1. We have mentioned several times in previous catecheses the intervention of the Holy Spirit in the origin of the Church. It is good that we now dedicate a special catechesis to this beautiful and important theme.

It is Jesus himself who, before ascending to Heaven, says to the Apostles: "I will send upon you what my Father has promised; but you remain in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high" (Lk 24:49). Jesus intends to directly prepare the Apostles for the fulfilment of the "promise of the Father". The evangelist Luke repeats the same last recommendation of the Master also in the first verses of the Acts of the Apostles: "While he was at table with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait until the promise of the Father was fulfilled" (Acts 1:4).

Throughout his messianic activity, Jesus, by preaching about the Kingdom of God, was preparing "the time of the Church", which was to begin after his departure. When this was near, he announced that the day was near when this time was to begin (cf. Acts 1:5), namely the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit. And looking into the future, he added: "You will receive power from the Holy Spirit who will come upon you, and you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

2. When the day of Pentecost came, the Apostles, who together with the Mother of the Lord were gathered in prayer, were shown that Jesus Christ was acting in accordance with what he had announced: that "the promise of the Father" was being fulfilled. This was proclaimed by the first among the Apostles, Simon Peter, speaking to the assembly. Peter spoke, first recalling the death on the cross, and then moved on to the testimony of the resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit: "This Jesus God raised up, and we are all witnesses. Having therefore risen to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the Holy Spirit whom he had promised, he poured out the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:32-33).

Peter asserts from day one that the "promise of the Father" is fulfilled as the fruit of redemption, because it is by virtue of his cross and resurrection that Christ, the Son raised "to the right hand of God", sends forth the Spirit, as he had announced even before his passion at the moment of his farewell in the Upper Room.

3. The Holy Spirit thus began the mission of the Church established for all men. But we cannot forget that the Holy Spirit worked as the "unknown God" (cf. Acts 17:23) even before Pentecost. He worked in a special way in the old Covenant, enlightening and leading the chosen people on the road that led ancient history towards the Messiah. He operated in the messages of the prophets and in the writings of all inspired authors. He worked above all in the incarnation of the Son, as witnessed in the Gospel of the annunciation and the history of subsequent events connected to the coming into the world of the eternal Word who had assumed human nature. The Holy Spirit worked in and around the Messiah from the moment Jesus began his messianic mission in Israel, as is evident from the Gospel texts about the theophany at the moment of his baptism in the Jordan and his declarations in the synagogue in Nazareth. But from that same moment and throughout Jesus' life, the expectation and promises of a future, definitive coming of the Holy Spirit were accentuated. John the Baptist linked the mission of the Messiah to a new baptism "in the Holy Spirit". Jesus promised the believers in him "streams of living water": a promise recorded in John's Gospel, which explains it as follows: "This he said referring to the Spirit that the believers in him would receive; for there was not yet the Spirit, because Jesus had not yet been glorified" (John 7: 39). On the day of Pentecost, Christ, having now been glorified after the final fulfilment of his mission, caused the "rivers of living water" to gush forth from his bosom and poured out the Spirit to fill the Apostles and all believers with divine life. These could thus be "baptised into one Spirit" (cf. 1 Cor 12:13). And this was the beginning of the growth of the Church.

4. As the Second Vatican Council writes, "Christ sent the Holy Spirit from the Father, that he might accomplish his work of salvation from within and stimulate the Church to develop. Undoubtedly the Holy Spirit was at work in the world even before Christ was glorified. But it was on the day of Pentecost that it was poured out upon the disciples, to remain with them for ever, and the Church officially appeared before the multitude and began through preaching, the spreading of the Gospel among the pagans, and finally the union of peoples in the universality of the faith was prefigured through the Church of the new Covenant, which in all languages expresses itself and all languages in love understands and comprehends, thus overcoming the Babelic dispersion" (Ad gentes, 4).

The conciliar text highlights what the action of the Holy Spirit in the Church consists of, starting from the day of Pentecost. It is a salvific, interior action, which at the same time expresses itself externally in the emergence of the community and institution of salvation. This community - the community of the first disciples - is all pervaded by love, which overcomes all differences and divisions of an earthly order. A sign of this is the Pentecostal event of an expression of faith in God that is comprehensible to all, despite the diversity of languages. The Acts of the Apostles attest to us that the people gathered around the Apostles, in that first public manifestation of the Church, said with wonder: 'Are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear them each speaking our native tongue' (Acts 2:7-8).

5. The Church that was just born like that on the day of Pentecost, by the power of the Holy Spirit, immediately manifests itself to the world. It is not a closed community, but open - one might say wide open - to all nations "to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Those who enter this community, through Baptism, become by virtue of the Holy Spirit of truth witnesses of the good news, ready to pass it on to others. It is therefore a dynamic, apostolic community: the Church "in a state of mission".

