Pointing downwards, from service to Communion

Jn 13:16-20 (.21-38)

An "envoy" is no more than the one who sends him (v.16). The new CEI translation specifies that Jesus does not elect Twelve Apostles as if they were leaders and phenomena destined to have fabulous positions.

His own are quite ordinary people, sent to proclaim; they are not leaders endowed with office, but with a humble task: to be themselves and wash the feet of others. This is their stuff.

The ministerial Church is not that of characters with titles and roles, but of authentic service, not of manner: humble and non-conformist.

We can only become a continuation of the Mystery that envelops the Person of Christ if we are aware that we are not dual photocopies, nor 'more' than others - let alone the Master.

In I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed) Manzoni recounts that the Marquis successor to Don Rodrigo ['good man, not an original'] serves the guests at Renzo and Lucia's wedding table.

But then he withdraws to dine aloof with don Abbondio: "he had as much humility as it took to put himself below those good people, but not to be their equal".

This was the way it used to be done: social etiquette dictated it.

Style a la mode, thanks to which, in order to be liked, one accepted to adapt to (extemporary) gestures of begging and benevolence, among very good people - obviously safeguarding the prominence of positions.

But aligning ourselves with the models does not get us out of the usual cages; on the contrary, it hides us in the illusion of a change that is not actually taking place. This is because the bogus order remains, despite the altruism of appearances - put on for the sake of circumstantial goodness.

The portent to which we are called and sent is not to make room for convenient sentiments.

The real 'figure' is to move from our external summit to the level of others and to stand shoulder to shoulder with them, to give everyone the emotion of feeling adequate.

From service to Communion: a unique climate [not always 'according to etiquette' but authentically our own and dreaming] of intimate power that develops blossoms, triggering impossible recoveries.

From here one rereads history.

Yet everyone wonders with what energies to implement it, if at times we ourselves feel incomplete, uncertain in operating; not up to the mark.

In the context of the washing of the feet, Jesus reminds us that the disciple should have no illusions: he will not have as a dowry a splendid career, worldly recognition, or less persecution from the Master.

According to an ancient mentality, to mistreat an ambassador or messenger was to offend those he represented; to accept him was to recognise his honour.

Here we come to the root of the unveiling mission: accepting the envoy honours Christ, and in him God himself (v.20).

The apostles are 'sent' in this sense, like the Son by the Father. Within this flow they become a revealing light, fully, without closure.

In short, one of the ways of washing one another's feet (v.14) is precisely to come and feel properly 'sent' - representing Jesus and God Himself, who pass through us.

It is the way of bliss (v.17) - that of the living Lord. The core of the outgoing Church: adding the essential dimension to beautiful and practical teachings.

Such is the plausible and lovable path, evangelising our Roots. Journey that does not ask for "resilience" in relationships, only to the "inferiors" of the world.

Salvation in the divine dimension, which assumes value. Redemption operated from within the conscience, which finds esteem and face, and free ferment that opens hope, orienting.

In action, the profound being of the Friend who has the freedom to descend is expressed.

He reveals himself to be a promoter of the unfortunate, not a subtle prevaricator.

In making each exodus, our vocational trait carries within it a precious treasure chest, the awareness of the intimate Source of the apostolate, and its precious concatenation that transforms the past into the future.

The resulting sense of completeness and radical significance is effective. 

It is so for those who discover, encounter, feel alive, their missionary Source - and witness to it.

By simply and naturally expressing oneself, without forcing or artificiality - it is at the same time for the brothers to be recognised.

In short, the service of the ministerial community is not in the dimension of servitude, but of a flow of primal energies, of cloth; wave upon genuine wave.

In all this, development after development, we re-actualise the epiphany of the Logos in Christ. In the today of being people [shaky yet convinced, tenacious] bound by a fraternal figure of weight.

"I Am" of Ex 3:14 becomes - without effort - the communal and welcoming People of servants filled with self-given dignity.

The eternal element of the Word is preserved and developed by his envoys and by the ministerial, 'apostolic' church: both in its original and founding character, and in its connection to the history of each person.To internalise and live the message:

What does it mean for you to move from serving to communion? Do you consider it an annoying excess?

