeremiah on Mount Nebo, as some relate? No one knows. Yet this psalm was sung regularly in the ceremonies of the Temple of Jerusalem even long after the Babylonian exile, at a time when there was no longer any procession around the Ark. This is precisely why it acquired greater importance: having definitively lost the Ark of the Covenant, the tangible sign of God's presence, the psalm represented all that remained of the past splendour. It taught the people the necessary detachment: God's presence is not bound to an object, however loaded with memory. Moreover, with the passing of the centuries, this psalm took on a new meaning: "Let the King of glory come in" became the cry of impatience for the coming of the Messiah. Come at last the eternal King who will reign over renewed humanity at the end of time! He will indeed be the "Lord valiant in battle" the one who finally vanquishes Evil and the powers of death; he will indeed be the Lord, God of the universe and all mankind will share in his victory. This was the expectation of Israel, which grew from century to century.  It is not surprising, then, that the Christian liturgy sings Psalm 23/24 on the day it celebrates the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem: a way of affirming that this child is the King of glory, that is, God himself.

* Second Reading From the letter to the Hebrews ( 2:14-18)

 The theme of Christ's mediation is fundamental in the Letter to the Hebrews. It is undoubtedly useful to remember that it was written in a context of not a few controversies, and it is precisely from this letter that we can intuit the kind of objections that the first Christians of Jewish origin had to face. They were constantly being told: Your Jesus is not the Messiah; we need a priest, and he is not. It was therefore crucial for a first-century Christian to know that Christ is indeed a priest, the institution of the priesthood being central in the Old Testament, as we also noted in the first reading from the book of Malachi, which is the last of the Old Testament. Now, such an important institution in the history of the Jewish people and for its survival, could not be ignored in the New Testament. Jesus, however, according to Jewish law, was not a priest and could not aspire to be one, much less consider himself a high priest. He was descended from David, thus from the tribe of Judah and not at all from the tribe of Levi, and the author of the Epistle knows this and states it clearly (cf. Heb 7:14).  The Letter to the Hebrews answers: Jesus is not a high priest descended from Aaron, but he is in the likeness of Melchizedek.  This character mentioned in Genesis chapter 14 lived long before Moses and Aaron and is related to Abraham. Yet he is called "priest of the Most High God" (cf. Gen 14:18-20). So Jesus is indeed high priest, in his own way, in continuity with the Old Testament. This is precisely the purpose of the Letter to the Hebrews: to show us how Jesus realises the institution of the priesthood and to realise in biblical language does not mean to reproduce the Old Testament model, but to bring it to its full perfection. So let us see the three aspects of the ancient priesthood and what its essential elements were: The priest was a mediator, a member of the people who was allowed to commune with God's holiness and, in return, passed on God's gifts and blessings to the people. In today's passage, it is emphasised that Jesus is indeed a member of the people: 'Since the sons have flesh and blood in common, Christ in the same way became a partaker of them... therefore he had to make himself in all things like the brethren...' (Heb 2:14-17). To be "like" means to share the same weaknesses: temptations, trials, suffering and death. Jesus shared our poor human condition and in order to bring God closer to man, he made himself one of us, thus cancelling the distance between God and man. Moreover, the priest had to be allowed to communicate with the holiness of God who is the Holy One, that is, the totally Other (Kadosh, El Elyon, HaKadosh HaMufla), as the Bible often reminds us. To get closer to the Holy God, priests underwent rites of separation: ritual bathing, anointing, dressing and sacrifice. Even the sacred places where the priests officiated were separated from the common living spaces of the people. With Jesus, all this is turned upside down: he never separated himself from the life of his people, rather he mingled with the little ones, the marginalised, the unclean. And yet, says the Letter to the Hebrews, we have certain proof that Jesus is the Righteous One par excellence, the Son of God, the Holy One: his resurrection by defeating death has re-established the Covenant with God, which was the very goal of the priests. We are now free, and the greatest enemy of freedom is fear. But, thanks to Jesus, we no longer have anything to fear because we know God's love. The one who made us doubt this love was Satan, but through death, Jesus reduced him to powerlessness (cf. 2:14-15). Jesus' suffering shows how far God's love for us goes. Finally a question: Why does this Letter speak of the "children of Abraham" and not the "children of Adam"? It states in fact. "He cares not for the angels, but for the seed of Abraham". The answer is because Abraham, in biblical meditation, represents faith, understood as trust, and we are left with the freedom not to be children of Abraham, that is, believers. It is up to us to decide whether or not to enter into God's plan.

