Without mechanisms, nor obligations that do not concern us

(Mt 17:22-27)

Even the Jews dispersed in the Roman world paid an annual tax for the maintenance of the Temple, which in reality did not figure among the obligatory contributions provided for in the Torah (Ex 30,11-16).

Converts to the new Faith in Christ of Galilee and Syria wondered if they still had the obligation to continue paying the sum for the place of worship and the priestly class.

The amount due was accessible [equal to a couple of days' work].

Jesus expresses his opinion through an analogy.

Rome had granted the administration of Palestine to monarchs, princes and tetrarchs. Subjects were obliged to pay taxes, excluding Roman citizens.

The young Rabbi states: just as those who possessed the legal citizenship of Rome were exempt from the tributes imposed on the Jews by their rulers, so the sons [in the communities of Mt, Christians Jews] had to be exempt from the taxes relating to the Temple.

But it was perhaps appropriate to express an attitude of respect about a legal obligation.

From the tone and composition of the text, however, it seems that this criterion of loyalty to institutions has been grafted onto a previous saying of Jesus, concerning total freedom towards the Sanctuary.

He intended to replace it in vital terms: with his Person and that of his own intimates. By wiping out his artificial and external mannerisms.

With regard to the specific Christology of the passage, it is known: the Lord provides and "pays" for His friends (v.27).

In fact, the acronym for «fish» in Greek [«ichthys»: Iēsous Christos Theou Yios Sōtēr] has the meaning of Jesus Messiah Son of God the Savior. Symbol of the Faith.

In this way, the authentic commitment of the sons will be to manifest a Face of God absolutely different from that widespread in the mentality of the ancient and Mesopotamian East.

In fact, the Father doesn’t sit in a Cloud crossed by lightnings; He doesn’t crave the title of «Great» which recalls an idea of tremendous strength, terrifying power, disruptive speed.

No, this is not the ‘precedence’ of the divine man and of the Most High. He offers redemption and pays tribute for everyone.

Of course, Salvation is not an extrinsic mechanism, only vicarious. Redemption is Heart, not a “dress”.

The «Son of Man» does not take standard actions; he educates us: he sharpens our personal awareness, and that of our condition.

He does not do this out of paternalism, nor to cover us with moralistic accusations: he allows us to love, bypassing formalism in our relationship with the Father.

His Presence as a Lamb who offers all of himself - even his skin - challenges humanity and guides it to reflect on its reality, precarious even in the heart.

Conscience of incompleteness that can activate what matters: the path of Exodus, convinced, involving - starting from the Center of oneself, rather than from legal externalities.

Without fulfillments that do not concern us.

[Monday 19th wk. in O.T.  August 12, 2024]

The Lord Jesus entered the passion, he decisively embarked upon the road to the cross; he spoke openly to his disciples of what was to happen to him in Jerusalem, and the words of the Prophet Hosea echoed in his words: “The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days, he will rise” (Mk 9:31).

The Evangelist notes that the disciples “did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him” (v. 32). We too, in the face of death, cannot fail to experience the sentiments and thoughts dictated by our human condition. And we are always surprised and overcome by a God indeed, who draws so close to us that he does not even stop before the abyss of death, who rather passes through it, remaining in the tomb for two days. However, exactly here the mystery of the “third day” occurs. Christ takes on our mortal flesh completely that it may be invested with the glorious power of God, by the breath of the life-giving Spirit who transforms and regenerates it. This is the baptism of the passion (cf. Lk 12:50), which Jesus received for us and about which St Paul writes in the Letter to the Romans. The expression used by the Apostle — “baptized into his death” (Rom 6:3) — never ceases to surprise us, such is the precision with which he summarizes the breathtaking mystery. Christ’s death is the source of life, for into it God poured all of his love, as in an immense cascade, which makes us think of the image of Psalm 42[41]: “Deep calls to deep / at the thunder of your cataracts / all your waves and all your billows have gone over me” (v. 8). The abyss of death is filled by another abyss that is greater still, namely, the love of God, which is such that death no longer has power over Jesus Christ (cf. Rom 8:9), nor over those who are associated with him through faith and baptism: “If we have died with Christ”, says St Paul, “we believe that we shall also live with him” (Rom 6:8). This “living with Jesus” is the fulfilment of the hope prophesied by Hosea: “… and we will live in his presence” (6:2).

