Generators from below

(Jn 14:21-26)

The Father's love unites us to Christ through a call that manifests itself wave by wave. And on that path the Son reveals himself.

«My commandments» [v.21: subjective genitive] is a theological expression designating the very Person of the Risen One in act.

A 'Person' unfolded in the history of mankind thanks to his mystical Body: the variegated People of God, whose versatility is an added value - not a limitation or contamination of purity.

Of course, Love is the only reality that cannot be "commanded".

But Jesus designates and advocates it as such to emphasise the departure from the Sinai Covenant, which it summarises but replaces.

The plural form «commandments» recognises the range of the various forms of exchange and personalisation of love.

No orientation, no doctrine, no code, can ever overcome it, or conversely make it swampy.

The Apostles, conditioned by the conventional religious mentality - all catwalks - question themselves about the attitude of Jesus, who is modest and not very inclined to show off (v.22).

They do not accept a Messiah who does not impose himself on everyone's attention, who does not astonish the world, who does not shout frenzied proclamations.

The Master prefers that in his Word we recognize an active correspondence with the desire for the integral life we carry within (vv.23-24).

Indeed, in said Appeal lurks a sympathy, an understanding, an arrow, an efficient and creative vigour, which becomes Fire and personal Presence solidity.

Starting from the inside, fleeble and ringing at the same time.

In ancient forensic culture, it was named «Paraclete» (v.26) an eminent person in the assembly - today we would say a lawyer - who without saying anything placed himself next, so justifying the accused.

This attribute of the Spirit alludes to an intensity, intimate grounding and reciprocity of silent relationship that becomes a Person, and knows where to go.

A Companion who approves; who leads the heart, the character, life itself, not to the pillory, but to the full flowering of ourselves.

Experience that takes place without earthquakes, thunders and lightnings - partial - but through the action of the Spirit that internalizes, accompanies, nourishes, updates and brings alive the interpretation of the Word (v.26).

The Message of the Gospels has a generative root that cannot be reduced to a one-sided and cumbersome experience, all codified and moralistic but empty as in sectarian situations [always struggling with themselves and the world].

Venturing into one's own Exodus, each one discovers hidden resources and an amplification of perspectives that dilate and complete one's being, broadening the experience of the vocational character that corresponds to her/him.

Between life on the road and the Word of God - a golden rule that gives self-confidence - an unpredictable, versatile, eclectic, non-one-way understanding is kindled, which transcends identity concatenations.

In its scope, the Recall remains identical, but over time expands awareness of its facets - precisely, integrating them.

Creator and creature [expressiveness rich and not already ratified ones] do not authentically externize themselves in a fixed, sanctioned manner, and with reference to a doctrine-discipline code, but in the surplus freedom of life.

A plausible reality in the Faith’s adventure, but one that would drive any outward religion crazy.

[Monday 5th wk. in Easter, May 19, 2025]

Generators from below

(Jn 14:21-26)

The Father's love unites us to Christ through a call that manifests itself wave after wave. And on that path the Son himself is revealed, also through genuine community life.

The Gospel passage reflects the question-and-answer catechesis typical of the Johannine communities of Asia Minor, committed to questioning: this time the theme of misunderstanding is introduced by Judas, not Iscariot.

Even the Jews had been waiting for an eloquent public outing to believe in the divine status of Jesus of Nazareth. Perhaps such an unassuming manifestation could only generate scepticism.

How is it that in Him one remains in the sphere of concealment, and His own intimates do not stir up reactions? Wouldn't an open and sensational twist be appropriate?

And why experience the difficulties from within? Then, why were relationships regarded as 'important' regarded with increasing aversion, extraneous, irritating?

Well, Christ's vulnerable messianism - seemingly defensive, avoidant - is not the kind to dispel doubts.

He remained bare. So he did not lose his own naturalness; as if he had perceived the danger of lofty aberrations, all external.

The authentic Messiah protected his identity, his human, spiritual, missionary character. In this way he avoided all the excessive glorious titles provided for in the theological culture of ancient Israel.

The life of Faith in us also continues invisibly: not surrounded by outward miracles and strong feelings; rather, innervated with convictions (recognised in themselves).

In the time of the new relationship with God and the brethren, the old concept of the Lord's Anointed One who observes and imposes the Law of the Chosen People (forcefully) on all nations has no relevance.

In whatever condition and latitude, God is always present and at work, starting from the core, to bring us back to the breath of being.

The Father, the Son, and believers, form in mutual acquaintance a wide-meshed circle of love, reciprocity and obedience, through free responses that are neither stereotypical nor paralysing.

Not parcelled out on details and casuistry, but centred on fundamental options.

"My commandments" [v.21: subjective genitive] is a theological expression designating the very Person of the Risen One in action.

'Person' unfolded in human history thanks to his mystical Body: the variegated People of God, whose versatility is an added value - not a limitation or contamination of purity.

Of course, Love is the only reality that cannot be 'commanded'.

But Jesus designates and advocates it as such to emphasise the departure from the Sinai Covenant, which it sums up and yet replaces.

The plural form "commandments" recognises the range of the various forms of exchange and personalisation of love.

No orientation, doctrine, code, can ever overcome it, or conversely make it swampy.

In the Gospels, love is spoken of not in terms of sentiment [an emotion subject to inflection, or one that adjusts itself to the perfections of the beloved] but as a real action, a gesture that makes the other feel free and adequate.