*From the Gospel according to Luke (2:22 - 40)

In the account of the evangelist Luke a double insistence emerges: first on the Law, then on the Spirit. In the first verses (vv. 22-24), he mentions the Law three times to emphasise that the child's life begins under the sign of the Law. It should be made clear, however, that Luke mentions the Law of Israel not as a series of written commandments and indeed one could replace the word 'Law' with 'Faith of Israel'. The life of the Family of Nazareth is all imbued with faith, and when they come to the Temple in Jerusalem to fulfil the Jewish customs, they do so with an attitude of fervour. Luke's first message is this: the salvation of all mankind took shape within the framework of the Law of Israel, of the faith of Israel: in a word, the Word of God became incarnate in this context and thus God's merciful plan for mankind was fulfilled. Then Simeon enters the scene, prompted by the Spirit, also mentioned three times. It is therefore the Spirit who inspires Simeon with the words that reveal the mystery of this child: 'My eyes have seen your salvation'. It is good to take up these words of Simeon one by one: 'My eyes have seen your salvation, prepared by you before all peoples'. The Old Testament is the story of this long and patient preparation by God for the salvation of mankind. And it is precisely the salvation of mankind, not just the people of Israel. This is exactly what Simeon points out: 'Light to reveal you to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel'. Israel's glory, in fact, lies in having been chosen not for itself, but for all mankind. As history progressed, throughout the events of the Old Testament, God's chosen people discovered more and more clearly that God's plan of salvation concerns the whole of humanity. furthermore, all this takes place in the Temple.  For Luke, the message is fundamental and he communicates it to us: we already witness the glorious entry of Jesus, Lord and Saviour, into the temple of Jerusalem, as the prophet Malachi had announced. This is precisely the opening of the first reading: 'Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and straightway the Lord whom you seek shall enter into his temple; and the angel of the covenant, whom you long for, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts'.

Luke recognises in Jesus the Angel of the Covenant who enters his temple. Simeon's words about glory and light fit perfectly in this line: 'My eyes have seen your salvation, prepared by you before all peoples: light to reveal you to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel'. Another echo of today's gospel in the Old Testament is found in the Psalm: "Who is this king of glory? Lift up, O gates, your foreheads". The psalm awaited a Messiah-king descendant of David; we know that the king of glory is this child. Luke describes a majestic scene of glory: the whole long wait of Israel is represented by two characters, Simeon and Anna. "Simeon, a righteous and godly man waited for the consolation of Israel". As for Anna, it can be assumed that if she spoke of the child to those who were waiting for the liberation of Jerusalem, it was because she too was eagerly awaiting the Messiah. When Simeon proclaims: 'Now you may let your servant go in peace, O Lord, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, prepared by you before all peoples: a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel', he clearly states that this child is the Messiah, the reflection of God's glory. With Jesus, it is the Glory of God that enters the Sanctuary; which is tantamount to saying that Jesus is the Glory, that he is God himself. From this moment, the time of the Law is fulfilled. The Angel of the Covenant has entered his temple to spread the Spirit over all mankind of every race and culture. 

P.S. For further study, since we also find this Gospel page on the feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth, I will add a few additional notes.

The expectation of the Messiah was alive in the Jewish people at the time of Jesus' birth, but not everyone spoke of it in the same way, even though the impatience was shared by all. Some spoke of the 'consolation of Israel', like Simeon, others of the 'deliverance of Jerusalem', like the prophetess Anna. Some were waiting for a king, a descendant of David, who would drive out the occupiers, representatives of the Roman power. Others awaited a completely different Messiah: Isaiah had described him at length and called him 'the Servant of God'.

To those who waited for a king, the narratives of the Annunciation and the Nativity showed that Jesus was precisely the one they were waiting for. For example, the angel at the Annunciation had told Mary: 'The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end'. Certainly the young girl from Nazareth was surprised, yet the message was clear.  Yet in the account of Jesus' presentation in the Temple, there is no mention of this aspect of the newborn child's personality. And besides, the child who enters the Temple in the arms of his parents was not born in a royal palace, but in a modest family in precarious conditions. Rather, it seems that St Luke invites us to recognise in the child presented in the Temple, the servant announced by Isaiah in chapters 42, 49, 50 and 52-53: 'This is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one whom I rejoice in (42:1)...The Lord has called me from my mother's womb, from my mother's womb he has spoken my name (I49:1)...Every morning he listens to me, so that I may hear like the disciples; the Lord God has opened my ear' (50:4-5).  Such an expression declares that this servant was very docile to the word of God; and he had received the mission to bring salvation to the whole world. Isaiah said: "I have set you as a covenant for the peoples, as the light of the nations" (42:6)... "I will make you the light of the nations, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth" (49:6). Which shows that already at the time of Isaiah it was understood that God's plan of love and salvation concerns all mankind and not only the people of Israel. Finally, Isaiah did not conceal the terrible fate that awaited this saviour: he would fulfil his mission of salvation for all, but his word, deemed too inconvenient, would arouse persecution and contempt. Let us recall this passage: 'I presented my back to the scourgers, my cheeks to those who plucked their beards' (50:6). Probably under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and thanks to his knowledge of Isaiah's prophecies, Simeon immediately understood that the child was the Servant announced by the prophet. He guessed the painful fate of Jesus, whose inspired word would be rejected by the majority of his contemporaries. He said to Mary: "Behold, he is here for the fall and resurrection of many in Israel and as a sign of contradiction - and to you also a sword will pierce your soul - so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed". Simeon understood that the hour of salvation for all mankind had come: "Now you may let your servant go in peace, O Lord, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, prepared before all peoples: light to reveal you to the nations and glory to your people Israel". Yes, Jesus is the Servant Messiah, described in Isaiah's "Songs of the Servant of the Lord" (42,49,50,52-53) the one who brings salvation: "Through him shall the will of the Lord be done" (53:10).