Is it enough for you to make others feel good at times, as a protagonist and in a complacent way, or do you strive to make them feel adequate?

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, then redeeming the selfish motivations, and transfiguring the dark and frictional sides into collimating energies elsewhere.

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 strewn 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 despoiled - 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 alongside 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, in paradoxical outcomes mean to you?

To love is to create: Glory turning the page

Commandment Liberation. Cause Source

(Jn 13:31-35)

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 the 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.

do not be afraid to swim against the tide in order to meet Jesus, to direct your attention upwards to meet his gaze. The “logo” of my Pastoral Visit portrays the scene of Mark delivering the Gospel to Peter, taken from a mosaic in this basilica. Today, symbolically, I come to redeliver the Gospel to you, the spiritual children of St Mark, in order to strengthen you in the faith and encourage you in the face of the challenges of the present time. Move ahead with confidence on the path of the new evangelization, in loving service to the poor and with courageous testimony in the various social realities. Be aware that you bear a message meant for every man and for the whole man; a message of faith, of hope and of love [...].

Dear friends, the mission of the Church bears fruit because Christ is truly present among us in a quite special way in the Holy Eucharist. His is a dynamic presence which grasps us in order to make us his, to liken us to him. Christ draws us to himself, he brings us out of ourselves to make us all one with him. In this way he also inserts us into the community of brothers and sisters: communion with the Lord is always also communion with others. 

For this reason our spiritual life depends essentially on the Eucharist. Without it, faith and hope are extinguished, love cools.

[Pope Benedict, Assembly for the Closing of the Pastoral Visit Venice 8 May 2011]

5. Together with all Christ's disciples, the Catholic Church bases upon God's plan her ecumenical commitment to gather all Christians into unity. Indeed, "the Church is not a reality closed in on herself. Rather, she is permanently open to missionary and ecumenical endeavour, for she is sent to the world to announce and witness, to make present and spread the mystery of communion which is essential to her, and to gather all people and all things into Christ, so as to be for all an 'inseparable sacrament of unity' ".

Already in the Old Testament, the Prophet Ezekiel, referring to the situation of God's People at that time, and using the simple sign of two broken sticks which are first divided and then joined together, expressed the divine will to "gather from all sides" the members of his scattered people. "I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I the Lord sanctify Israel" (cf. 37:16-28). The Gospel of John, for its part, considering the situation of the People of God at the time it was written, sees in Jesus' death the reason for the unity of God's children: "Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad" (11:51-52). Indeed, as the Letter to the Ephesians explains, Jesus "broke down the dividing wall of hostility ... through the Cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end"; in place of what was divided he brought about unity (cf. 2:14-16).

6. The unity of all divided humanity is the will of God. For this reason he sent his Son, so that by dying and rising for us he might bestow on us the Spirit of love. On the eve of his sacrifice on the Cross, Jesus himself prayed to the Father for his disciples and for all those who believe in him, that theymight be one, a living communion. This is the basis not only of the duty, but also of the responsibility before God and his plan, which falls to those who through Baptism become members of the Body of Christ, a Body in which the fullness of reconciliation and communion must be made present. How is it possible to remain divided, if we have been "buried" through Baptism in the Lord's death, in the very act by which God, through the death of his Son, has broken down the walls of division? Division "openly contradicts the will of Christ, provides a stumbling block to the world, and inflicts damage on the most holy cause of proclaiming the Good News to every creature". 

[Ut Unum sint]

The Christian does not walk alone: he is embedded in a people, in a secular history and is called to put himself at the service of others. 'Memory' and 'service' are the key words of Pope Francis' reflection during the Mass celebrated at Santa Marta on Thursday 30 April. History - and therefore the memory one has of it - and service are, the Pontiff said, the "two traits of the Christian's identity" on which "today's liturgy" makes us reflect.