The People of God reflect Christ to the extent that they develop their destiny by living totally in gift, response, exchange, and overflowing in Gratuity.

All this in a way that is unprecedented for each person, for each micro- and macro-relational situation, age of life, characteristics, type of defect, or current cultural paradigm.

In short, the Lord does not like us to elevate ourselves by detaching ourselves from the earth and from our brothers and sisters: the honour due to the Father is that which we offer to his children.

So there is no need to rise by ways of ascetic observance ["ascending" as in upstairs: the lift is only descending].

It is He who reveals Himself, offering Himself to us: this is His joy.

He comes down from "heaven".

He manifests Himself in ourselves and within the folds of history, manifesting His desire to merge with our life (v.21) in order to increase it, complete it, and enhance its capacities [in qualitative terms].

The Apostles, conditioned by the conventional religious mentality - all catwalks - question Jesus' attitude, modest and little inclined to spectacle (v.22).

They do not accept a Messiah who does not impose himself on everyone's attention, who does not astonish the world, who does not shout wild proclamations.

The Master prefers that in his Word we recognise an active correspondence with the desire for integral life that we carry within (vv.23-24).

Such a Logos-event must be assumed in being, as a Call distinct from the commonplaces of the widespread, conformist thought of others.

Indeed, in said Call there lurks a sympathy, an understanding, an arrow, an efficient and creative vigour, which makes itself Fire and solidity of personal Presence, starting from within - at the same time faint and ringing.

In ancient forensic culture, 'Paraclete' (v.26) was said to be the eminent personage of the assembly - today we would say a kind of lawyer - who without saying anything stood beside to justify the accused.

[The latter could be guilty, but deserving of pardon; however, he needed a kind of public guarantor to guarantee his fate. That is, he could be innocent, but unable or incapable of finding witnesses in his favour to exonerate him...]

Such an attribute of the Spirit alludes to an intensity, intimate grounding and reciprocity of silent Relationship that becomes Person, and knows where to go.

Companion who approves; who leads heart, character, life itself, not to the pillory, but to the full flowering of ourselves.

Thanks to His support, we are not enchanted by lofty roles, strong words; formulas, impressions, tumultuous feelings: we enter into the demanding, fulfilled depths of Love.

We widen the field. We welcome a different guiding image, one that presses in and takes us by surprise, but subtly. It does not reproach or scold us.

It happens without earthquakes, thunders and thunderbolts - partial - but through the action of the Spirit that internalises, accompanies, nourishes, updates and brings alive the interpretation of the Word (v.26).

The Message of the Gospels has a generating root that cannot be reduced to a one-sided and cumbersome experience; all codified and moralistic but empty as in sectarian situations, always struggling with themselves and the world. 

Venturing into one's own Exodus, each one discovers hidden resources and an amplification of perspectives that dilate and complete one's being, broadening the experience of the vocational character that corresponds to it.

Between life on the road and the Word of God - the golden rule that instils self-esteem - an unpredictable, versatile, eclectic, non-one-way understanding is kindled, which transcends the concatenations of identity.

In its scope, the Recall remains identical, but over time expands awareness of its facets - indeed, integrating them.

Richly expressed and not already ratified, Creator and creature do not authentically externise themselves in a fixed, sanctioned manner, and in reference to a doctrine-discipline code, but in the surplus freedom of life.

Even today, as new needs and questions arise, there is an appropriate overabundance of new answers - at last also from the Magisterium.

Plausible in the adventure of Faith, but which would drive any external religion crazy.

To internalise and live the message:

Do you recognise the Work of the Spirit or reject it as a nuisance? What strikes you about the new Magisterium?

Do you find this approach in the Proclamation, Catechesis, Animation, Pastoral Care and in your own Way?

Here, it is Jesus himself who promises that he will ask the Father to send his Spirit, defined as "another Paraclete" (Jn 14: 16), a Greek word that is equivalent to the Latin "ad-vocatus", an advocate-defender. The first Paraclete is in fact the Incarnate Son who came to defend man from the accuser by antonomasia, who is Satan. At the moment when Christ, his mission fulfilled, returns to the Father, he sends the Spirit as Defender and Consoler to remain with believers for ever, dwelling within them. Thus, through the mediation of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, an intimate relationship of reciprocity is established between God the Father and the disciples: "I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you", Jesus says (Jn 14: 20). However, all this depends on one condition which Christ imposes clearly at the beginning: "If you love me" (Jn 14: 15), and which he repeats at the end: "He who obeys the commandments he has from me is the man who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father. I too will love him and reveal myself to him" (Jn 14: 21). Without love for Jesus, which is expressed in the observance of his commandments, the person is excluded from the Trinitarian movement and begins to withdraw into himself, losing the ability to receive and to communicate God.

[Pope Benedict, homily 27 April 2008]

2. Although not always conscious and clear, in the human heart there is a deep longing for God, which St Ignatius of Antioch eloquently expressed as follows: "A living water murmurs in me and says within me: 'Come to the Father!'" (Ad Rom. 7). "Lord, show me your glory", Moses pleads on the mountain (Ex 33:18).
After the Incarnation, there is a face of man in which it is possible to see God. Since then, a new relationship is possible between the Creator and the creature, that of the son with his Father.
By passing on to us the direct testimony of the life of the Son of God, the Gospel of John shows us the way to know the Father. The invocation 'Father' is the secret, the breath, the life of Jesus.
[Pope John Paul II, Message XIV WYD].