+Giovanni D'Ercole

I also offer at someone's request a short summary that can be circulated among the faithful. Next Sunday, 2 February 2025, we celebrate the Presentation of the Lord and

let us prepare ourselves by taking a quick look at the word of God that we will hear in Holy Mass

*First Reading From the book of the prophet Malachi (3,1-4) 

We are in the presence of a mysterious prophetic fragment seen by many as a testimony of universalism, freedom and hope. However, it is not easy to understand how to accept this text. The prophet Malachi insists so much on the Temple, the Levites (or priests), the offerings, and everything related to worship because Israel was under Persian rule and the Jewish people were ruled by the priests who were God's representatives to his people. The covenant with the priests was at the service of God's covenant with his people and it is this covenant that is at issue here. Malachi addresses all those who wait, desire, seek and announces to them that they have not waited, sought, desired in vain and their desire, their expectation will be fulfilled because soon the Angel of the Covenant will come, that is, God himself. As Malachi writes: "I will send my messenger to prepare the way before me. Later, Jesus will quote precisely this prophecy referring to John the Baptist. Asking the people who they had gone to see, he will say that John the Baptist is "more than a prophet. He is he of whom it is written: Behold, I send my messenger before you; he shall prepare your way before you" (Mt 11:7-10 and Lk 7:27).  With these words, Jesus identified himself as the Angel of the covenant coming to his temple and we will understand this better by delving into St Luke's Gospel today, feast of the Presentation of the Lord 

*Responsorial Psalm 23/24 (7, 8, 9, 10)

"Lift up, O ye gates, your foreheads, lift up ancient thresholds, and let the King of glory come in". This expression is solemn and somewhat surprising since it is difficult to imagine that the gates would rise. We are in a poetic context and the hyperbole serves to express the majesty of this King of glory who solemnly enters the Temple of Jerusalem. The expression 'king of glory' refers to God himself, the Lord of the universe. We can imagine the crowd and a choir singing: 'Lift up, O gates, your foreheads, lift up ancient thresholds, and let the King of glory enter'. And another choir responds: 'Who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and valiant, the Lord valiant in battle'. This psalm was sung in the ceremonies of the Temple of Jerusalem even long after the Babylonian exile, at a time when there was no longer any procession around the Ark. This is precisely why it acquired greater importance: having definitively lost the Ark of the Covenant, the tangible sign of God's presence, the psalm represented all that remained of the past splendour. It taught the people the necessary detachment: God's presence is not bound to an object, however loaded with memory. Moreover, with the passing of the centuries, this psalm took on a new meaning: "Let the King of glory come in" became the cry of impatience for the coming of the Messiah. Come at last the eternal King who will reign over renewed humanity at the end of time! This was the expectation of Israel, growing from century to century.  No wonder, then, that the Christian liturgy sings Psalm 23/24 on the day it celebrates the Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem: a way of affirming that this child is the King of glory, that is, God himself.

* Second Reading From the letter to the Hebrews ( 2:14-18)

 The theme of Christ's mediation is fundamental in the Letter to the Hebrews. It is undoubtedly useful to remember that it was written in a context of not a few controversies, and it is precisely from this letter that we can intuit the kind of objections that the first Christians of Jewish origin had to face. They were constantly being told: Your Jesus is not the Messiah; we need a priest, and he is not. It was therefore crucial for a first-century Christian to know that Christ is indeed a priest. Jesus, however, according to Jewish law, was not a priest and could not aspire to be one, much less consider himself a high priest. The Letter to the Hebrews answers: Jesus is not a high priest descended from Aaron, but he is in the likeness of Melchizedek, a character who appears in Genesis chapter 14 and lived long before Moses and Aaron and is related to Abraham. Yet he is called "priest of the Most High God" (cf. Gen 14:18-20). So Jesus is indeed high priest, in his own way, in continuity with the Old Testament. This is precisely the purpose of the Letter to the Hebrews: to show us how Jesus realises the institution of the priesthood, and to realise in biblical language does not mean to reproduce the Old Testament model, but to bring it to its full perfection. Finally a question: Why does this Letter speak of the "sons of Abraham" and not the "sons of Adam"? Indeed, it says. "He cares not for the angels, but for the seed of Abraham". The answer is because Abraham, in biblical meditation, represents faith, understood as trust, and we are left with the freedom not to be children of Abraham, that is, believers. It is up to us to decide whether or not to enter into God's plan.