The reference is given by the passage from the Acts of the Apostles (13:13-25) in which we read that Paul, on arriving in Antioch, "as he usually did, went on the Sabbath to the synagogue" and there "was invited to speak". This was, in fact, "a custom of the Jews of that time" when a guest arrived. Having taken the floor, Paul 'began to preach Jesus Christ'. But, the Pope stressed, 'he did not say: "I preach Jesus Christ, the Saviour; he came from Heaven; God sent him; he saved us all and gave us this revelation. No, no, no'. To explain who Jesus is, the apostle "begins to tell the whole story of the people. We then read in Scripture: "Paul stood up and beckoned with his hand and said, 'Listen, the God of this people of Israel chose our fathers...'". And, starting with Abraham, Paul "tells the whole story".

It is not a random choice. In his reflection, Francis pointed out how the same thing was done by 'Peter in his speeches, after Pentecost', and also 'Stephen, before the Sanhedrin'. They, that is, "did not announce a Jesus without history", but "Jesus in the history of the people, a people that God has been making walk for centuries to arrive at this maturity, at the fullness of time, as Paul says". From this account we understand that "when this people arrives at the fullness of time, the Saviour comes, and the people continues to walk because this Saviour will return".

Here, then, the Pope reiterated, is one of the traits of Christian identity: 'it is to be a man and woman of history, to understand that history does not begin with me and ends with me'. Everything began, in fact, when the Lord entered history.

To comfort this, the Pontiff recalled the "very beautiful" psalm recited at the beginning of the Mass: "When you advanced Lord with your people and when you opened the way for them and dwelt with them - I remember that God walked with his people - the earth trembled, the heavens shouted. Admirable'. So 'the Christian is a man and woman of history, because he or she does not belong to himself or herself, he or she is part of a people, a walking people'. Hence the impossibility of thinking of 'a Christian egoism'. In other words, there is no perfect Christian, 'a laboratory spiritual man or woman', but always a spiritual man or woman inserted 'in a people, which has a long history and continues to walk until the Lord returns'.

Looking precisely at this concrete story that has unfolded over the centuries and continues to this day, the Pontiff added that if we assume "to be men and women of history", we also realise that this is "a story of God's grace, because God advanced with his people, opened the way, lived with them". But it is also 'history of sin'. And the Pope recalled: 'How many sinners, how many crimes...'. Also in the passage from the Acts of the Apostles, for example, 'Paul mentions King David, who was holy', but who 'before becoming holy was a great sinner'. And this, he emphasised, is true 'also today' when everyone's 'personal history' must take on 'their sin and the grace of the Lord who is with us'. For God accompanies us in sin 'to forgive', accompanies us 'in grace'.

It is therefore a very concrete reality that spans the centuries, the one recalled by Francis in his homily: "We," he said, "are not rootless", we have "deep roots" that we must never forget and that go from "our father Abraham to today".

Understanding, however, that we are not alone, that we are closely linked to a people that has been walking for centuries, also means understanding another characteristic trait of the Christian and that is "what Jesus teaches us in the Gospel: service". In the passage from John proposed by the liturgy on Thursday of the fourth week of Easter, "Jesus washes the disciples' feet. And after he had washed their feet, he said to them, 'Truly, truly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a sent one greater than he who sent him. Knowing these things, you are blessed if you put them into practice. I have done this with you, you do the same with others. I have come to you as a servant, you must make yourselves servants of one another, serve''.

It is clear, the Pontiff pointed out, that 'Christian identity is service, not selfishness'. Someone, he said, might retort: 'But Father, we are all selfish', but this 'is a sin, it is a habit from which we must detach ourselves'; we must then 'ask for forgiveness, may the Lord convert us'. Being a Christian, in fact, 'is not an appearance or even a social conduct, it is not a bit of making up one's soul, so that it may be a bit more beautiful'. To be a Christian, the Pope said decisively, "is to do what Jesus did: to serve. He came not to be served, but to serve'.

Hence some of the Pontiff's suggestions for the daily life of each of us. First of all, "think about these two things: do I have a sense of history? Do I feel part of a people walking from afar?". Useful might be 'to take the Bible, the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 26, and read it'. Here, he said, one encounters "the memory, the memory of the righteous" and "how the Lord wants us to be 'mindful'", that is, to remember "the path our people walked". It is also good for us to think: "in my heart, what more do I do? Do I let others serve me, do I serve others, the community, the parish, my family, my friends, or do I serve, am I in service'?