[Pope Benedict, homily 3 November 2011]

8. Redemption as a new creation

The Redeemer of the world! In him has been revealed in a new and more wonderful way the fundamental truth concerning creation to which the Book of Genesis gives witness when it repeats several times: "God saw that it was good"38. The good has its source in Wisdom and Love. In Jesus Christ the visible world which God created for man - the world that, when sin entered, "was subjected to futility" - recovers again its original link with the divine source of Wisdom and Love. Indeed, "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son". As this link was broken in the man Adam, so in the Man Christ it was reforged. Are we of the twentieth century not convinced of the over poweringly eloquent words of the Apostle of the Gentiles concerning the "creation (that) has been groaning in travail together until now" and "waits with eager longing for the revelation of the sons of God", the creation that "was subjected to futility"? Does not the previously unknown immense progress-which has taken place especially in the course of this century-in the field of man's dominion over the world itself reveal-to a previously unknown degree-that manifold subjection "to futility"? It is enough to recall certain phenomena, such as the threat of pollution of the natural environment in areas of rapid industrialization, or the armed conflicts continually breaking out over and over again, or the prospectives of self-destruction through the use of atomic, hydrogen, neutron and similar weapons, or the lack of respect for the life of the unborn. The world of the new age, the world of space flights, the world of the previously unattained conquests of science and technology-is it not also the world "groaning in travail" that "waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God"?

In its penetrating analysis of "the modern world", the Second Vatican Council reached that most important point of the visible world that is man, by penetrating like Christ the depth of human consciousness and by making contact with the inward mystery of man, which in Biblical and non-Biblical language is expressed by the word "heart". Christ, the Redeemer of the world, is the one who penetrated in a unique unrepeatable way into the mystery of man and entered his "heart". Rightly therefore does the Second Vatican Council teach: "The truth is that only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a type of him who was to come (Rom 5:14), Christ the Lord. Christ the new Adam, in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his most high calling". And the Council continues: "He who is the 'image of the invisible God' (Col 1:15), is himself the perfect man who has restored in the children of Adam that likeness to God which had been disfigured ever since the first sin. Human nature, by the very fact that is was assumed, not absorbed, in him, has been raised in us also to a dignity beyond compare. For, by his Incarnation, he, the son of God, in a certain way united himself with each man. He worked with human hands, he thought with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin", he, the Redeemer of man!

[Pope John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis]

"Triumphalism in the Church," the Pope continued, "stops the Church. Triumphalism in us Christians stops Christians. A triumphalist Church is a Church half way there'. A Church that is content to be "well settled, with all the offices, everything in place, everything beautiful, efficient", but that denies the martyrs would be "a Church that only thinks of triumphs, of successes; that does not have that rule of Jesus: the rule of triumph through failure. Human failure, the failure of the cross. And this is a temptation that we all have'.

And in this regard, the Pope recalled an episode from his own life: "Once, I was in a dark moment of my spiritual life, and I was asking for a grace from the Lord. I went to preach the exercises to the nuns and on the last day they went to confession. An old nun came to confession, over eighty years old, but with clear eyes, really bright. She was a woman of God. Then at the end I saw her so much a woman of God that I said to her: 'Sister, as a penance pray for me, because I need a grace, eh? If you ask the Lord, He will surely give it to me'. She paused for a moment, as if praying, and told me this: 'Sure, the Lord will give you the grace, but make no mistake: in His divine way'. This did me so much good: to feel that the Lord always gives us what we ask for but He does it with His divine way". This way, the Pope explained, "involves the cross. Not out of masochism, no: out of love, out of love to the end".

[Pope Francis, homily st Martha 29 May 2013;

https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/cotidie/2013/documents/papa-francesco-cotidie_20130529_trionfalismo-cristiano.pdf]

(Jn 6:41-51)

God does not attract with peremptory force or blackmail, but with invitation (v.44).

And sincere belief is activated by an initial testimony in oneself (v.44).