*From the Gospel according to Luke (2:22 - 40)

In the account of the evangelist Luke a double insistence emerges: first on the Law, then on the Spirit. In the first verses (vv. 22-24), he mentions the Law three times to emphasise that the child's life begins under the sign of the Law. It should be made clear, however, that Luke mentions the Law of Israel not as a series of written commandments and indeed one could replace the word "Law" with "Faith of Israel" and the life of the Family of Nazareth is all imbued with this faith. Luke's first message is this: the salvation of all humanity took shape within the framework of the Law of Israel, of the faith of Israel: in a word, the Word of God became incarnate in this context and thus God's merciful plan for humanity was fulfilled. Then Simeon enters the scene, prompted by the Spirit, also mentioned three times. It is therefore the Spirit who inspires Simeon with the words that reveal the mystery of this child: "My eyes have seen your salvation, prepared by you before all peoples". The Old Testament is the story of this long and patient preparation by God for the salvation of mankind. And it is precisely the salvation of mankind, not just the people of Israel. This is exactly what Simeon points out: 'Light to reveal you to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel'. The glory of Israel, in fact, lies in having been chosen not for itself, but for all mankind. For Luke, the message is fundamental and he communicates it to us: we already witness the glorious entry of Jesus, Lord and Saviour, into the temple of Jerusalem, as the prophet Malachi had announced. Luke recognises in Jesus the Angel of the Covenant entering his temple. The psalm awaited a Messiah-king descendant of David; we know that the king of glory is this child. Luke describes a majestic scene of glory: the whole long wait of Israel is represented by two characters, Simeon and Anna. "Simeon, a righteous and godly man waited for the consolation of Israel". As for Anna, it can be assumed that if she spoke of the child to those who were waiting for the liberation of Jerusalem, it was because she too was eagerly awaiting the Messiah. When Simeon proclaims: 'Now you may let your servant go in peace, O Lord, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation', he clearly states that this child is the Messiah. With Jesus, the Glory of God enters the Sanctuary; which is equivalent to saying that Jesus is the Glory, God himself entered his temple to spread the Spirit over all mankind.

+Giovanni D'Ercole

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (year C) [26 January 2025]

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! This Sunday, 26 January 2025, marks the 6th Sunday of the Word of God. In St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis will preside over it in the context of the Jubilee Year. The chosen motto is taken from the Book of Psalms: "I hope in your Word" (Ps 119:74).

III Sunday in Ordinary Time (year C)

*First Reading from the Book of Nehemiah (8: 2-4a. 5-6. 8-10)

For those of us who begin to complain when liturgies last longer than an hour, we would surely be well served by all standing together from dawn until noon, as one man: men, women and children. And during such a long time to listen to readings in Hebrew, a language that was no longer understood, although the scribe, the reader, would interrupt from time to time to make way for the translator, who would translate the text into Aramaic, a language commonly used in Jerusalem. Those taking part did not seem tired, nor did they find the time too long: on the contrary, they all wept with emotion, sang and continually cheered together with their hands raised: Amen! Ezra, the priest, and Nehemiah, the governor, can be satisfied because they have succeeded in restoring confidence to the people who, after the Babylonian exile, continue to go through a complicated and difficult period. 