The Holy Spirit Himself first "bears witness" to Christ (cf. Jn 15:26), and this witness pervades the souls and hearts of those who participate in Pentecost, who in turn become witnesses and proclaimers. The "tongues like tongues of fire" (Acts 2:3) above the heads of each of those present constitute the outward sign of the enthusiasm kindled in them by the Holy Spirit. This enthusiasm extends from the Apostles to their hearers, just as already on the first day after Peter's speech "about three thousand people joined in . . ." (Acts 2:41).

6. The whole book of the Acts of the Apostles is a great description of the action of the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the Church, which - as we read - "grew and walked in the fear of the Lord, filled with the comfort of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 9, 31). It is known that internal difficulties and persecutions were not lacking, and that the first martyrs occurred. But the Apostles were certain that it was the Holy Spirit who was guiding them. This awareness of theirs would somehow be formalised in the concluding sentence of the Jerusalem Council, whose resolutions begin with the words: "We have decided, the Holy Spirit and we . . ." (Acts 15:28). The community thus attested its consciousness that it was moving under the action of the Holy Spirit.

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 2 October 1991]

The Gospel reading for this Sixth Sunday of Easter presents a passage of the discourse that Jesus addressed to the Apostles at the Last Supper (cf. Jn 14:23-29). He speaks about the work of the Holy Spirit and makes a promise: “the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (v. 26). As the moment of the Cross approaches, Jesus reassures the Apostles that they will not be alone: the Holy Spirit will always be with them, the Paraclete, who will support them in the mission to deliver the Gospel throughout the world. In the original Greek language, the term “Paraclete” means the One who positions himself alongside, to support and comfort. Jesus returns to the Father, but continues to teach and inspire his disciples through the action of the Holy Spirit. 

In what does the Holy Spirit’s mission, which Jesus promises as a gift, consist? He describes it himself: “he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you”. Throughout his earthly life, Jesus already passed on all that he wanted to entrust to the Apostles: he fulfilled divine Revelation, namely, all that the Father wanted to impart to mankind with the incarnation of the Son. The Holy Spirit’s task is to remind, that is, to enable full understanding and to induce us to concretely implement Jesus’ teachings. And this is also precisely the mission of the Church, which she accomplishes through a precise way of life, characterized by a few requirements: faith in the Lord and observance of his Word; docility to the action of the Holy Spirit, who constantly renders the Risen Lord alive and present; acceptance of his peace and the witness borne to it through an attitude of openness and of encounter with the other.

To accomplish all of this the Church cannot remain static but, with the active participation of each baptized person, she is called to act as a community on a journey, enlivened and sustained by the light and power of the Holy Spirit who makes all things new. It is a matter of freeing oneself from worldly bonds represented by our views, our strategies, our objectives that often burden the journey of faith, and to place ourselves in docile listening to the Word of the Lord. Thus it is God’s Spirit who guides us and guides the Church, so that her authentic, beautiful and luminous face may shine, as Christ wished.

Today the Lord invites us to open our heart to the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that he may guide us on the paths of history. Day by day, he teaches us the logic of the Gospel, the logic of welcoming love, by ‘teaching us all things’ and reminding us ‘of all the Lord has said to us’.

May Mary, whom in this month of May we venerate and to whom we pray with special devotion as our heavenly mother, always protect the Church and the whole of humanity. May she who, with humble and courageous faith, fully cooperated with the Holy Spirit for the incarnation of the Son of God, help us too to allow ourselves to be taught and guided by the Paraclete, so that we may welcome the Word of God and witness to it with our lives.

[Pope Francis, Regina Coeli 26 May 2019]

(Jn 15:18-21)

In the preceding section, Jesus denotes the character of love between Him and the disciples, and mutual love between believers. Now he introduces the contrast with the world: the opposite of love.

In Jn the term «world» designates the sin structure resulting from the combination of religion-power-interest.

A kingdom that organises itself from ambitious individuals and interests consortia.

From the earliest times, the wrong-side, the opposite road, became constitutive of the «sons». In this way, the configuration of the kingdom was becoming alternative thing; a reversal.

The well-established and praised models did not distract sisters and brothers of Faith. The new assemblies educated everyone to gain confidence in personal Vocation.

Their experience, even mystical one, had another criterion compared to hosannas and leashed quietism.

In the fourth Gospel the ‘Church’ [Jn never uses the specific term, Εκκλησία] is in watermark the opposite of the «world».

The worldly spirit of official religiosity already hated the very friends whom Christ had drawn «from» those polluted waters:

«If you were from the world [...] For you are not from the world, but I have chosen you from the world, therefore the world hates you» (v.19).