The Father does not let us become chronic. He acts within each one to reshape convictions, adhesions, projects.

Everything works in the direction of ourselves, not in an unnatural mode.

He acts present in each person in a way that is spontaneous and at the same time akin to individuating principles; more respectful of inclinations, real characteristics, energies.

This teaching (v.45) is internal: impersonated by Christ in the Word that does not distort anything - implicit in his Person and story.

Thus the gift of life is linked to assimilating and becoming One with that Food.

Bread that does not damage people, but convinces, supports, ferments and orients - in an unrepeatable way; each one by Name.

That “Manducated” kills conformity and extinction.

It possesses the virtue of reknitting the threads that distinguish the character of Person, the innate quality, vocational essence, propulsive capacity [Life of the Eternal].

The bread of the earth preserves life but does not update, does not ceaselessly regenerate us, nor does it open a way through death.

The Bread that reactualizes the ultimate gift of the Son, nourishes the existence of an indestructible quality that does not fade, because it is divine Gold of our spring being.

The prophets had announced that in the last times one would not know God by hearsay but by personal experience.

After the failure of the kings and the priestly class, women and men would be taught directly by the Lord.

The expression «Bread came down from Heaven» designates Jesus himself in relationship with the Father and [precisely] in his mission to bring Wisdom, and exuberant Life, to people.

Divine, limitless Life, which immediately pours into each one - so excluding the uncertainties or interpretations veiled by the shortcomings, by the “visual” defects of the mediators, which conversely would lead to collapse.

Presence that in the time of complexity also kindles in us the desire to be instructed by God-in-Person, guided by the inner Friend, and walked by regenerating insights, in his Spirit.

He inclines us to pay no heed to a nature that seeks and «murmurs» only for the banal "taste" of sustenance: «manna in the desert» (v.49); that is, interest, reputation, titles, trivialitiy of satisfactions.

«I am the Bread, the Living, the one who came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this Bread, he shall live the Life of the Eternal, and the bread that I shall give is my flesh for the full Life of the world» (v. 51).

The Spirit that internalises and actualises is the main Subject of even domestic, daily history of salvation. Making himself ours.

By evangelizing us and growing in Friendship [we «instructed by God» (v.45)] the nourishing action of the Master introduces our fermented flesh into the new Life.

The Son beside us changes our 'taste' and familiarises of Himself the same 'Nature'.

In this way, we, too, assimilated and identified with the Bread-Person made intimate, reveal Totality in act, living Eternity, the original Source.

To internalize and live the message:

How do you enter the gift of redemption through the Eucharist?

Have you ever felt "cut from the earth" because of your different Food from Heaven?

What were the opportunities to make the leap that perhaps you overlooked?

[19th  Sunday  in O.T.  B  (Jn 6:41-51)]

Also in domestic style

(Jn 6:41-51)

Jesus wants to turn the page. He does not intend to shore up the muddled, no longer vital.

He is faithful to the law of change of full Life, which ceaselessly seeks new arrangements - instead of stagnating in the situation.

This (at all times) while the religious authorities and the habitués wish to cling to the past, to what they know, to the ordinary sense of 'justice', to the morality of reference around...

In short, when it is time for Christ, everyone leaves. But the disagreement is already written.

God does not attract with peremptory force or blackmail, but with invitation (v.44).

And sincere belief is activated by a first testimony in oneself (v.44).

Because of his social condition as a small artisan [a landless man], the "murmuring" (vv.41.43) was obvious, and referred back to the same opposition expressed by God's people wandering in the desert.

Not only is the divine claim to be authentic Manna, but the very origin of Jesus is incomprehensible to a devoutly quiet, normalised mentality - one that allows itself to be carried away without enigma.

The contestation is unrestrained and radical; it prefers and traces what gives immediate security - not the original. But the Lord does not slacken, otherwise He would leave us to become chronic.

Having to seem, having to be, having to do, give no room for listening, for perception, for the change that awaits us: they paralyse.

The Father acts within each one to reshape convictions, adhesions, projects.

Everything works in the direction of ourselves, not in an unnatural way or of others - not even of Him.

He acts present in each person in the most spontaneous way.