"If the encounter with God in all things is not an 'empirical eureka'," I say to the Pope, "and if it is therefore a journey that reads history, mistakes can also be made...".

"Yes, in this seeking and finding God in all things there always remains an area of uncertainty. There has to be. If a person says that he has met God with total certainty and is not touched by a margin of uncertainty, then it is not good. For me, this is an important key. If one has the answers to all the questions, then that is proof that God is not with him. It means that he is a false prophet, who uses religion for himself. The great leaders of God's people, like Moses, always left room for doubt. One must leave room for the Lord, not for our certainties; one must be humble. There is uncertainty in all true discernment that is open to the confirmation of spiritual consolation'.

"The risk in seeking and finding God in all things is therefore the desire to make things too explicit, to say with human certainty and arrogance: 'God is here'. We would only find a god to our measure. The correct attitude is the Augustinian one: seek God in order to find him, and find him in order to always seek him. And we often search by trial and error, as we read in the Bible. This is the experience of the great Fathers of the faith, who are our model. We must reread chapter 11 of the Letter to the Hebrews. Abraham set out without knowing where he was going, by faith. All our ancestors of faith died seeing the promised goods, but from afar.... Our life is not given to us as an opera booklet in which everything is written, but it is going, walking, doing, seeking, seeing... One must enter into the adventure of seeking the encounter and letting oneself be sought and encountered by God"[...]

"If the Christian is restorationist, legalist, if he wants everything clear and sure, then he finds nothing. Tradition and the memory of the past must help us to have the courage to open up new spaces to God. Those who today always seek disciplinary solutions, those who tend in an exaggerated manner towards doctrinal 'security', those who obstinately seek to recover the lost past, have a static and regressive vision. And in this way, faith becomes one ideology among many. I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in the life of every person. Even if a person's life has been a disaster, if he is destroyed by vices, drugs or whatever, God is in his life. One can and must seek Him in every human life. Even if a person's life is a soil full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space where good seed can grow. One must trust in God".

[Pope Francis, Interview by A. Spadaro, in L'Osservatore Romano 21/09/2013]

Turning page «Glory»

(Jn 13:31-35)

Judas is among the convitee, but he does not assimilate the Bread. He takes it, yes. But he does not makes it own at all.

He takes it and leaves, to run after his illusions of having and power. To pursue the occult pact, with the old spiritual guides.

Thus he «sinks into the night». Reminder for each of us.

Despite this, divine Glory manifests itself - even in the limit. It is Love without preconditions. Difference between relationship of Faith and code of devotions.

Paradoxical realisation. Source and Summit of the Core of Being. Unveiling and Manifestation of what God Himself is.

We are in the «Hour»: announced by the whole unfolding of the Fourth Gospel. Love that does not depend.

Invincible Love, which does not fail even as a result of our uncertainties and inflections, or our denials.

We who are supposed to be His Intimates. Friends and Brethren of the «Son of Man».

«Son of Man» already designates from the First Testament the character of a holiness that surpasses the ancient fiction of the rulers, who piled on top of each other reciting the same script.

The masses remained dry-mouthed: whichever ruler seized power, the petty crowd remained subdued and suffocated.

The same rule was in force in religions, whose leaders lavished the people with a strong horde impulse and the contentment of the gregarious.

In contrast, in the Kingdom of Jesus there must be a lack of ranks - which is why His proposal does not fit in with the ambitions of the authorities, and with the Apostles' own expectations.

They too wanted to “count”. 

But precisely «Son of Man» is the person according to a criterion of humanisation, not a beast that prevails because it is stronger than the others [cf. Dan 7].

Every man with a heart of flesh - not of wild, nor of stone - is an understanding person, capable of listening, always attentive to the needs of the other, who makes himself available.

All this alludes to the broad dimension of holiness; transmissible to anyone, and as creative as love, therefore all to be discovered! 

In the Gospels, the «Son of Man» is the true and full development of the divine plan on humanity.

Such a plan is not hindered by the frequenters of bad places.

It is not a proposal compromised with doctrine-and-discipline religion, which drives back eccentricities.

That of the «Son of Man» is the kind of holiness that makes us Unique, not one that always abhors or exorcises the danger of the unusual.

In short, Jesus entrusts his Testament to the disciples. Mutual union is the Lord's Last Will. With a radical novelty.

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

Yet the Son does not only allude to compatriots and proselytes of his own religion.

He breaks down barriers hitherto considered obvious.

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

From such a treasure chest-knowledge, a solid platform, arises the afflatus of being able to give life: but to increase it, make it full and cheer it up.

Starting not from external conditioning.

In fact, the commandment is «new» not only because it is edifying and stimulating; even unsurpassable, and capable of supplanting all norms.

Above all, because it reveals one's own Vocation.

It expresses a manifestative bond, which becomes foundation, growing motive and driving force; lucid energy, which gives us the ability to shift our gaze and turn the page.

It introduces a new age, a new realm. Not one-sided.

It is the figure of the victory of Easter, theophany and testimony of its authentic People: «not with measure» (Jn 3:31-36: 34).

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

«Glory» [irreducible] with special characteristics.

Now the morality of ancient philosophies no longer applies: ours is a vocational and paschal ethic, in the Spirit who renews the face of the earth.