We have here a beautiful testimony of the reconstruction of Israel's 'national home' after the Babylonian deportation.  We are in Jerusalem around 450 B.C.: the exile in Babylon was over and after much controversy, the Temple in Jerusalem was finally rebuilt, even if it was not quite like Solomon's, and community life was also resumed. We could say that everything was going well, but it was not, and morale was low because the people seemed to have lost hope, which they had always retained even in the most painful parts of their existence. The truth is that the scars of the previous century's dramas remained because it was not easy to resume life after the invasion and looting of the city. Indeed, the scars remained for generations: scars of the exile itself, but also those of the return to the homeland since everything had been lost with the deportation to Babylon. The long-awaited return was not a triumph, but an occasion for confrontation between those who had remained in Jerusalem and by now had begun a life of their own, even introducing pagan rites, and the 'community of the return' who, after more than fifty years, thought they would find what their ancestors had left behind, something that was impossible and created serious clashes between them.  The miracle is that that period, although terrible, was very fruitful because the faith of Israel survived the test. Not only did this people keep their faith intact during the exile, amidst all the dangers of idolatry, but they remained united and even grew in fervour. This was all thanks to the priests and prophets, who did tireless pastoral work. It was, for example, a period of intense re-reading and meditation of the Scriptures, since one of the main purposes during the fifty years of exile was to direct all hopes towards the return to the promised land. However, the much hoped-for return turned out to be a cold shower because, as experience teaches us, there is almost always a gulf between dream and reality. On closer inspection, the great problem of the return, as we have seen in Isaiah's texts for the Epiphany and the second Sunday of Ordinary Time (last Sunday), was the difficulty of living together between those who had returned from Babylon full of ideals and plans, the so-called "community of return", and those who had meanwhile settled in Jerusalem. Between them there was not a ditch, but a real chasm: some were pagans who had occupied the land and brought idol worship with them, and their concerns were light years removed from the manifold demands of Jewish law. Their priorities were incompatible with the demands of the Torah. The rebuilding of the Temple met with their hostility, and the less fervent members of the Jewish community were often tempted by the prevailing laxity. The authorities were particularly concerned about this religious laxity, which continued to worsen due to the numerous marriages between Jews and pagans, and it became virtually impossible to preserve the purity and demands of the faith under such conditions. It was at this point that Ezra, the priest, and Nehemiah, the secular governor, joined forces and succeeded in obtaining together from the king of Persia, Artaxerxes, a mission to rebuild the city walls and full powers to reorganise these people. It must be remembered that they were still under Persian rule. Ezra and Nehemiah did their utmost to raise the situation and to restore strength and awaken the morale of the people. The Jewish community was all the more in need of cohesion as it was now living in daily contact with paganism and religious indifference. In the history of Israel, the unity of the people has always been built in the name of the Covenant with God, and the pillars of the Covenant remain the same: they are the Land, the Holy City, the Temple and the Word of God. Since they had returned home, the Land was there; Nehemiah, the governor devoted himself to reorganising the Holy City, Jerusalem, and the Temple was rebuilt. That left the Word, which was proclaimed during a gigantic open-air celebration.

It was important to take care of every detail for the staging of the celebration mentioned here: even the date was carefully chosen and an ancient tradition was revived, a great feast on what was then the date of the New Year: 'the first day of the seventh month'. For the occasion, a wooden platform was built overlooking the people and from that high platform the priest and translators proclaimed the Word. The homily then was an invitation to feast: eat, drink, for it is a day of joy, a day of your gathering around the Word of God. It is no longer a time for tears, nor for sadness and emotion. There is a lesson here that may be useful: to strengthen the community, Ezra and Nehemiah do not lecture the people, but propose a feast around the Word of God. To revive the sense of family, there is no better way than to organise and share moments of joyful celebration on a regular basis.

*Responsorial Psalm (18 (19), 8. 9. 10. 15)

We encounter this psalm several times, and we have therefore already had the opportunity to emphasise the importance for Israel of the Law, which is an extremely positive value, just as important is the fear of God, an attitude that is also profoundly positive and filial. There are several passages in the Old Testament in which the Law is presented as a path: if a son of Israel wants to be happy, he must be careful not to deviate either to the right or to the left. Today, to better understand this psalm, I propose to reread the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy is relatively late, written at a time when the southern kingdom of Judah was drifting dangerously away from the practice of the Law. This book therefore resounded as a cry of alarm: If you do not want the same catastrophe to happen to you that has befallen the northern kingdom, you would do well to change your ways. It is thus a reference to all the commandments of Moses and his warnings. Deuteronomy also contains a meditation on the role of the Law whose sole purpose is to educate the people and keep them on the right path. If God cares so much that his people remain on the right path, it is because this is the only way they can live happily and fulfil their calling to be a chosen people among the nations. The king of Jerusalem, Josiah, undertook a profound religious reform around 620 B.C., relying precisely on the book of Deuteronomy. While we would be inclined to see the law as a burden, it is clear in the Bible that it is an instrument of freedom. To help understand this, the image of the eagle teaching its young to fly is interesting in the biblical tradition. Ornithologists who have observed eagles in the Sinai desert tell us that when the young eagles soar, their parents stay nearby and glide above them, tracing wide circles; when the young are tired, they can at any time rest (in the double sense of catching their breath and resting on their parents' wings) and then soar once they have regained their strength. The ultimate goal, of course, is that the little ones soon become capable of fending for themselves. The biblical author took this image to explain that God gives his Law to men to teach them to fly with their own wings. There is no shadow of domination in this, far from it; by freeing his people from slavery in Egypt, the Lord has demonstrated once and for all that his only goal is to free his people. Here is what the book of Deuteronomy says: "The Lord found his people in a desert land, in a heath of lonely howls. He surrounded him, raised him up, guarded him as over the pupil of his eye. Like an eagle that watches over his brood, that flies above his born, he spread his wings" (Deut 32:9-11). A God who wants man to be free! This is the message that is faithfully transmitted from generation to generation: "Tomorrow, when your son asks you: why these prescriptions, these laws and customs that the Lord our God has commanded you?" then you will answer your son: "We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but with a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt... The Lord commanded us to practice all these laws and to fear the Lord our God, that we might always be happy and that he might keep us alive as we are today" (Deut 6:20-24). When King Josiah tried to get his people back on the right path, he realised how important it was for him to make known this book, which repeats this message in every way: the shortest way to be a free and happy people is to live according to the commands of the God of Israel. Understand, if your brothers in the north ended up so badly, it is because they forgot this elementary truth (always keep in mind the division between the southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah, and the northern kingdom, the kingdom of Israel, and how the northern kingdom due to alliances with foreign peoples ended up being occupied and practically destroyed). And now, Josiah reminds us, it is not only the salvation of the southern kingdom that is at stake - which of course was his first concern - but the salvation of all mankind. And how will the chosen people be able to be witnesses of the liberating God before all nations if they do not themselves behave as a free people and instead fall into the constant temptations of humanity: idolatry, social injustice, power struggles?