The first experience of the Johannine communities in Asia Minor was persecution.

In event after event, the oppression suffered became normal for the believer ones, because that world there loved only "its" followers: «the world would love its own» (v.19), i.e. that and those in whom it recognizes itself.

Instead, by their living Faith, the friends of Christ remained 'intimate'; strangers to every apparatus.

In their choices and conduct, they reflected a unique convivial lifestyle - humanizing far more than any normal, servile beliefs.

With their action derived from inner strength alone, they prefigured a germ of non-conformist society. This, in comparison to the ideology of power - and its having-appearing.

In such a way, the Lord's brethren bore witness against «the sin of the world» (cf. John 1:29) just as the Lamb of God had done.

Although doomed for defeat, the true believers operated in an eccentric manner; never obsequious.

The detachment was with the official devotional structures, always deferential, cowardly; well disposed to the sacralization of established roles.

In short, the disciples of all times «know» the Son and the Father; the world ignores and disowns them (v.21).

So «There is no greater servant than his Lord» (v.20).

Believers drink from the same Chalice [cup], proclaim the same truths: they cannot have a better fate.

The intensification of evil-against is inevitable.

«All these things shall they do against you because of my Name» (v.21).

Jesus lived amidst denunciations, contrasts, animosities, persecutions, and died as a punished and reduced to shame rebel.

This is the reality of the «Name».

What can be expected differently from the heirs of his Word, from the bearers of the same Appeal that led the Master to be destroyed by the official authorities?

Yet the simple people of the earth have never rejected Him.

And now more than ever it is necessary for the vital germ of that calm and dramatic testimony to continue.

[Saturday 5th wk. in Easter, May 24, 2025]

(Jn 15:18-21)

He who is a master of love, who liked to speak of love, speaks of hate. But he liked to call things by the proper name they have [Pope Francis].

Culture today reflects a 'tension', which sometimes takes the form of 'conflict', between the present and tradition. The dynamic of society absolutizes the present, detaching it from the cultural heritage of the past and without the intention of delineating a future [...] In fact, a people, which ceases to know what its own truth is, ends up lost in the labyrinths of time and history, lacking clearly defined values and without clearly stated great goals [Pope Benedict].

In the preceding section Jesus denotes the character of the love between Him and the disciples and the mutual love between believers. Now he introduces the contrast with the world: the opposite of love.

In Jn the term 'world' designates the structure of sin resulting from the union of religion power interest.

Tradition that is organised from ambitious individuals and entanglements; networks of amateurs, circumstantial tunes, cliques.

From the earliest times, the converse became conversely constitutive of sons! In this way, the configuration of the Kingdom was an alternative, a reversal.

Well-established and praised models did not distract the brethren of Faith. The new assemblies educated to gain security in the personal Vocation.

Their experience, even their mystical experience, had another distinction from the hosannas and leashed quietism of empire and religions.

In the Fourth Gospel the 'Church' [in Jn the specific term Εκκλησία is never used] is in watermark the opposite of the 'world'.

The worldly spirit of official religiosity already hated the friends that Christ had drawn "from" those polluted waters:

"If you were of the world [...] For you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (v.19).

The first experience of the Johannine communities in Asia Minor was persecution.

In episode after episode, the oppression suffered became normal for the believer, because that world there loved only 'its own': 'the world would love its own' (v.19 Greek text), that is, that and those in whom it recognises itself.

Instead, by their living Faith the friends of Christ remained 'intimate'; strangers to every apparatus.

In their choices and conduct, they reflected a unique convivial lifestyle - humanising far more than any normal, cowardly belief.

By their action derived from inner strength alone, they prefigured a germ of a non-conformist society. This compared with the ideology of power - and its having-appeared.

Thus the Lord's friends bore witness against "the sin of the world" (cf. Jn 1:29) just as the Lamb of God had done.

Though destined for defeat, the true believers operated eccentrically; never servile.

The detachment was with the official devout structures, always deferential, cowardly; well disposed to the sacralisation of established roles.

In short, the disciples of all times 'know' the Son and the Father; the world disowns them (v.21).

Thus "there is no greater servant than his Lord" (v.20).

The believer drinks from the same cup, proclaims the same truths: he cannot have a better fate.

The intensification of evil-doing is inevitable.

"All these things will they do against you because of my Name" (v.21).

Jesus lived amidst denunciations, contrasts, animosity, persecutions, and died as a rebel punished and shamed. This is the reality of the 'Name'.

What can one expect differently from the heirs of his Word, from the bearers of the same Appeal that led the Master to be destroyed by the official authorities?

Yet the simple of the earth have never rejected it.

And now more than ever it is necessary for the vital seed of that quiet and dramatic witness to continue.