"Memory and service", then, are the two attitudes of the Christian, those with which one also participates in the Eucharistic celebration "which is precisely memory of the service that Jesus did; real memory, with Him, of the service He rendered us: giving His life for us."

[Pope Francis, S. Marta homily in L'Osservatore Romano 01/05/2015]

(Jn 15:9-17)

Jesus has just used the image of the 'vineyard' to configure the character of the new people and the 'circulation of life' with those who believe in Him. 

The allegory of the vine and the branches is now translated into existential terms.

The propagation of divine dynamism in us initiates a current and communication of love. Movement of authentic love: which Comes.

It is an uninterrupted Flow of resemblances of the divine condition.

Transparent Syntony with generative value, brought by the Son: «as» and «for the reason that» [I have loved you] (v.12 Greek text).

The Lord does not ask to “be loved” [from ourselves, we would not be trustworthy], but to 'receive' God's way - the Gift that descends from the Father and from Him.

The Joy that springs forth from this will not be one of euphoria or exaltation: it is the fruit of an awareness that combines the divine proposal of 'non-possessive resemblance' with our capacity to make space within.

And in that gap, meeting our deepest sides - not detaching ourselves from the Core, to become external.

Abiding in the Father-Son circulation of love, we are enveloped by a personal Happiness.

It intuits the meaning and uniqueness of our 'seed' and effortlessly changes the way we see life, suffering, relationships, and Joy.

«Greater love hath no man than this, that one lay down his life for his friends» (v.13).

Difference between religiosity and Faith? Friendship, which is stronger than both cerebral alchemy and voluntarism.

The Friend shares intentions, cultivates communion of life.

The «servant» (v.15) remains untrustworthy and resentful, because he is a mere executor of others' orders - which do not concern the irreducible hidden 'roots', the Source from which the heart draws and which belongs to him (v.16).

So the trustworthy Friend is glad not only when he fulfils himself, but also when he can expand and brighten the life of his beloved. He willingly ousts himself from the first seat in favour of the beloved.

Jn does not speak of love of enemies as Mt 5 does in the Sermon on the Mount, but insists on mutual love [inner community of believers] as a relationship with the divine life itself.

Here we see a particular concern for individuals and the climate between friends of Faith, who must first themselves overthrow positions of privilege - and embody the spirit of selflessness and truth that they preach to others.

In this way, the Lord does not ask us for “fruits” [multiple external works, often tinged with exhibitionism] but for 'one' single work: Love without duplicity, qualms, forcing, dissociation.

In the unique and unprecedented personalisation of the «Fruit» (v.16), Christ does not remain a Model to be imitated, but a real Life that continues in us.

Unique tiger in the engine; inviting and accommodating within the mystery of the founding Eros, which dilates the I into the Thou:

In Friendship, in the opposing feelings that surface, in the growing unity of thought and aspiration; in the people everyone approaches, in the communion of desire and circumstance... the wills unite.

In such divine-human Empathy [more persuasive than voluntarism] the codes of conduct, or the extrinsic, conditioned project, to which they (first) bow, now weave a dialogue; finally they make team - by Name.

Here is the kindling and pouring out of Communion, on a high ground of understanding; without concealed conflicts. With a broad mind, which overcomes the obsession of discomforts and comparisons.

With amniotic mind, capable of giving birth to novelty without servitude.

In short, in the Ideal as in the Dream we prefer Friendship.

And we walk the Way of Faith in the Crucified One - that of the authentic and happy «Fruit»: of the 'snub and imbalance of love'.

[St Matthias, May 14]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

“Non iam dicam servos, sed amicos” - “I no longer call you servants, but friends” (cf. Jn 15:15).