Every purpose is illuminated by the victory of life over death. In this way, behaviour is configured to the Mystery.

We live in Christ, the new man: we are no longer under “proper” duties and prescriptions.

The baptismal attitude cannot be 'measured'.

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

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

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

Blooming is our complete 'pondus' and character and worth, which, however, germinate from the whole universe within, and from the different faces that belong to us; even from the 'shadow sides'.

Here is the blossoming of Messianic Peace-Presence; a sense of Friendship with the whole being and roots, with history and the sign of the times.

For the more human we are without duplicity, and the more capable we are of reading events, and the more sensitive we are in grasping the variegated powers - that Someone within something... the more the Heaven within us manifests itself.

This is the emblem of the New commandment, which marks difference. Integrating; making opposites coexist in us.

New Covenant; new harmony.

Making us Complete from within, like Jesus. Glory of the Father, and of humanity.

[5th Easter Sunday (year C), May 18, 2025]

Commandment Liberation. Cause Source

(Jn 13:31-35)

Judas is among the guests, but he does not partake of the Bread. He takes it, yes. But he does not take it at all.

He takes it and leaves, to run after his illusions of having and power. To pursue the occult pact, with the old spiritual guides.

Thus he 'sinks into the night'. Reminder for each of us.

Despite this, divine Glory manifests itself - even in the limit. It is Love without preconditions. Difference between relationship of Faith and code of devotions.

Paradoxical realisation. Source and Summit of the Core of Being. Unveiling and Manifestation of what God Himself is.

We are in the "Hour": announced by the whole unfolding of the Fourth Gospel. Love that does not depend.

Invincible Love, which does not fail even as a result of our uncertainties and inflections, or our denials.

We who are supposed to be His Intimates. Friends and Brothers of the "Son of Man".

"Son of Man" already designates from the First Testament the character of a holiness that surpasses the ancient fiction of the rulers, who piled on top of each other reciting the same script.

The masses remained dry-mouthed: whatever ruler seized power, the petty crowd remained subdued and suffocated.

The same rule was in force in religions, whose leaders lavished the people with a strong horde impulse and the contentment of the gregarious.

In contrast, in the Kingdom of Jesus there must be a lack of ranks - which is why his proposal does not fit in with the ambitions of the authorities, and with the Apostles' own expectations.

They too wanted to 'count'. 

But precisely 'Son of Man' is the person according to a criterion of humanisation, not a beast that prevails because it is stronger than the others [cf. Dan 7].

Every man with a heart of flesh - not of beast, nor of stone - is an understanding person, capable of listening, always attentive to the needs of the other, who makes himself available.

All this alludes to the broad dimension of holiness; transmissible to anyone, and as creative as love, therefore all to be discovered! 

In the Gospels, the "Son of Man" is the true and full development of the divine plan on humanity.

Such a plan is not hindered by the frequenters of bad places.

It is not a proposal compromised with doctrine-and-discipline religion, which drives back eccentricities.

That of the 'Son of Man' is the kind of holiness that makes us unique, not one that always abhors or exorcises the danger of the unusual.

In short, Jesus entrusts his Testament to the disciples. Mutual union is the Lord's Last Will. With a radical novelty.

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

Yet the Son does not only allude to compatriots and proselytes of his own religion.

He breaks down barriers hitherto considered obvious.

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

From such a treasure chest-knowledge, a solid platform, arises the afflatus of being able to give life: but to increase it, make it full and cheer it up.

Starting not from external conditioning.

In fact, the commandment is 'new' not only because it is edifying and stimulating; even unsurpassable, and capable of supplanting all norms.

Above all, because it reveals one's own Vocation.

It expresses a manifestative bond, which becomes foundation, growing motive and driving force; lucid energy, which gives us the ability to shift our gaze and turn the page.

It introduces a new age, a new realm. Not one-sided.

It is the figure of the victory of Easter, theophany and testimony of its authentic People: "not with measure" (John 3:31-36: 34).

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

"Glory" [irreducible] with special characteristics.

Now the morality of ancient philosophies no longer applies: ours is a vocational and paschal ethic, in the Spirit who renews the face of the earth.

Every purpose is illuminated by the victory of life over death. In this way, behaviour is configured to the Mystery.

We live in Christ, the new man: we are no longer under 'proper' duties and prescriptions.

The baptismal attitude cannot be 'measured'.

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

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

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

It is to flourish our complete 'pondus' and character and worth, which, however, germinate from the whole universe within, and from the different faces that belong to us; even from the 'shadow sides'.

Here is the blossoming of Messianic Peace-Presence; a sense of Friendship with the whole being and roots, with history and the sign of the times.

For the more human we are without duplicity, and the more capable we are of reading events, and the more sensitive we are in grasping the variegated powers - that Someone within something... the more the Heaven within us manifests itself.

This is the emblem of the New Commandment, which marks difference. Integrating; making opposites coexist in us.

New Covenant; new harmony.

Making us complete from within, like Jesus. Glory of the Father, and of humanity.

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

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

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

Yet the great novelty is in the fundamental motivation.

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

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

In fact, the commandment is 'new' not only because it is edifying and stimulating, but first and foremost because it reveals one's vocation.

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

It is the figure of the victory of Easter, theophany and testimony of its authentic people: "not with measure" (Jn 3:31-36: 34).