John helps the communities of Asia Minor to understand their own identity and destiny as a mocker, without, however, stopping at the subject of persecution.

Our Way runs parallel to the Master's not only because it is disinterested in visible results and punctuated by wounds.

In the panorama of the various creeds according to worldly currents, it is to be taken into account that the proposal of Jesus creates divisions, antipathy; because it seems an absurdity compared to the ordinary path.

Not only is the witness of the Crucified not reducible to platitudes of lordship, turnabout and social theatre.

Evangelisers make a difference from the abbecedarian of 'spiritual' obviousness as a paradigm.

Precisely, the world does not know the Father (v.21): it loves and understands only what is its own (v.19).

It is impossible to grasp the idea that only those who risk understand God; that only depth, reciprocity and equal dignity make Him Present.

As for the specifics of the humanising proposal, in the Spirit:

It seems absurd that one can be "in the presence" of the Mystery not starting from perfection, but from Grace. Not from the optimal condition, but from the borderline situation. Not by the obligation that is fulfilled (and equal for all) but by the eccentric Calling by Name.

In the life of Communion with Heaven and our neighbour, we do not spring from upstream judgements, procedures, or already solid platforms, but from our accepted neediness.

Proposal that neither abolishes nor ignores what is divinising and human.

It is a bombshell, of course. For sole servants - and without reward.

Forget the [detestable] 'world' with its quietism on a leash: it likes to self-define what is e.g. 'respectable', 'justice', 'spirit', 'relaxation'... and even 'beauty'!

Emptiness - a kind of 'woke' situationism - that does not regenerate the deep nature of souls, nor the world.

To internalise and live the message:

Do you lock yourself into theatrics where the mask eclipses yourself?

Do you opt for the wide and familiar road?

Do you prefer paths of easy self-righteousness or the Way of Faith in the Crucified One, the Way of Love's snub and imbalance?

Today’s culture is in fact permeated by a “tension” which at times takes the form of a “conflict” between the present and tradition. The dynamic movement of society gives absolute value to the present, isolating it from the cultural legacy of the past, without attempting to trace a path for the future. This emphasis on the “present” as a source of inspiration for the meaning of life, both individual and social, nonetheless clashes with the powerful cultural tradition of the Portuguese people, deeply marked by the millenary influence of Christianity and by a sense of global responsibility. This came to the fore in the adventure of the Discoveries and in the missionary zeal which shared the gift of faith with other peoples. The Christian ideal of universality and fraternity inspired this common adventure, even though influences from the Enlightenment and laicism also made themselves felt. This tradition gave rise to what could be called a “wisdom”, that is to say, an understanding of life and history which included a corpus of ethical values and an “ideal” to be realized by Portugal, which has always sought to establish relations with the rest of the world.

The Church appears as the champion of a healthy and lofty tradition, whose rich contribution she sets at the service of society. Society continues to respect and appreciate her service to the common good but distances itself from that “wisdom” which is part of her legacy. This “conflict” between tradition and the present finds expression in the crisis of truth, yet only truth can provide direction and trace the path of a fulfilled existence both for individuals and for a people. Indeed, a people no longer conscious of its own truth ends up by being lost in the maze of time and history, deprived of clearly defined values and lacking great and clearly formulated goals. Dear friends, much still needs to be learned about the form in which the Church takes her place in the world, helping society to understand that the proclamation of truth is a service which she offers to society, and opening new horizons for the future, horizons of grandeur and dignity. The Church, in effect, has “a mission of truth to accomplish, in every time and circumstance, for a society that is attuned to man, to his dignity, to his vocation. […] Fidelity to man requires fidelity to the truth, which alone is the guarantee of freedom (cf. Jn 8:32) and of the possibility of integral human development. For this reason the Church searches for truth, proclaims it tirelessly and recognizes it wherever it is manifested. This mission of truth is something that the Church can never renounce” (Caritas in Veritate, 9). For a society made up mainly of Catholics, and whose culture has been profoundly marked by Christianity, the search for truth apart from Christ proves dramatic. For Christians, Truth is divine; it is the eternal “Logos” which found human expression in Jesus Christ, who could objectively state: “I am the truth” (Jn 14:6). The Church, in her adherence to the eternal character of truth, is in the process of learning how to live with respect for other “truths” and for the truth of others. Through this respect, open to dialogue, new doors can be opened to the transmission of truth.