Sixty years on from the day of my priestly ordination, I hear once again deep within me these words of Jesus that were addressed to us new priests at the end of the ordination ceremony by the Archbishop, Cardinal Faulhaber, in his slightly frail yet firm voice. According to the liturgical practice of that time, these words conferred on the newly-ordained priests the authority to forgive sins. “No longer servants, but friends”: at that moment I knew deep down that these words were no mere formality, nor were they simply a quotation from Scripture. I knew that, at that moment, the Lord himself was speaking to me in a very personal way. In baptism and confirmation he had already drawn us close to him, he had already received us into God’s family. But what was taking place now was something greater still. He calls me his friend. He welcomes me into the circle of those he had spoken to in the Upper Room, into the circle of those whom he knows in a very special way, and who thereby come to know him in a very special way. He grants me the almost frightening faculty to do what only he, the Son of God, can legitimately say and do: I forgive you your sins. He wants me – with his authority – to be able to speak, in his name (“I” forgive), words that are not merely words, but an action, changing something at the deepest level of being. I know that behind these words lies his suffering for us and on account of us. I know that forgiveness comes at a price: in his Passion he went deep down into the sordid darkness of our sins. He went down into the night of our guilt, for only thus can it be transformed. And by giving me authority to forgive sins, he lets me look down into the abyss of man, into the immensity of his suffering for us men, and this enables me to sense the immensity of his love. He confides in me: “No longer servants, but friends”. He entrusts to me the words of consecration in the Eucharist. He trusts me to proclaim his word, to explain it aright and to bring it to the people of today. He entrusts himself to me. “You are no longer servants, but friends”: these words bring great inner joy, but at the same time, they are so awe-inspiring that one can feel daunted as the decades go by amid so many experiences of one’s own frailty and his inexhaustible goodness.

“No longer servants, but friends”: this saying contains within itself the entire programme of a priestly life. What is friendship? Idem velle, idem nolle – wanting the same things, rejecting the same things: this was how it was expressed in antiquity. Friendship is a communion of thinking and willing. The Lord says the same thing to us most insistently: “I know my own and my own know me” (Jn 10:14). The Shepherd calls his own by name (cf. Jn 10:3). He knows me by name. I am not just some nameless being in the infinity of the universe. He knows me personally. Do I know him? The friendship that he bestows upon me can only mean that I too try to know him better; that in the Scriptures, in the Sacraments, in prayer, in the communion of saints, in the people who come to me, sent by him, I try to come to know the Lord himself more and more. Friendship is not just about knowing someone, it is above all a communion of the will. It means that my will grows into ever greater conformity with his will. For his will is not something external and foreign to me, something to which I more or less willingly submit or else refuse to submit. No, in friendship, my will grows together with his will, and his will becomes mine: this is how I become truly myself. Over and above communion of thinking and willing, the Lord mentions a third, new element: he gives his life for us (cf. Jn 15:13; 10:15). Lord, help me to come to know you more and more. Help me to be ever more at one with your will. Help me to live my life not for myself, but in union with you to live it for others. Help me to become ever more your friend.

Jesus’ words on friendship should be seen in the context of the discourse on the vine. The Lord associates the image of the vine with a commission to the disciples: “I appointed you that you should go out and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide” (Jn 15:16). The first commission to the disciples, to his friends, is that of setting out – appointed to go out -, stepping outside oneself and towards others. Here we hear an echo of the words of the risen Lord to his disciples at the end of Matthew’s Gospel: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations ...” (cf. Mt 28:19f.) The Lord challenges us to move beyond the boundaries of our own world and to bring the Gospel to the world of others, so that it pervades everything and hence the world is opened up for God’s kingdom. We are reminded that even God stepped outside himself, he set his glory aside in order to seek us, in order to bring us his light and his love. We want to follow the God who sets out in this way, we want to move beyond the inertia of self-centredness, so that he himself can enter our world.

[Pope Benedict, homily 29 June 2011]

1 "As I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love" (Jn 15:10).

The Acts of the Apostles remind us today of the choice of the Apostle Matthias appointed to fill the post left vacant following the betrayal and death of Judas. The Church celebrates Saint Matthias, included in the group of the Twelve with this election, shortly after the departure of Christ Jesus. This is a very significant event. Following the tradition of the old covenant, in which God bound Himself to the twelve tribes of Israel, Christ called twelve apostles. After the ascension, the early Apostolic Church considered it its duty to re-establish this number that had been so prominent and sanctified in the divine economy.