In this way and together, akin to individuating principles; more respectful of inclinations, real characteristics, energies even of the period.

This teaching (v.45) is interior: impersonated by Christ in the Word that does not distort anything - implicit in his Person and vicissitude.

Thus the gift of life is linked to assimilating and becoming One with that Food. Food that does not distort the person, but rather convinces, sustains, ferments, and orients - unrepeatably, by Name.

That manducato Bread captures the taste of an emptiness from the exteriority at the bottom of which there is no annihilation: we are introduced into redemption, immersed in new life.

In conformity, life does not kill extinction. It does not possess the virtue of reknitting the threads that distinguish the character of Person, nor the innate quality, the vocational essence, the propulsive capacity [Life of the Eternal].

It is the implicit 'cultural', ritual and banal, uninspired, ungenuine, which does not become living - and does not guarantee fullness but rather habituation.

As for us, if we have grown accustomed to it.

The bread of the earth preserves life but does not update, does not regenerate us ceaselessly, nor does it open a way through death.

The Bread that re-actualises for us the ultimate gift of the Son, nourishes existence with an indestructible quality that does not fade, because it is the divine Gold of our being.

The prophets had announced: in the last times one would not know God by hearsay but by personal experience.

After the failure of kings and the priestly class, men would be taught directly by the Lord.

The expression 'Bread come down from Heaven' designates Jesus himself in relationship with the Father and [precisely] in his mission to bring Wisdom and exuberant Life to men.

Divine Life, without limits, which is poured out immediately, to each one. Without uncertainties or interpretations veiled by the faults of the 'mediators', which on the contrary would lead to collapse.

Presence that in the time of complexity also kindles in us the desire to be instructed by God-in-Person, guided by the inner Friend. Led by regenerating insights, in his Spirit.

He inclines us to pay no heed to a nature that seeks and "murmurs" only for the corrupt "taste" of sustenance: "manna in the wilderness" (v.49); that is, interest, reputation, titles, trivialities of satisfaction.

Rather, we find authentic Life in the gift of good intuition and inner Vision.

In the grace that enables us to welcome the Call.

In the virtue that remains in listening - through active fidelity to the Vocation, through self-denial and righteousness of intentions that appropriate the virtues and merits of Christ.

"I am the Bread the Living, the one descended from heaven. If anyone eats from this Bread he will live the Life of the Eternal, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the fullness of life in the world" (v.51).

The Spirit that internalises and actualises is the main subject of even the most summary, everyday history of salvation. Making himself ours.

By evangelising us and growing in Friendship ["instructed by God" (v.45)] the nourishing action of the Master introduces our fermented flesh into the new Life.

The Son beside us changes our 'taste' and familiarises of Himself the same 'Nature'.In this way, we too, assimilated and identified with the Bread-Person made intimate, reveal totality in action, living eternity, the original Source.

To internalise and live the message:

How do you enter into the gift of redemption through the Eucharist?

What 'contrary' morals around, the Bread of Life tries to transmit to you?

Have you ever felt 'cut off from the earth' because of your different Food from Heaven?

What were the opportunities to make the leap that you may have overlooked?

The Reading of the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel in the Liturgy of these Sundays has led us to reflect on the multiplication of the loaves, with which the Lord satisfied the hunger of a crowd of five thousand, and on the invitation Jesus addresses to all those whom he had feed to busy themselves seeking a food that endures to eternal life. Jesus wants to help them understand the profound meaning of the miracle he had worked: in miraculously satisfying their physical hunger; he prepares them to receive the news that he is the Bread which has come down from heaven (cf. Jn 6:41), which will satisfy hunger for ever. The Jewish people too, during their long journey through the desert, experienced bread which came down from heaven, manna, which kept them alive until they reached the Promised Land. Jesus now speaks of himself as the true Bread come down from heaven, which is capable of keeping people alive not for a moment or on a stretch of a journey but for ever. He is the food that gives eternal life, because he is the Only-Begotten Son of God who is in the Father’s heart, who came to give man life in fullness, to introduce man into the very life of God.