“The Church – wrote Pope Paul VI – must enter into dialogue with the world in which she lives. The Church becomes word, she becomes message, she becomes dialogue” (Ecclesiam Suam, 67). Dialogue, without ambiguity and marked by respect for those taking part, is a priority in today’s world, and the Church does not intend to withdraw from it. A testimony to this is the Holy See’s presence in several international organizations, as for example her presence at the Council of Europe’s North-South Centre, established 20 years ago here in Lisbon, which is focused on intercultural dialogue with a view to promoting cooperation between Europe, the southern Mediterranean and Africa, and building a global citizenship based on human rights and civic responsibility, independent of ethnic origin or political allegiance, and respectful of religious beliefs. Given the reality of cultural diversity, people need not only to accept the existence of the culture of others, but also to aspire to be enriched by it and to offer to it whatever they possess that is good, true and beautiful.

Ours is a time which calls for the best of our efforts, prophetic courage and a renewed capacity to “point out new worlds to the world”, to use the words of your national poet (Luís de Camões, Os Lusíades, II, 45). You who are representatives of culture in all its forms, forgers of thought and opinion, “thanks to your talent, have the opportunity to speak to the heart of humanity, to touch individual and collective sensibilities, to call forth dreams and hopes, to broaden the horizons of knowledge and of human engagement. […] Do not be afraid to approach the first and last source of beauty, to enter into dialogue with believers, with those who, like yourselves, consider that they are pilgrims in this world and in history towards infinite Beauty!” (Address to Artists, 21 November 2009).

Precisely so as “to place the modern world in contact with the life-giving and perennial energies of the Gospel” (John XXIII, Apostolic Constitution Humanae Salutis, 3), the Second Vatican Council was convened. There the Church, on the basis of a renewed awareness of the Catholic tradition, took seriously and discerned, transformed and overcame the fundamental critiques that gave rise to the modern world, the Reformation and the Enlightenment. In this way the Church herself accepted and refashioned the best of the requirements of modernity by transcending them on the one hand, and on the other by avoiding their errors and dead ends. The Council laid the foundation for an authentic Catholic renewal and for a new civilization – “the civilization of love” – as an evangelical service to man and society.

Dear friends, the Church considers that her most important mission in today’s culture is to keep alive the search for truth, and consequently for God; to bring people to look beyond penultimate realities and to seek those that are ultimate. I invite you to deepen your knowledge of God as he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ for our complete fulfilment. Produce beautiful things, but above all make your lives places of beauty. May Our Lady of Belém intercede for you, she who has been venerated down through the centuries by navigators, and is venerated today by the navigators of Goodness, Truth and Beauty.

[Pope Benedict, meeting with the world of culture, Lisbon 12 May 2010]

37. The Church of the first millennium was born of the blood of the martyrs: "Sanguis martyrum - semen christianorum". The historical events linked to the figure of Constantine the Great could never have ensured the development of the Church as it occurred during the first millennium if it had not been for the seeds sown by the martyrs and the heritage of sanctity which marked the first Christian generations. At the end of the second millennium, the Church has once again become a Church of martyrs. The persecutions of believers —priests, Religious and laity—has caused a great sowing of martyrdom in different parts of the world. The witness to Christ borne even to the shedding of blood has become a common inheritance of Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants, as Pope Paul VI pointed out in his Homily for the Canonization of the Ugandan Martyrs.

This witness must not be forgotten. The Church of the first centuries, although facing considerable organizational difficulties, took care to write down in special martyrologies the witness of the martyrs. These martyrologies have been constantly updated through the centuries, and the register of the saints and the blessed bears the names not only of those who have shed their blood for Christ but also of teachers of the faith, missionaries, confessors, bishops, priests, virgins, married couples, widows and children.

In our own century the martyrs have returned, many of them nameless, "unknown soldiers" as it were of God's great cause.

[Tertio Millennio Adveniente]

Christians are persecuted today more than at the beginning of the history of Christianity. The root cause of all persecution is the hatred of the prince of the world towards those who have been saved and redeemed by Jesus through his death and resurrection. The only weapons to defend themselves are the word of God, humility and meekness.

Also this morning, Saturday 4 May, Pope Francis pointed out a way forward to learn how to untangle the pitfalls of the world. Insidies that, he explained in the homily of the Mass celebrated in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, are the work of the "devil", "prince of the world", "spirit of the world".

The Pope, commenting on the day's readings taken from the Acts of the Apostles (16:1-10) and the Gospel of John (15:18-21), focused his reflection on hatred "a strong word - he stressed - used by Jesus. Hatred indeed. He who is a master of love, who liked to speak of love so much, speaks of hate'. But "he," he explained, "liked to call things by the proper name they have. And he tells us 'Do not be afraid! The world will hate you. Know that before you he hated me'. And he also reminds us of what he may have said on another occasion to the disciples: 'remember the word that I have spoken to you: a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you'. The way of Christians is the way of Jesus'. To follow him there is no other. One of those marked by Jesus, the Holy Father pointed out, "is a consequence of the hatred of the world and also of the prince of this hatred in the world".