And the election designated a man who, like the other apostles, had been a "witness to the resurrection of Christ". This is the essential condition. Matthias witnessed how Jesus "kept the commandments of the Father and abided in his love" (cf. Jn 15:10). Now he will testify that, in response, the Father glorified Jesus by raising him.

2 In every age, the successors of the apostles and missionaries have gone forth to bring this testimony of Christ to new places, to other peoples. Here with you it is from the 4th century that Saint Servatius came to establish the Church in Maastricht and throughout your region. And how can we fail to recall here St Willibrord, an ardent pastor who proclaimed the Good News, who baptised thousands of men and women who thus discovered the gift of faith and entered the Christian community! And yet you venerate many bishops for their holiness; and it is a whole people with consecrated men and women who have formed in this diocese a rich religious tradition, attested by the building of many places of prayer and imprinted throughout your culture.

Today, dear brothers and sisters, it is with joy that I meet in you the Church established here for sixteen centuries to profess Christ, he who "faithfully kept the commandments of the Father and abided in his love". I am happy to greet my brother in the episcopate, Monsignor Johannes Baptist Gijsen, pastor of this diocese of Roermond. My cordial greetings also go to your auxiliary, the priests, the men and women religious, the members of the secular institutes, the seminarians of Rolduc, the lay adults and young people; I know that they all strive to participate actively in the life of the diocese. I also greet those who have come from other dioceses and also from other countries: Germany and Belgium.

3 We have heard the words of Jesus at the vigil of his passion: "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love" (Jn 15:10). What are these commandments?

First of all, the commandment of brotherly love: Christ wishes that, by observing his commandment, by loving one another as he loves them, his disciples may be closely united with one another and at the same time united with his Father. This is my deepest wish for all the communities of the Church in the Netherlands: in your parishes, in the many institutions where you are involved, may you find in the word of Christ the inspiration of your action and the meaning of your common life. There is no other model or other support for the Church than the one who "loved us as the Father loved him".

All of you who are concerned with proclaiming the Gospel and building up the Church, you who gather in prayer, you who perform all the tasks related to the education of the young, you who serve the sick and the poorest of our brothers and sisters, you who commit yourselves to the necessary solidarity with people beyond all borders, lend a hand: Together you continue the community founded by Christ, formed around the apostolic ministry, united by the love of the Father, called to live the same life of God into which the Redeemer introduces us: "As the Father has loved me, so I also have loved you. Abide in my love" (John 15, 9). "I have chosen you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide" (Jn 15:16).

4 Christ called, first of all, the Twelve to share the love that he lives fully in the communion of Father, Son and Spirit. They were to form the centre of the new community, the community of divine life in the midst of men. And it has been from this model that the Church has been built up through the centuries.

Today, Christ calls us, in imitation of him, to open our lives to others with the gift of ourselves and thus to know the happiness of fruitful generosity. Not only does it reveal to us the marvellous mystery of the Trinity and the uninterrupted exchange of love between the divine persons, but it also invites us to live the same exchange in our turn, where forgetting oneself leads to giving everything to the other, where one does not keep the life received from God for one's own exclusive benefit, but offers it to the Lord by sharing one's many gifts with one's neighbour.

The first place, where God's life of love is shared, is the family. The family, in which one is brought into the world, in which one commits one's life to one another, to one another, is the first place where love created in the image of God can make alive its likeness to the Creator. It is true that in our times the situation of the family knows many contradictions. It is discredited by some who reject what they consider its constructions; but it is appreciated by many others who spontaneously see in it the true place of happiness, as surveys show.

Certainly all families have their limitations and fall short of their high calling. But we know what wounds those who are deprived of what the family environment naturally brings to their development as children, as adolescents, as men and women. For her part, the Church is so aware of this that she never ceases to remind us of the importance of solid family building, the indissoluble character of the commitment that is the foundation of marriage, the nobility of love expressed in the language of body and spirit.

Everyone knows to what extent the Second Vatican Council, in the pastoral constitution Gaudium et spes, and Pope Paul VI, particularly in the encyclical Humanae vitae, extolled the place of the family in society, the greatness of the institution of marriage, of responsible fatherhood and motherhood, and specified the requirements of a correct ethic based on Christian tradition. In 1980, the Synod of Bishops continued its reflection on this point, culminating in the apostolic exhortation Familiaris consortio.