In Jewish thought it was clear that the true bread of heaven, which nourished Israel, was the Law, the word of God. The People of Israel clearly recognized that the Torah, which was Moses’ fundamental and lasting gift, was the basic element that distinguished them from other peoples and consisted in their knowledge of God’s will, thus the right way of life. Now Jesus, in manifesting himself as the bread of heaven, witnesses that he himself is the Word of God in Person, the Incarnate Word, through whom man can make the will of God his food (cf. Jn 4:34), which guides and sustains his existence.

Therefore to doubt in the divinity of Jesus, as do the Jews in today’s Gospel passage, means setting oneself against God’s work. Indeed, they say: he is the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know! (cf. Jn 6:42). They do not go beyond his earthly origins, and for this reason refuse to accept him as the Word of God made flesh. St Augustine, in his Commentary on John’s Gospel explains it in the following way: “These Jews were far from the bread of heaven, and knew not how to hunger after it. They had the jaws of their heart languid... This bread, indeed, requires the hunger of the inner man” (26, 1).

And we must ask ourselves if we really feel this hunger, the hunger for the Word of God, the hunger to know life’s true meaning. Only those who are drawn by God the Father, who listen to him and let themselves be instructed by him can believe in Jesus, meet him and nourish themselves with him and thereby find true life, the road of life, justice, truth and love. St Augustine adds: “the Lord.... said that he himself was the Bread that came down from heaven, exhorting us to believe in him. For to believe in him is to eat the living bread. He that believes eats; he is sated invisibly, because invisibly he is born again” to a deeper and truer life. He is reborn from within, from his intimate self he is made new (ibid.).

Invoking Mary Most Holy, let us ask her to guide us to the encounter with Jesus so that our friendship with him may be more and more intense; let us ask her to usher us into full communion of love with her Son, the living Bread come down from heaven, so as to be renewed by him in the depths of our being.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 12 August 2012]

1. World Mission Sunday, in this year dedicated to the Eucharist, helps us to better understand the "eucharistic" sense of our life as we relive the emotion of the Upper Room when, on the eve of his passion, Jesus offered himself to the world: "on the night he was betrayed, he took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said: This is my body that is for you. Do this in memory of me". (1 Cor 11,23-24).

In my recent Apostolic Letter Mane nobiscum Domine I invited you to contemplate Jesus in the "breaking of the bread" offered for the whole of humanity. Following his example we too are called to offer our life for our brothers and sisters, especially those most in need. The Eucharist bears the "mark of universality" and prefigures in a sacramental way the time when "all who share one human nature, regenerated in Christ through the Holy Spirit and beholding the glory of God, will be able to say with one accord: «Our Father»" (Ad Gentes 7). In this way, while the Eucharist helps us to understand more fully the significance of mission, it leads every individual believer, the missionary in particular, to be "bread, broken for the life of the world".

Humanity has need of Christ "broken bread"

2. In our day human society appears to be shrouded in dark shadows while it is shaken by tragic events and shattered by catastrophic natural disasters. Nevertheless, as "on the night he was betrayed" (1 Cor 11,23), also today Jesus "breaks the bread" (cfr Mt 26,26) for us in our Eucharistic celebrations and offers himself under the sacramental sign of his love for all mankind. This is why I underlined that "the Eucharist is not merely an expression of communion in the Church's life; it is also a project of solidarity for all of humanity" (Mane nobiscum Domine, 27); it is "bread from heaven" which gives eternal life (cfr Jn 6,33) and opens the human heart to a great hope.

Present in the Eucharist, the same Redeemer who saw the needy crowds and was filled with compassion "because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd" (Mt 9,36), continues through the centuries to show compassion for humanity poor and suffering.
And it is in his name that pastoral workers and missionaries travel unexplored paths to carry the "bread" of salvation to all. They are spurred on by the knowledge that, united with Christ "centre not just of the history of the Church, but also the history of humanity (cfr Ef. 1,10; Col 1, 15-20)" (Mane nobiscum Domine, 6), it is possible to meet the deepest longings of the human heart. Jesus alone can satisfy humanity’s hunger for love and thirst for justice; He alone makes it possible for every human person to share in eternal life: "I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever" (Jn 6,51).