Jesus,' the Pontiff explained, 'chose us and "redeemed us. He has chosen us by pure grace. By his death and resurrection he redeemed us from the power of the world, from the power of the devil, from the power of the prince of this world. The origin of hatred is this: we are saved and that prince of the world, who does not want us to be saved, hates us and gives rise to the persecution that has continued from the early days of Jesus until today. So many Christian communities are persecuted in the world. In this time more than in the first times; eh! Today, now, in this day, in this hour. Why? But because the spirit of the world hates".

Usually persecution comes after a long, long road. "Let us think - Pope Francis suggested - of how the prince of the world wanted to deceive Jesus when he was in the desert: 'But be good! Are you hungry? Eat. You can do it'. He also invited him a little to vanity: 'Be good! You have come to save people. Save your time, go to the temple, throw yourself down and all the people will see this miracle and it is all over: you will have authority'. But let us consider this: Jesus never answered this prince with his words! Never. He was God. Never. He went, for the answer, to find the words of God and answered with the word of God'. A message for the man of today: "With the prince of this world you cannot converse. And let this be clear'. Dialogue is something else: 'it is necessary between us,' explained the bishop of Rome, 'it is necessary for peace. Dialogue is a habit, it is precisely an attitude that we must have among ourselves to hear each other, to understand each other. And it must always remain so. Dialogue comes from charity, from love. With that prince you cannot dialogue; you can only respond with the word of God that defends us'. The prince of the world, he reiterated, 'hates us. And as he did with Jesus he will do with us: 'But look, do this... it's a little scam... there's nothing to it... it's small' and so he starts to take us down a slightly unjust road. It starts with small things, then begins with flattery and with it "softens us up" until "we fall into the trap. Jesus told us: "I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be prudent, but simple'. But if we allow ourselves to be taken in by the spirit of vanity and think we can fight the wolves by making ourselves wolves, 'they will eat you alive'. Because if you stop being a sheep, you have no shepherd to defend you and you fall into the hands of these wolves. You might ask: "Father, but what is the weapon to defend oneself against these seductions, these fireworks that the prince of this world makes, against his flatteries?" The weapon is the same as Jesus': the word of God, and then humility and meekness. Let us think of Jesus when he was slapped: what humility, what meekness. He could have insulted and instead asked only a humble and meek question. Let us think of Jesus in his passion. The prophet says of him "like a sheep going to the slaughterhouse, he cries out nothing". Humility. Humility and meekness: these are the weapons that the prince of the world, the spirit of the world does not tolerate, because his proposals are of worldly power, proposals of vanity, proposals of riches. Humility and meekness does not tolerate them'. Jesus is meek and humble of heart and 'today,' he said as he drew to a conclusion, 'it makes us think of this hatred of the prince of the world against us, against the followers of Jesus'. And let us think about the weapons we have to defend ourselves: "let us always remain sheep, because then we will have a shepherd to defend us".

[Pope Francis, S. Marta homily, in L'Osservatore Romano 05/05/2013]

6th Easter Sunday (year C) [25 May 2025]

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us. We walk with swift steps towards the Ascension of the Lord and Pentecost.  Jesus' words prepare us to receive the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, Parakletos, an untranslatable Greek word. Five times it appears in the N.T. only in John and the possible meanings are: Defender/Advocate; Comforter; Intercessor/Mediator, Inner Teacher/Spirit of truth. 

*First Reading From the Acts of the Apostles (15:1-2.22-29)