5 Let me simply say again to the families of the Netherlands how great is their role in the development of each person. The vocation of the human person is to love and be loved. And it is to highlight this vocation that we must always return to the word of Christ and the apostles who reveal to us the inexhaustible source of love, which is the very life of God. It is in the bosom of a united and stable family that the discovery is first made. This is where one is received unconditionally without having to justify one's presence. Moreover, the more fragile and vulnerable one is, the more secure one is in the tenderness of others. It is here that one learns to exist. It is here that one progressively builds one's personality. It is here, again, that we discover that we are not at the centre of the world; we get to know different people in depth in a mutual enrichment. One learns to be loved, to love the other, to love oneself. There one also makes the discovery of trial, conflict and suffering; the family is then the place where love can go so far as to 'give one's life' for those one loves, according to the very words of Jesus, and thus to support the one who goes through the storm, to heal wounds, to know what joy gives a necessary self-mastery for a good relationship with the other, and what happiness comes from a reconciliation in truth.

6 Enriched by his family experience, man can better fulfil his role in society. In this regard, I would like to quote the words of the exhortation Familiaris consortio: "Relations between the members of the family community are inspired and guided by the law of 'gratuitousness' which, respecting and fostering in each and every person personal dignity as the only title of value, becomes cordial welcome, encounter and dialogue, disinterested availability, generous service, profound solidarity. Thus the promotion of an authentic and mature communion of persons in the family becomes the first and irreplaceable school of sociality' (John Paul II, Familiaris consortio, 43). The family is the place where one prepares oneself to face life's difficulties, to not resign oneself to ease or break-ups, to give up fighting human misery. It is in the family that one acquires the personal freedom and discernment that allow one not to be at the mercy of social pressures, sometimes harmful. Thanks to the maturity developed in the family environment, one can make a positive contribution to the human and Christian history of society.

7 Finally, how can we not remember that the Second Vatican Council described the family as 'a domestic sanctuary of the Church' (Apostolicam actuositatem, 11)? It means that the Church is present in the life of the family that knows the friendship of Christ and receives his word: "You are my friends if you do what I command you ... but I have called you friends" (Jn 15:14.15). It means to say that the small family community participates in the life of the large ecclesial community, especially in the celebration of the sacraments; and all this is manifested especially in the Sunday Eucharist. It also means that the family's mission, particularly its educational mission, is like a true ministry through which the Gospel is transmitted and spread, to such an extent that family life as a whole becomes a path to faith, to Christian initiation, to life following Christ. In the family aware of such a gift, as Paul VI wrote: 'all members evangelise and are evangelised' (Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 71). For these reasons I rejoice with you for having created, in this diocese, a Family Pastoral Centre that will not fail to bear much fruit. It is in the family that the various vocations of young Christians can be born and die, and particularly vocations to priestly service or religious life; you know this, in a country such as yours that has sent so many missionaries on the roads of the world, and where priests have been numerous in the still recent past. In the face of today's challenges, may God enable the families of the Netherlands to see their children answer the Lord's call and consecrate their lives to his service!

8 Dear brothers and sisters, I know that it is often a heavy task for your families to ensure each other's development, to fulfil their role in social life, to be the support point for the life of the Church. In every country, the public authorities have a role to play in defending and supporting the institution of the family. If the family is prevented from developing normally or if too many concessions are made to anything that harms it, the difficulty becomes too great. I hope that family policy, in your country, as in all of Europe, will respect and favour more the fundamental reality that, in society, is the family.

9 At the end of our meditation on the fulfilment of our mission in the Church and in the Christian family, let us turn together to the Mother of Christ. She is also the Mother of the Church. Your diocese of Roermond has chosen her as patroness with the title 'Immaculate Conception'. Many shrines are dedicated to her in this area and you go there to pray.