The Church, one with Christ, becomes "broken bread"

3. When the ecclesial Community celebrates the Eucharist, especially on Sunday the Day of the Lord, it experiences in the light of the faith the value of the encounter with the Risen Christ and is ever more aware that the Sacrifice of the Eucharist is "for all" (Mt 26,28). We who nourish ourselves with the Body and Blood of the crucified and risen Lord, cannot keep this "gift" to ourselves; on the contrary we must share it. Passionate love for Christ leads to courageous proclamation of Christ; proclamation which, with martyrdom, becomes a supreme offering of love for God and for mankind. The Eucharist leads us to be generous evangelisers, actively committed to building a more just and fraternal world.
I sincerely hope the Year of the Eucharist will inspire every Christian community to respond with "fraternal solicitude to some of the many forms of poverty present in our world" (Mane nobiscum Domine 28), because "by our mutual love and, in particular, by our concern for those in need we will be recognised as true followers of Christ (cf. Jn 13:35; Mt 25:31-46). This will be the criterion by which the authenticity of our Eucharistic celebrations is judged." (Mane nobiscum Domine 28).

Missionaries, "bread broken" for the life of the world

4. Still today Christ urges his disciples: "Give them something to eat yourselves" (Mt 14,16). In his name missionaries all over the world proclaim and witness to the Gospel. Through their efforts there resound once again the words of the Redeemer: "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst" (Jn 6,35); they too become "bread broken" for their brothers, some even to the point of sacrificing their life.

How many missionary martyrs in our day! May their example draw numerous young men and women to tread the path of heroic fidelity to Christ! The Church has need of men and women willing to consecrate themselves wholly to the great cause of the Gospel.

World Mission Sunday is an opportune occasion to increase our awareness of the urgent necessity to participate in the evangelising mission undertaken by the local Communities and many Church organizations, in particular the Pontifical Mission Societies and the Missionary Institutes. This mission requires the support not only of prayer and sacrifice, but also of concrete material offerings. I take this opportunity to recall once again the valuable service rendered by the Pontifical Mission Societies and I ask you all to support them generously with spiritual and material cooperation.

May the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, help us relive the experience of the Upper Room so that our ecclesial Communities may become authentically "Catholic"; that is Communities where "missionary spirituality" which is "intimate communion with Christ" (Redemptoris missio, 88), is closely related to "eucharistic spirituality" of which the model is Mary, the "woman of the Eucharist" (Ecclesia de Eucharistia 53); Communities always open to the voice of the Sprit and to the needs of humanity, Communities where believers, missionaries in particular, do not hesitate to offer themselves as "bread, broken for the life of the world".

[Pope John Paul II, Message for World Mission Day 2005]

This Sunday, we continue the Reading of Chapter Six of the Gospel according to John, in which Jesus, after performing the great miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, explains to the people the meaning of that “sign” (Jn 6:41-51).

As he had done earlier with the Samaritan woman, starting from the experience of thirst and the sign of water, here Jesus begins from the experience of hunger and the sign of bread, to reveal himself and to offer an invitation to believe in him.

The people seek him, the people listen to him, because they are still enthusiastic about the miracle; they want to make him king! However, when Jesus affirms that he is the true bread given by God, many are shocked, they do not understand, and begin murmuring among themselves, saying: “Do we not know his father and mother? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” (cf. Jn 6:42). And they begin to murmur. Then Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him”, and he adds: “he who believes has eternal life” (vv. 44, 47).

This word of the Lord astonishes us, and makes us think. It introduces the dynamic of faith, which is a relationship: the relationship between the human person — all of us — and the Person of Jesus, where the Father plays a decisive role, and, of course, the Holy Spirit does too, which is implied here. To believe in Him, it is not enough to meet Jesus, it is not enough to read the Bible, the Gospel — this is important! But it is not enough. It is not even enough to witness a miracle, such as that of the multiplication of the loaves. So many people were in close contact with Jesus and they did not believe. In fact, they even despised and condemned him. And I ask myself: Why this? Were they not attracted by the Father? No, this happened because their hearts were closed to the action of God’s Spirit. If your heart is always closed, faith doesn’t enter! Instead God the Father draws us to Jesus: it is we who open or close our hearts. Instead, faith, which is like a seed deep in the heart, blossoms when we let the Father draw us to Jesus, and we “go to Him” with an open heart, without prejudices; then we recognize in his face the Face of God, and in his words the Word of God, because the Holy Spirit has made us enter into the relationship of love and of life between Jesus and God the Father. And there we receive a gift, the gift of the faith.