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

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

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

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

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

Every purpose is illuminated by the victory of life over death. In this way, behaviour is configured to the Mystery.

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

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

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

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

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

Only if we are placed on the same wave of beauty and fascination as the 'Son of Man' do we contribute to not letting it fade or exclude it: the more we are human without duplicity, the more Heaven that is in us manifests itself.

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

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

This is the New Commandment, which marks difference.

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

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

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

Yet the great novelty is in the fundamental motivation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In this way, behaviour is configured to the Mystery.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He does not pretend to suffocate and exhaust us.

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

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

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

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

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

"Son of man" indicates Jesus who manifests the Father, the man who makes manifest the divine condition.

The Person who in his human fullness reflects the wholesome design of the Origins - possibility for all reborn in Christ.

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

It sets boundaries.

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

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

If the Free does not supplant merit, no one grows stronger; on the contrary, all - even the energetic - shrink. Condemned to an external cloak of norms and doctrines, or of disembodied abstractions and sophistications.That is why the 'Son of Man' - the genuine and full development of the divine plan for mankind - is not hindered by public sinners, but by those who suppose of themselves and would have the ministry of making it known!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is the 'new' commandment.

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

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

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

And pyramidal.

To deepen the evangelical theme of Glory:

Give your life and quickly betray

(Jn 13:21-33.36-38)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is often disturbances that improve judgement.

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

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

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

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

Nothing is crippling.

There is only one toxic, chronic sphere of death, which annihilates everything and has no active germs in it: that which obscures and detests primary change.There the horizon narrows and all that remains is a chasm - or the blandness that infects to make us give up, and relentlessly retreat, deny and regress again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Completed from within, like Jesus.

To internalise and live the message:

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

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

Glory to one another: the Seed within and the entourage without

The Greatest Witness

(Jn 5:31-47)

"Christians are a priestly people for the world. Christians should make the living God visible to the world, bear witness to Him and lead it to Him".

"Jesus loved men in the Father, from the Father - and so loved them in their true being, in their reality."

[Pope Benedict].

Jesus does not love catwalks. The Son remains immersed in the Father: he does not receive support and glory from fashionable men or ancient perimeters, because he is not imbued with normal human cultural religious expectations.

They prevent the perception of what we do not know, therefore they conceal the exceptional nature of the particular name; they drench the head and the gaze with current and pedestrian normality, which condition, dissociate, plagiarise, make external.

Predictable expectations delay the germination of the Kingdom of God and its alternative character - in the living experience of further exchanges; of other interpersonal qualities, in the completeness of being that belongs to us.

The specific weight of this unprecedented present and future, which corresponds because it is part of our intimate essence, otherwise remains in the hands of obvious opinions and the usual cheap dragging, which does not expose.

The pathology of reputation, of accredited convictions and the concordant praxis on the side, precludes winging it. But every short and rigid hope rejects God for God's sake.

Only that which is not petrified and conventional bears witness to Christ the Lord, the likeness of the Father who does not reject our eccentricities: he wants to make them grow - recovering their flourishing opposites.

The same 'no moments' that crumble prestige are also a spring to activate us and not stagnate in the same old situations; regenerating, moving forward elsewhere.

Failures that put fame in the balance serve to make us realise what we had not noticed, thus deviating from a conformist destiny.

In short, our Heaven is intertwined with our transmuting flesh, our earth and our dust: it lies within and below, not behind the clouds or in the manners.

In the paradoxical deification of the coming God, the all-worldly mentality of every purist or conformist circle experiences a reversal. Cipher of the great Wisdom of nature.

This is how Master Lü Hui-ch'ing comments on a famous passage from the Tao Tê Ching (LXXVI): "Heaven is on high for ch'ì, Earth is on low for form: ch'ì is soft and weak, form is hard and strong".

The trial-religious aspect to which the story of Jesus [even his intimates] was subjected often appears in John.

The aspirations of the pious men of old are strangely hinged on the need to make a body and recognise one another. Hence always 'those from before'.

Their world, centred on the honour one receives: the theme is Glory - which, however, becomes a dialogue between the deaf. 'Doxa' in the Greek world means manifestation of prestige, honour, esteem.

In Hebrew, the term Glory [Kabôd] means specific, qualitative weight (and manifestation) of the transcendent.

Thus the glory that man gives to God - so to speak - is the opposite of the Hellenist criterion: the principle and evaluation typical of the strutting, 'free', independent and self-confident hero [because of the prestige around].Conversely, here is 'glory' as humble and grateful recognition, but weighty in the Christian sense: familiar and humanising.

The woman and man called to a particular mission discover in themselves and in reality the conditions of perfection and imperfection.

They guide us to innate fulfilment - not volatile - and the common good, according to specific, personal contribution.

No one is called to artificial prestige and strength, adding something to the honour of what is already in one's vocational essence - sometimes in paradoxical completeness, for a conviviality of differences.

The Glory of Jesus himself was only the awareness and confession of being the Father's Envoy.

That is all we are entitled to - even in the sense of growth, of importance in itself, more than 'those who realise'.

The devout groups unfortunately not infrequently moved to a level of worldly aspirations - just with a strange mixture of criteria.

So they ended up appreciating each other in circles, patting each other on the back.

Thus - content to be confirmed - they still tend to accentuate the characteristics of what is normally identified as the spiritual dimension, and that easily becomes tainted with the compromise of the artificial external look.