Throughout history, the biblical authors have gradually become aware of this responsibility that God entrusted to his people by offering them his Covenant: "To the Lord our God belong the hidden things, while those things that are revealed are for us and for our children for ever, that all the words of this Law may be put into practice" (Deut 29:28). This inspires in Israel a great pride that never becomes presumption; if necessary, Deuteronomy calls the people back to humility: "If the Lord has taken a liking to you and chosen you, it is not because you are more numerous than all the other peoples, for you are the least of all" (Deut 7:7); and again: "Recognise that it is not because you are righteous that the Lord your God gives you possession of this good land, for you are a hard-necked people" (Deut 9:6).

Our psalm today takes up this lesson of humility: "The precepts of the Lord are upright, they make the heart rejoice; the commandment of the Lord is clear, it enlightens the eyes" (v.9). "The precepts of the Lord are upright": here is a nice way of saying that only God is wise. There is no need, then, to think oneself wise, but rather to let oneself be guided by him with simplicity. King Josiah would gladly have repeated this admonition to encourage his subjects: 'Yea, this commandment which I command thee today is not too hard for thee, nor beyond thy reach. It is not in heaven, for you to say: Who shall ascend for us into heaven to take it for us, that we may hear it and be able to put it into practice? Nor is it beyond the sea, for you to say: Who will cross the sea for us to take it, that he may make us hear it and we may put it into practice? Yes, the word is very near you: it is in your mouth and in your heart, that you may put it into practice'. The humble, daily practice of the Law can gradually transform an entire people; as the psalm goes on to say: "The command of the Lord is clear, it enlightens the eyes" Deut 30:11).

One last remark: The book of Deuteronomy, which we know today, is later than Josiah; however, the foundations were already well laid in a manuscript found by Josiah's workers during the restoration of the temple in Jerusalem (cf. Second Book of Kings 22:8-13 and Second Book of Chronicles 34:14-19). It is an interesting manuscript probably brought by refugees from the northern kingdom after the fall of Samaria in 721 and was a solid exhortation for true conversion and an invitation to return to the practice of the commandments. Scholars believe it to be part of chapters 12-26 of the book of Deuteronomy.

* Second Reading from the First Epistle of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (12:12-30)

St Paul simply and directly states that everyone in the Christian and civil community has a task to perform and a place to occupy while being attentive to one another: we should not despise one another, and indeed we should remember that everyone needs everyone. Paul's lengthy reasoning is evidence of a concrete situation: the community in Corinth faced exactly the same problems as we do today.

To teach his believers a lesson, Paul resorts to a method that works better than any discourse: he gives them an example with a parable that he did not actually invent at all because he uses a fable that everyone knew and adapts it to his objective. This is an allegorical narrative better known as the apologue "the belly and the limbs" by Menenius Agrippa, a Roman consul and diplomat of the 5th century BC. In truth, this narration is already present in Aesop, a storyteller and fable teller of ancient Greece (6th century B.C.) as well as in Phaedrus (a contemporary of Jesus 20 B.C. - 50 A.D.) both of whom were well known at the time of St Paul. This parable is found in the Roman History of Titus Livius and Jean Fontaine (1621-1695) took it up and transformed it into verse in the 9th book of his fables. Like all fables, it begins with: Once upon a time there was a man like all the others... except that, in him, all the limbs talked and argued with each other, but not all of them showed a good character, apparently, probably because some had the impression that they were less considered or somewhat exploited. One day, during a discussion, his feet and hands rebelled against his stomach: why did his stomach, he, only eat and drink what the other limbs gave him and all the pleasure was for him?  It was certainly not the stomach that got tired working, tilling the vineyard, shopping, cutting meat, chewing, and so on. Then they decided all the limbs would simply go on strike and from that moment on, no one would move: the stomach would see what would happen to it. That way, if the stomach died, the satisfaction would belong to those who had stopped working. However, they had forgotten one very simple thing: if the stomach dies of hunger, it will not be the only one to suffer. That body, like all others, was one, and everyone needed everyone!