The first Christian communities were faced from the very beginning with a serious crisis that poisoned their existence for a long time. Let me explain: in Antioch of Syria, there were Christians of Jewish origin and Christians of pagan origin, and their coexistence had become increasingly difficult because their lifestyles were too different. Christians of Jewish origin were circumcised and considered those of pagan origin as pagans, and in daily life itself, everything pitted them against each other because of all the Jewish practices to which Christians of pagan origin had no desire to submit: numerous rules of purification, ablutions and above all very strict rules regarding food.  Some Christians of Jewish origin came on purpose from Jerusalem to exacerbate the dispute, explaining that only Jews were admitted to Christian baptism and therefore invited pagans first to become Jews (including circumcision) and then Christians. Three fundamental questions: 1. Is it necessary to have the same ideas, the same rites, the same practices in order to experience unity? 2. The second question was that Christians of all origins wanted to be faithful to Jesus Christ, but concretely, what does this faithfulness consist of? If Jesus was Jewish and circumcised, does this mean that to become a Christian one must first become a Jew like him? Furthermore, is it to Israel that God entrusted the mission to be his witness in the midst of humanity, and therefore one must be part of Israel to enter the Christian community? The conclusion was that one had to be Jewish before becoming a Christian, and concretely it was accepted to baptise pagans on condition that they first had themselves circumcised. 3. Third question, even more serious: is salvation given by God unconditionally or not? If by not accepting circumcision according to the tradition of Moses one cannot be saved, it is like saying that God Himself cannot save non-Jews and we decide instead who can or cannot be saved.  The first council of Jerusalem was convened where there were three positions on the matter: Paul wanted total openness, Peter was rather hesitant, and it was James, bishop of Jerusalem, who came to an agreement with a double decision: 1. Christians of Jewish origin should not impose circumcision and Jewish practices on Christians of pagan origin; 2. on the other hand, Christians of pagan origin, out of respect for their brothers of Jewish origin, should refrain from anything that might disturb their common life, especially during meals. The argument that prevailed over everything was the overcoming of the logic of Israel's election, having entered a new stage of history: the prophet Joel had well said: "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Joel 3:5) and Jesus himself: "Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved" (Mark 16:16). Everyone means everyone, not just Jews and, even more concretely, being faithful to Jesus Christ does not necessarily mean reproducing a fixed model since faithfulness is not mere repetition. History shows that, through the vicissitudes of humanity, the Church always retains the ability to adapt in order to remain faithful to Christ. Finally, it is interesting to note that only the rules that allow fraternal communion to be maintained are imposed on the Christian community, and this is indicated from the outset as the best way to be truly faithful to Christ who said: "By this all will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for one another" (Jn 13:35).

*Responsorial Psalm (66 (67) 2-3,5,7-8)

The psalm takes us inside the Temple of Jerusalem while a great celebration is taking place and at the end the priests bless the assembly in a solemn way and the faithful respond: "Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you!" The psalm alternates between the priests' phrases, sometimes addressed to the assembly and sometimes to God, and the assembly's responses, which resemble refrains. The first phrase: "May God have mercy on us and bless us, may he make his face to shine upon us" takes up exactly the famous text from the book of Numbers that is the first reading on 1 January of each year, "The Lord spoke to Moses and said: 'Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them: Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them, 'May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine for you and give you grace. May the Lord turn his face to you and grant you peace.' So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them' (Nm 6:24-26). An ideal text for wishes and good wishes because a blessing is a wish for happiness. In fact, blessings are always formulated in the subjunctive: "may God bless you, may God keep you" and yet God knows how to do nothing but bless us, love us, fill us at every moment. So when the priest says 'may God bless you', it is not because God might not bless us, but to arouse our desire to enter into the blessing that, on his part, God continually offers us. It is the same when the priest says "May the Lord be with you": God is always with us and the subjunctive "be" expresses our freedom because we are not always with him; or "May God forgive you": God always forgives us but it is up to us to welcome the forgiveness and enter into the reconciliation that he proposes. Permanent are God's desires for our happiness as Jeremiah states: "For I know the plans I have made for you - the Lord's oracle - plans of peace and not of misfortune, to grant you a future full of hope" (Jer 29:11). God is Love and all his thoughts about us are nothing but desires for happiness. In this psalm, the response of the faithful is the refrain: 'Praise thee, O God, may all nations praise thee! A splendid lesson in universalism: the chosen people reflect the blessing they receive for themselves on the whole of humanity, while the last verse is a synthesis of these two aspects: 'May God bless us (we, his chosen people) And may all the ends of the earth fear him'. Israel does not forget its vocation/mission to the service of all mankind and knows that on its fidelity to the freely received blessing depends the discovery of God's love and blessing by all mankind.

*Second Reading from the Apocalypse of St John (21: 10-14.22-23)