Instead, the inner balance of the Called by Name is re-established through dreams and the congenital character - rather than through weighing and the raw influences of conscious life, which distract and level the soul.

In fact, on such a slope, one tends to adopt attitudes that do not fit the very original vocation; on the contrary, they expose the consciousness to dissociations and conditionings that distort it.

The Way in the Spirit of Freedom, Love, Newness, is inspired by a dimension of Mystery and spontaneity all to be discovered: Exodus.

Such a character proceeds beyond compartments, denominations filled with established solutions, with conformist thinking hooked on an unambiguous way of reading the Scriptures and testimonies.

Cages, even 'spiritual' ones, guilt every different, inculcate brooding, curb the most fruitful eccentricities.

In order to ensure 'ecclesial' compactness, the various stigmas everywhere play on the inadequacy of the majority interpretation - and guilt typical of the particular 'container'.

Such framings do not reawaken creativity, rather they anaesthetise it according to internal clichés: where precisely they take "glory from one another" (v.44).

Frames do not teach one to launch oneself personally and at the right time.

The rhythm, too, does not descend on dissimilar inclinations, on their atypicality - a unique richness that prepares the unrepeatable and extravagant New that we do not already know.

Instruction booklets harass us with other people's progressions and goals to reach, all of which turn out to be yet to be surpassed - and outside our own taste and intimate sense; projected into the future, impersonal.

The 'spiritual' path of the pack reflects the life, judgement or idea of the leader and his 'magic' circle; the forma mentis of a generation or a class.

In this way, established trajectories do not announce changes and authentic encounters, which take place in the propulsive, transversal simplicity of the concrete unpredictable. 

Stubborn models do not make us aware of a God Person: He calls to life through impulses that would be new blood for transmutation.

The Eternal One communicates Himself in what He speaks within.

Precisely in the needs - not obsessing energies known only to the soul, of conflicts over useless duties, which neither solve anything nor transmit happiness.

The 'egocentric' religious ideology and all directed thought brand crises as inadequacies to collective purposeful action - thus condemning instincts.

But instincts manifest themselves as escapes of the individual heart that seeks new listening, desires to surface and realise; it wants to integrate in its own way, or to chart paths that prepare for the future.

Not infrequently, the evocation of the usual delimited rituals - e.g. of 'charisma' - as well as the concatenation of normative constitutions, deaden the character in a levelled atmosphere, which drinks of recollected attunements.

They are not our land.

The barnyard of the 'system' operates according to directives and roles.

But compartments limit the range of action, although they seemingly dilute it.

Trivial inclusions 'teach' us to be content with half-steps already chiselled into the little and not over the top.

This is so as not to allow for the regenerations that count.

The self-referential clan often takes away space from any possibility that moves from there.

This makes one dependent on applause. It slows down, when conversely we could dare.... 

Lest we continue to perceive healthy restlessness. Differences that would redeem us from subordination.

In fact, the one-sided imprint does not respect nature, so it reinforces what it says it wants to banish.

A disaster for a life of meaning and witness in Christ.The Lord had as his only daily worship - precisely - the emptiness of social support (which did not accept his deviations) and the fullness of beginnings in the Father.

"But I have a greater witness than John, for the works that the Father has given me to do, the very works that I do, testify of me that the Father has sent me" (John 5:36).

To internalise and live the message:

How do you safeguard community living and your transpositions of Faith in Christ?

What is the point of homologation in satisfaction, and where do you place your Preciousness?

We are in the Easter Season which is the time of Jesus' glorification. The Gospel we have just heard reminds us that this glorification is brought about in the Passion. In the Paschal Mystery, passion and glorification are closely bound together and form an indissoluble unity. When Judas leaves the Upper Room to carry out his scheme of betrayal that will lead to the Master's death, Jesus says: "now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified" (Jn 13: 31): the glorification of Jesus begins at that very moment. The Evangelist John makes it quite clear: he does not in fact say that Jesus was glorified only after his Passion, through his Resurrection; rather he shows that precisely with the Passion his glorification began. In it Jesus manifests his glory, which is the glory of love, which gives itself totally. He loved the Father, doing his will to the very end, with a perfect gift of self; he loved humanity, giving his life for us. Thus he was already glorified in his Passion and God was glorified in him. But the Passion as a very real and profound expression of his love is only a beginning. This is why Jesus says that his glorification is also to come (cf. ibid., 13: 32). Then, when he announces his departure from this world (cf. ibid., 13: 33), the Lord gives his disciples a new commandment, as it were a testament, so that they might continue his presence among them in a new way: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another" (Jn 13: 34). If we love each other, Jesus will continue to be present in our midst, to be glorified in this world. 

Jesus speaks of a "new commandment". But what is new about it? In the Old Testament, God had already given the commandment of love; but this commandment has become new now because Jesus makes a very important addition to it: "As I have loved you, that you also love one another". What is new is precisely this "loving as Jesus loved". All our loving is preceded by his love and refers to this love, it fits into this love and is achieved precisely through this love. The Old Testament did not present any model of love; it only formulated the precept of love. Instead, Jesus gave himself to us as a model and source of love a boundless, universal love that could transform all negative circumstances and all obstacles into opportunities to progress in love. And in this City's Saints we see the fulfilment of this love, always from the source of Jesus' love.