St Paul thus took from the cultural heritage of his time a parable that was very easy to understand. And, if anyone had not understood it, he took the trouble to explain the meaning of the parable of the body and members himself by illustrating its teaching. For Paul, the moral is clear: our differences are an asset, provided we use them as instruments for unity. One of the salient points of Paul's discourse is that, not for a moment, he speaks in terms of hierarchy or superiority: Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free men since all our human distinctions no longer count. Only one thing matters now: our baptism into the same Spirit, our participation in one body, the body of Christ.

God's perspectives are completely different as Jesus clearly taught his apostles: "Among you it will not be so" (Matthew 20: 25-28).  However, Paul knows that this way of seeing things, of no longer thinking in terms of superiority, hierarchy, advancement or honours, is very difficult and so he insists on the respect that must be given to all: simply because the highest dignity, the only one that counts, is to be all members of the one body of Christ.

Respect, in the etymological sense of the term, is a question of gaze: sometimes, people who seem or seem unimportant to us we do not even see, our gaze does not linger on them. It can happen to all of us to feel ignored in the eyes of someone: their gaze slides over us as if we did not exist. Is that not so? 

In short, Paul offers us a great lesson in respect: respect for diversity, on the one hand, and respect for the dignity of each person, whatever their function or social role. I know it is not easy, but it is necessary to have a less selfish outlook to discover what each of us can bring to the life of our families, our communities and society. There are those who have a thinking mind, those who are researchers, inventors, organisers... There are those who have flair, those who can be patient, those who are clairvoyant, those who have the gift of speech and those who are better at writing, and there are those who suffer from illness or are very poor materially and spiritually, but all can offer something to others. One could go on enumerating the many charisms to be discovered and enhanced: one only needs to direct one's gaze well. If last Sunday, the second Sunday of Ordinary Time, reading the beginning of chapter 12 of the first letter to the Corinthians, seemed to be a hymn to diversity, today's development is a call to unity through respect for differences.

*From the Gospel according to Luke (1:1-4;4:14-21)

In the Sundays of ordinary time of liturgical year C, the evangelist Luke accompanies us, and we have already been able to meditate on his account of the birth and childhood of Jesus at Christmas time. We know very little about how the gospels were written and, in particular, about their dates of composition. However, from today's gospels we can deduce a few things. There was certainly oral preaching before the gospels were put into writing, for Luke tells Theophilus that he wanted to allow him to verify 'the soundness of the teachings he had received'. Luke also acknowledges that he was not an eyewitness to the events; he could only inform himself through eyewitnesses, which implies that they were still alive when he wrote. We can therefore assume that preaching about Christ's resurrection began already from Pentecost and that Luke's gospel was written later, but before the death of the last eyewitnesses, thus setting a cut-off date around 80-90 AD.

What we read today is placed after the baptism of Jesus and the account of his temptations in the desert. Apparently, everything seemed to be going well for Jesus who began his mission publicly after the death of John the Baptist. The evangelist writes: "Jesus returned to Galilee with the power of the Spirit and his fame spread throughout the region. He taught in the synagogues of the Jews, and they gave him praise". That Saturday morning Jesus, as a good Jew returning from a journey, went to worship in the synagogue. It is not surprising that he was given a reading, since every believer had the right to read the Scriptures. The celebration in the synagogue proceeded normally, until Jesus read the text of the day, which was a famous passage from the prophet Isaiah. In the great silence that followed the reading, Jesus quietly affirmed something extraordinary: "Today this Scripture that you have heard has been fulfilled". A few minutes of awkward silence followed, the time needed to interpret the meaning of his words. Indeed, those present expected Jesus to make a comment, as was customary, but not one that would surprise everyone. It is difficult for us today to imagine the audacity of that calm statement by Jesus, but for his contemporaries, that venerable text from the prophet Isaiah referred to the Messiah. Only the Messiah-King, when he would come, could have afforded to affirm: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore he has anointed me..." From the beginning of the monarchy, in fact, the rite of consecration of kings included an anointing with oil. This gesture was a sign that God himself was permanently inspiring the king to enable him to fulfil his mission of saving the people. It was then said that the king was 'mashiach', which in Hebrew simply means 'anointed' and which in Italian is translated as Messiah while in Greek as Christos and in Latin as Christus.