In last Sunday's passage, John said he saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven, from near God, ready for the wedding, like a bride adorned for her bridegroom. This time he describes it at length, fascinated by its light so strong that it obscures the glare of the moon and even that of the sun: it resembles a precious jewel, a precious stone sparkling in the light. And he immediately explains the reason for such extraordinary brightness, repeating twice: 'shining with the glory of God', 'the glory of God illuminates it'. These two statements, one at the beginning and the other at the end of the text, with the literary procedure called 'inclusion' that serves to highlight the phrases between the beginning and the end, indicate what strikes John, that is, the glory of God illuminating the holy city that descends from near Him. An angel has transported him to a great and high mountain and is holding his hand as he shows him the city from afar. In his left hand the angel holds a golden rod that he will use to measure the size of the city. The city is square: the number four and the square are a symbol of what is human and indicate here that the city is built by human hand, illuminated by the glory and radiance of God's presence. Since the number three evokes God, it is not surprising that the description of the city abundantly uses a multiple of three and four: twelve, which is a way of saying that God's action is manifested in this human work. In St John's time, a city without walls was not conceived: and this one has them, indeed a wall as great and as high as the mountain, and we know that in the Bible, the mountain is the place of encounter with God. Twelve gates are opened in the wall, which, according to the following text, never close so that all may enter and no one must find a closed gate. The twelve gates, distributed on the four sides of the square, three to the East, three to the North, three to the South, three to the West, are guarded by twelve angels and on each is written the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The people of Israel have in fact been chosen by God to be the gate through which all mankind will enter the final Jerusalem.The wall rests on foundations on which the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb are written: as in architecture, there is continuity between the foundations and the walls, so here there is continuity between the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles, and this is a way of saying that the Church founded by Christ fully realises God's plan that unfolds throughout history. Upon entering, John is surprised because he is looking for the Temple, being the living sign that God did not abandon his people, but in the city "I saw no temple" yet he is not disappointed because now "the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb. are his temple". He continues: 'The city has no need of the light of the sun nor of the moon, for the glory of God illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb'. Bearing in mind that in the book of Genesis, from the very first day at creation, light appears: God said, "Let there be light!". And the light was', the statement in Revelation takes on its full weight: the old creation has passed: no more sun, no more moon because we are now in the new creation and God's presence radiates the world through Christ. Jerusalem retains its name and indicates that it is a city built by human hand, a way of saying that our efforts to collaborate in God's project are part of the new creation and human work will not be destroyed, but rather transformed by God. The Christians who were then the recipients of the Apocalypse, were the object of scorn and often persecuted, they needed these words of victory to sustain their faithfulness, and it is good for us too to hear that the heavenly Jerusalem begins with our humble efforts every day.

*From the Gospel according to John (14:23-29)

We relive Jesus' last moments immediately before the Passion: the hour is grave and we can sense the anguish of the apostles from the words of reassurance that Jesus addresses to them several times. At the beginning of this chapter he had said "Let not your heart be troubled" (v. 1). His long discourse was interrupted by several questions from the apostles that revealed their distress and incomprehension. Jesus, however, remains serene: throughout the Passion, John describes him as sovereignly free; indeed, it is he who reassures the disciples as he announces in advance what would happen because when it happens, they would believe. Not only does he know what will happen, but he accepts it and does not try to escape it. He announces his departure and presents it as a condition and beginning of a new presence: I am leaving, but I am coming back to you. This departure of his will only be interpreted after the resurrection as the Passover of Jesus.  John says in chapter 13: "Before the feast of Passover, knowing that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father": the evangelist deliberately uses the verb pass, because Passover means passage and with this, he wants to parallel Jesus' Passion with the liberation from Egypt, relived at every Jewish feast of Passover. If it is liberation, this departure must not throw the apostles into sadness: "If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I am going to the Father" (v.28). This is a surprising sentence for the disciples who see the Master now being pursued by the religious authorities, that is, by those who, in the name of God, were held to be the repositories of the truth about what concerns God, and it is they who are Jesus' greatest opponents. The prophets fought against every obstacle to maintain faith in the one God who is both God close to man and God totally Other, the Holy One. Jesus preaches a God who is close to man, especially the little ones, but declares God himself, which in the eyes of the Jews, is blasphemy, an offence against the one God, the Holy One. In this Sunday's text, Jesus insists on the bond that unites him to the Father, whom he names five times, going so far as to speak in the plural: "If anyone loves me...we will come to him, and we will dwell with him". It is not the first time he has said this: a little earlier, to Philip who asked him "Show us the Father", he replied calmly: "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9), while here he reiterates: "The word you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me". Jesus is the Envoy of the Father, the word of the Father, and from now on the Holy Spirit will make us understand this word and keep it in the memory of the disciples. The key to this text is probably precisely the word "word": it recurs several times and, from what precedes, we understand that this "word" to be guarded is the "commandment of love": love one another, that is, put yourselves at the service of one another and, to be clear, Jesus himself gave a concrete example by washing the disciples' feet. To be faithful to his word therefore simply means to put oneself at the service of others. And today's text: 'If anyone loves me, he will keep my word,' can be translated as follows: If anyone loves me, he will put himself at the service of his neighbour, and anyone who does not love me refuses to put himself at the service of others, so if anyone does not put himself at the service of others, he is not faithful to Christ's word. In this light, the role of the Holy Spirit is better understood: it is he who teaches us to love, reminding us of the commandment of love.  Jesus calls him Paraclete, Defender, because he protects and defends us from ourselves since the worst of evils is to forget that the essence of the gospel is to love one another and to serve one another. In today's first reading, we saw the Defender at work in the first community at the first Council of Jerusalem, where there were serious difficulties of coexistence between Christians of Jewish origin and those of pagan origin, and the Spirit of love inspired the disciples to maintain unity at all costs.

+Giovanni D'Ercole