[Pope Benedict, homily Turin 2 May 2010]

1. Jesus' filial union with the Father is expressed in the perfect love of which he also made the main commandment of the Gospel: 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first of the commandments" (Matthew 22: 37 f). As we know, to this commandment Jesus adds a second one "similar to the first", that of love of neighbour (cf. Mt 22:39). And of this love he sets himself as an example: "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you" (Jn 13:34). He teaches and delivers to his followers a love modelled on his own.

The gifts of charity listed by St Paul can truly be applied to this love: 'Charity is patient, . . . kind, . . . is not envious, is not boastful, is not puffed up, . . . does not seek its own interest, . . . takes no account of evil received, . . . rejoices in the truth, . . . It covers all things, . . . endures all things" (1 Cor 13:4-7). When, in his letter, the Apostle presented his recipients in Corinth with such an image of evangelical charity, he was certainly pervaded in mind and heart by the thought of Christ's love, towards which he wished to direct the life of the Christian communities, so that his hymn of charity can be considered a commentary on the precept of loving one another after the model of Christ's love (as Saint Catherine of Siena would say many centuries later): "(This is how) I have loved you" (Jn 13:34).

St Paul emphasises in other texts that the culmination of this love is the sacrifice of the cross: "Christ loved you and gave himself up for us, offering himself as a sacrifice to God. . . "Make yourselves therefore imitators of God . . . walk in charity' (Eph 5:1-2).

It is now instructive, constructive and consoling for us to consider these properties of Christ's love.

2. The love, with which Jesus loved us, is humble and has the character of service. "For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk 10:45). On the eve of the passion, before the institution of the Eucharist, Jesus washes the feet of the apostles and says to them: "I have given you an example, that as I have done, you also should do" (Jn 13:15). And on another occasion he admonishes them: "Whoever wants to be great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you shall be servant of all" (Mk 10:43-44).

3. In the light of this model of humble readiness that reaches the ultimate "service" of the cross, Jesus can invite the disciples: "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart" (Mt 11:29).

The love taught by Christ is expressed in mutual service, which leads to sacrificing oneself for one another, and whose ultimate test is to offer one's life "for the brethren" (1 John 3:16). This is what St Paul emphasises when he writes that "Christ loved the Church and gave himself for her (Eph 5:25).

4. Another endowment extolled in the Pauline hymn to charity is that true love "does not seek its own interest" (1 Cor 13:5): and we know that Jesus left us the most perfect model of such selfless love. St Paul makes this clear in another passage: "Let each one of us seek to please his neighbour in good works, to edify him. For Christ did not seek to please himself . . ." (Rom 15:2-3). In the love of Jesus, the evangelical "radicalism" of the eight beatitudes he proclaimed is realised and reaches its climax: Christ's heroism will always be the model for the heroic virtues of the saints.

5. Indeed, we know that the evangelist John, when he presents Jesus to us on the threshold of his passion, writes of him that ". . . having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end" (Jn 13:1). That 'to the end' seems to testify here to the definitive - and unsurpassable - character of Christ's love. "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" (Jn 15:13), says Jesus himself in the discourse reported by his beloved disciple.

The evangelist himself wrote in his letter: "By this we have come to know love: he laid down his life for us". And he would add: we too must lay down our lives for our brothers (1 John 3: 16). Christ's love, which was manifested definitively in the sacrifice of the cross - that is, in "laying down one's life for one's brethren" - is the definitive model for all authentic love. - is the definitive model for all authentic human love. If it in not a few followers of the Crucified One reaches the form of heroic sacrifice, as we often see in the history of Christian holiness, this measure of the Master's "imitation" is explained by the power of Christ's Spirit, which he obtained and "sent" by the Father also for the disciples (cf. Jn 15:26).

6. The sacrifice of Christ has become the "price" and the "reward" for the liberation of man: the liberation from "slavery to sin" (cf. Rom 6:6-17), the passage to the "freedom of the children of God" (cf. Rom 8:21). With this sacrifice, derived from his love for us, Jesus Christ completed his salvific mission. The proclamation of the whole New Testament finds its most concise expression in that passage from the Gospel of Mark: "The Son of Man . . . did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk 10:45).

This word 'ransom' fostered the formation of the concept and expression 'redemption' (Greek: [Greek term] = ransom, [Greek term] = redemption). This central truth of the new covenant constitutes at the same time the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophetic announcement concerning the servant of the Lord: "He was pierced for our sins . . ., by his wounds we were healed" (Is 53:5); "He bore the sins of many (Is 53:12). It can be said that redemption was the expectation of the whole old covenant.

7. Thus, "having loved to the end" (cf. Jn 13:1) those whom the Father "gave him" (Jn 17:6), Christ offered his life on the cross as a "sacrifice for sins" (in the words of Isaiah). The awareness of this task, of this supreme mission, was always present in Jesus' thinking and will. His words about the "good shepherd" who "lays down his life for the sheep" (Jn 10:11) tell us so. And that mysterious but transparent aspiration of his: "There is a baptism that I must receive; and how anxious I am, until it is accomplished!" (Lk 12:50). And that supreme declaration over the cup of wine at the Last Supper: "This is my blood of the covenant, shed for many, for the remission of sins" (Mt 26:28).

8. Apostolic preaching from the beginning inculcates the truth that "Christ died - according to the Scriptures - for our sins" (1 Cor 15:3).