At the time of Jesus, there were no more kings on the throne of Jerusalem, but it was expected that God would finally send the ideal king, who would bring freedom, justice and peace to his people. In particular, in Roman-occupied Palestine, the one who would deliver the people from Roman occupation was awaited. Clearly, Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter's son, could not claim to be that expected Messiah-King. How could they recognise the Messiah they were waiting for in Jesus the humble carpenter in the land of Galilee? Yet he was indeed the Messiah. It must be acknowledged that Jesus did not cease to surprise his contemporaries.  St Luke emphasises, introducing this passage, that Jesus was accompanied by the power of the Spirit, an essential characteristic of the Messiah. But this is Luke's affirmation, the Christian; the people of Nazareth, on the other hand, did not know that, really, the Spirit of the Lord rested on Jesus. There is also this observation about the Gospel passage we have just heard. Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah and attributes the quotation to himself, he makes it his own as a true programmatic discourse: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me... He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord. Of Isaiah's prophecy (61:1-2) he does not read and indeed skips the last part of verse 2 altogether, which says: "...and a day of vengeance for our God." This is a significant omission because he focuses on the proclamation of grace and deliverance, leaving aside the idea of vengeance, and his entire ministry is centred on mercy, salvation and God's love, rather than immediate judgement or punishment. This omission of Isaiah's last sentence and the application of the passage to himself upset his listeners for several reasons. First, the people of Nazareth expected a Messiah who would deliver Israel from its oppressors, especially the Romans, and bring justice and vengeance against the enemies of the Jewish people. The omission of the 'day of vengeance of our God' seemed to dismiss the idea of a political and executioner Messiah. By proclaiming a message of universal grace and salvation, Jesus was challenging their nationalistic expectations. Regarding his declaration that Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in him, many of those present considered it scandalous and presumptuous because they knew him as the "carpenter's son" (Luke 4:22) who lived among them, and could not reconcile his humble origin with the idea of an envoy of God. Moreover, Jesus, when later mentioning the episodes of Elijah and Elisha (Luke 4:25-27), went on to emphasise the fact that God often intervened for the good of pagans such as the widow of Sarepta in Sidon or Naaman the Syrian, and this showed that God's salvation and grace were not exclusively for Israel, but also for pagans. Proclaiming this universalism, however, offended the national and religious pride of its listeners. Finally, many Jews of the time hoped for immediate judgement against Israel's enemies. The fact that Jesus only emphasised the time of grace without mentioning vengeance could be perceived as a denial of divine justice against the wicked, and this offended those who desired a swift and final deliverance. The combination of so many elements gives insight into the violent reaction of his fellow citizens who attempted to drive him out of the synagogue and even to kill him by throwing him off a cliff (Luke 4:28-30). Finally, the rejection of Jesus by his countrymen becomes a symbol of the wider rejection that he will encounter in his ministry.

An informative note. During the first Sundays of Ordinary Time in the liturgical cycles A, B, C, the liturgy makes us reread the First Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians. It is a semi-continuous reading, beginning on the first Sunday of Ordinary Time and ending on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday.

Year A. The readings focus mainly on the first four chapters of the letter.

Main theme: the unity of the Church and the centrality of Christ.

*Sunday I: 1Cor 1:1-3 - Initial greeting and call to holiness.

*Sunday II: 1Cor 1:10-13.17 - Exhortation to unity in the Christian community.

*Sunday III: 1Cor 1:26-31 - The wisdom of God versus human wisdom.

*Sunday IV: 1Cor 2,1-5 - Preaching based on the power of the Spirit.

Year B. The readings continue in chapters 6-9 of the letter. Main theme: moral life and personal and community responsibilities.

*Sunday II: 1Cor 6:13c-15a.17-20 - The body as temple of the Holy Spirit.

*Sunday III: 1Cor 7,29-31 - The urgency of living for the Kingdom of God.

*Sunday IV: 1Cor 8,1b-7.10-13 - The responsibility towards weaker brothers and sisters in faith.

*Sunday V: 1Cor 9,16-19.22-23 - St Paul as an apostle who does everything for everyone.

Year C The readings focus on chapters 12-15 of the letter. Main theme: charisms, Christian love and the resurrection.

*Sunday II: 1Cor 12:4-11 - Diversity of charisms, one Spirit.

*Sunday III: 1Cor 12:12-30 - The Church as the body of Christ.

*Sunday IV: 1Cor 13:4-13 - The hymn to charity.

*Sunday V: 1Cor 15,12. 16- 20 - The resurrection of the dead as the foundation of faith.

Each liturgical year uses a different section of the letter to reflect on the different needs and themes of the Christian life. Key themes such as unity, charity, moral life and hope in the resurrection are highlighted. This semi-continuous scheme allows the faithful to progressively deepen their understanding of the Apostle Paul's teaching.

+Giovanni D’Ercole