With this attitude of faith, we can also understand the meaning of the “Bread of Life” that Jesus gives us, and which he describes in this way: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” (Jn 6:51). In Jesus, in his “flesh” — that is, in his concrete humanity — is all the love of God, which is the Holy Spirit. Those who let themselves be drawn by this love go to Jesus and go with faith, and receive from Him life, eternal life.

The one who lived this experience in such an exemplary way was Mary, the Virgin of Nazareth: the first human person who believed in God by accepting the flesh of Jesus. Let us learn from her, our Mother, joy and gratitude through the gift of faith. A gift that is not “private”, a gift that is not private property but is a gift to be shared: it is a gift “for the life of the world”!

[Pope Francis, Angelus 9 August 2015]

Jn 12:24-26 (20-26)

«If the grain of wheat fallen to the ground does not die, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit» [Jn 12:24].

We ask ourselves: how is it possible in any situation to sprout precious things? How to become fruitful?

And the pleasure of living? Can we experience at least brief moments of eternity?

In advancing the spiritual journey, we discover that it’s not enough to be far from idols: we desire to take successive steps.

We want fullness and joy; do not be suffocated in tasks without enchantment, in mechanisms without lyrical step.

Is Christ really capable of providing our existence with a wing stroke,  exploding life - managing commitments differently, and wincing with happiness?

Or does he definitively dig us the grave, with his Hiding … which seems an option of death?

We would like to deepen, and maybe from simple admirers become Apostles - involved in the lively and growing secret of Jesus.

The best way to «see» the Lord [v.21b - that is, to understand and experience his Life-generating Face] seems to approach a natural process. And the image is taken from the agricultural world.

In order for wheat to sprout in a field, it’s necessary that the grains disappear into the earth.

Only from a transmutation can the prodigy of a process of new genesis blossom, and that birth that extends to the ‘hundred for one’.

The stakes are staggering: life does not develop starting from some (artificial) purpose but from the very ‘nature’ of the Seed that has a whole particular vitality inside.

To achieve what characterizes us, success or the ability to become "directors" of oneself has nothing to do with it. Indeed, perhaps it’s better to learn to wait, and act slowly, harboring the Sap that ‘comes’.

Nor can we manage with a substitute religious observance, which often [trying to put things right, instantly, outside] is transformed into a reservoir of intimate discomfort and neurosis.

Vocational growth in fullness of person and being, contrasts every opinion far from the Roots of essence and its metamorphoses.

Based on his own experience, Jesus means:

Life partner of the prophet who corresponds to his "absurd" Calling is loneliness, being in the corner, not being sought - and feeling treated as inadequate, dishonourable or failed (precisely by experts and people of rank).

It’s not expected that we can take care of this type of frank practice with ourselves, with God and men, taking shortcuts of cotton candy: we must meet our own and others "low floors".

The path of fatuous relationships - facade, often suffered and of overweight - will never correspond to us.

That’s right: we will go straight to the goal only by entering a new normality, and remaining focused on our authentic plot, where the Call of God lurks.

Here bitter situations will prove to be transitory.

And if in the meantime we have not let go because of some lack of recognition or belonging, history will find us somewhere else.

But let us continually beware of unevangelical spiritual proposals - precisely, lacking in re-Births.

The wise dimension of the «dying Grain» is not about voluntarism and self-control, which will disconcert us within, diminishing the sacred Oneness of soul and Vocation.

Manners discipline that takes as its 'model' the already established [and “how we should be”] will only baffle us; it will make us sick!

Excessive control, in fact, in every concrete circumstance will diminish our exceptional inclination of varied being, will bleed the personal Mystery, and the growing flowering of new Life.

Instead, the Lord wants us to be ready to re-create ourselves and regenerate the world - even in times of global crisis.

[St Lawrence,  August 10, 2024]