Paul resolutely told the Corinthians: "Thus we preach and thus you have believed" (1 Cor 15:11). He preached the same to the elders in Ephesus: ". . The Holy Spirit has set you as bishops to shepherd the Church of God, which he purchased with his blood" (Acts 20:28). And Paul's preaching is fully consonant with Peter's voice: "Christ died once for all for sins, righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you back to God" (1 Pet 3:18).

Paul repeats the same concept, namely that in Christ "we have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins according to the riches of his grace" (Eph 1:7).

Because of the systematic nature and continuity of this teaching, the Apostle resolutely proclaims: "We preach Christ crucified, scandal to the Jews, foolishness to the Gentiles" (1 Cor 1:23). "For what is foolishness of God is wiser than men, and what is weakness of God is stronger than men" (1 Cor 1:25). The Apostle is aware of the "contradiction" revealed by the cross of Christ. Why then is this cross the supreme power and wisdom of God? The answer is only one: because love was manifested in the cross: "God demonstrates his love for us because, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8); "Christ loved you and gave himself up for you" (Eph 5:2). Paul's words echo those of Christ himself: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life" (Jn 15:13) for the sins of the world.

9. The truth about Christ's redeeming sacrifice of love is part of the doctrine contained in the letter to the Hebrews. Christ is shown there as the "high priest of future goods", who "entered once for all into the sanctuary . . . with his own blood, having obtained for us eternal redemption" (Heb 9:11-12). For he did not only present that ritual sacrifice of the blood of animals, which in the old covenant was offered in the sanctuary 'made by human hands': he offered himself, transforming his own violent death into a means of communion with God. In this way, through the "things he suffered" (Heb 5:8), Christ became "the cause of eternal salvation for all who obey him" (Heb 5:9). This sacrifice alone has the power to "cleanse our conscience from dead works" (cf. Heb 9:14). It alone "makes perfect for ever those who are sanctified" (cf. Heb 10:14). In this sacrifice, in which Christ, "with an eternal Spirit offered himself . . . to God" (Heb 9:14), his love found definitive expression: the love with which he "loved to the end" (Jn 13:1); the love that he commanded to become obedient "unto death and death on a cross" (Phil 2:8).

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 31 August 1988]

Today’s Gospel takes us to the Upper Room to have us listen to some of the words that Jesus addressed to the disciples in the “farewell discourse” before his Passion. After washing the feet of the twelve [Apostles], he says to them: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (Jn 13:34). But in what sense does Jesus call this commandment “new”? Because we know that already in the Old Testament, God had ordered members of his people to love their neighbour as themselves (cf. Lev 19:18). To those who asked him which was the greatest commandment of the Law, Jesus himself would reply that the first was to love God with all your heart and the second, to love your neighbour as yourself (cf. Mt 22:38-39).

What then, is the novelty of this commandment that Jesus entrusts to his disciples? Why does he call it a “new commandment”? The old commandment of love became new because it was made complete with this addition: “as I have loved you”, “love one another as I have loved you”. The novelty lies wholly in Jesus Christ’s love, with which he gave his life for us. It is God’s universal love, without any conditions or limits, which reaches its culmination on the cross. In that moment of extreme abasement, and in that moment of abandonment to the Father, the Son of God showed and gave to the world the fullness of love. Thinking back to Christ’s passion and agony, the disciples understood the meaning of his words: “As I have loved you, so you too must love one another”.

Jesus loved us first. He loved us despite our frailties, our limitations and our human weaknesses. It was he who ensured we become worthy of his boundless and never-ending love. By giving us this new commandment, he asks us to love one another, not only and not so much with our love, but with his, which the Holy Spirit instills in our hearts if we invoke him with faith. In this way — and only in this way — can we love one another not only as we love ourselves but as he loved us, that is, infinitely more. Indeed, God loves us much more than we love ourselves. And thus, we can spread everywhere the seed of love that renews relationships between people and opens horizons of hope. Jesus always opens horizons of hope. His love opens horizons of hope. This love makes us become new men, brothers and sisters in the Lord, and makes us the new People of God, that is the Church, in which everyone is called to love Christ and to love one another in him.

The love that was manifested in Christ’s Cross and that he calls us to live is the only force that transforms our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh; the only force capable of transforming our heart is Jesus’ love, if we too love with this love. And this love makes us capable of loving our enemies and forgiving those who have offended us. I will ask you a question; each of you can respond in your heart. Am I capable of loving my enemies? We all have people — whether ‘enemies’ I do not know — but who do not get along with us, who are on “the other side”; or some have people who have hurt them.... Am I capable of loving those people, that man, that woman who hurt me, who offended me? Am I capable of forgiving them? Each of you can respond in your heart. Jesus’ love shows us the other as a present or future member of the community of Jesus’ friends. It spurs us to dialogue and helps us to listen to one another and to mutually get to know each other. Love opens up toward the other, becoming the foundation of human relationships. It renders us capable of overcoming the barriers of our own weaknesses and prejudices. Jesus’ love within us creates bridges, teaches new paths, triggers the dynamism of fraternity. With her maternal intercession, may the Virgin Mary help us to receive from her son Jesus the gift of his commandment, and from the Holy Spirit, the strength to put it into practice in everyday life.

[Pope Francis, Regina Coeli 19 May 2019]