O Mary, you who lived in the intimacy of the Father, the Son and the Spirit, you who gave flesh to the Word of God, you who had the experience of family life in Nazareth, you who participated with the apostles in the birth of the new people of God, remain with us! Stay with us, to educate us in true love in all the communities to which we belong! May they be places of life and truth, of charity and peace, of courage and hope!

O Mary, remain close to this people whom I visit today! I entrust it to your motherly heart. O Mary, help the Christians of the Netherlands to be witnesses of the resurrection today like the apostles of your Son. Help them to preserve and continue the work of evangelisation begun by Saint Servatius. Keep their hearts ready in expectation of the Master's return, that he may find them faithful to the Gospel he has given them! Help them to live in the unity in which the disciples of your Son are recognised! And may they, following your example, keep in their hearts the words of Jesus: 'Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love' (Jn 15:9-10).

[Pope John Paul II, homily in Maastricht 14 May 1985]

Jesus, after having compared himself to the vine and us to the branches, Jesus, explains what fruit is borne by those who remain united to him: this fruit is love. He again repeats the key-verb: abide. He invites us to abide in his love so that his joy may be in us and our joy may be full (vv. 9-11). To abide in Jesus’ love.

Let us ask ourselves: what is this love in which Jesus tells us to abide to have his joy? What is this love? It is the love that originates in the Father, because “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8). This love of God, of the Father, flows like a river in his Son Jesus and through him comes to us, his creatures. Indeed, he says: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you” (Jn 15:9). The love Jesus gives us is the same with which the Father loves him: pure unconditional love, freely given love. It cannot be bought, it is free. By giving it to us, Jesus treats us like friends — with this love —, letting us know the Father; and he involves us in his same mission for the life of the world.

And then, we can ask ourselves the question, how do we abide in this love? Jesus says: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love” (v. 10). Jesus summarized his commandments in a single one, this: “that you love one another as I have loved you” (v. 12). To love as Jesus Christ means to offer yourself in service, at the service of your brothers and sisters, as he did in washing the feet of the disciples. It also means going outside of ourselves, detaching ourselves from our own human certainties, from earthly comforts, in order to open ourselves up to others, especially those in greater need. It means making ourselves available, as we are and with what we have. This means to love not in word but in deeds.

To love like Christ means saying ‘no’ to other ‘loves’ that the world offers us: love of money — those who love money do not love as Jesus loves —, love of success, of vanity, of power… These deceptive paths of “love” distance us from the Lord’s love and lead us to become more and more selfish, narcissistic and overbearing. And being overbearing leads to a degeneration of love, to the abuse of others, to making our loved ones suffer. I am thinking of the unhealthy love that turns into violence — and how many women are victims of violence these days. This is not love. To love as the Lord loves us means to appreciate the people beside us, to respect their freedom, to love them as they are, not as we want them to be; as they are, gratuitously. Ultimately, Jesus asks us to abide in his love, to dwell in his love, not in our ideas, not in our own self-worship. Those who dwell in self-worship live in the mirror: always looking at themselves. He asks us to overcome the ambition to control and manage others. Not controlling, serving them. Opening our heart to others, this is love, to be trusting, giving ourselves to others.

Dear brothers and sisters, where does this abiding in the Lord’s love lead? Where does it lead us? Jesus told us: “That my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (v. 11). And the Lord wants that the joy he possesses, because he is in complete communion with the Father, also be in us insofar as we are united to him. The joy of knowing we are loved by God despite our infidelities enables us to face the trials of life confidently, makes us live through crises so as to emerge from them better. Our being true witnesses consists in living this joy, because joy is the distinctive sign of a true Christian. True Christians are not sad; they always have that joy inside, even in difficult moments.

May the Virgin Mary help us to abide in Jesus’ love and to grow in love for everyone, witnessing to the joy of the Risen Lord.

[Pope Francis, Regina Coeli 9 May 2021]

Complete vs Perfect

(Jn 10:22-30)

In the so-called ‘Book of Signs’ of the Fourth Gospel (Jn.1-12), a progressive revelation of the divine Mystery that envelops the Person of Jesus takes place.

As such an unveiling becomes more precise, both adherence and misunderstanding grow around his figure, even of his neighbours - to the extent that He departs from traditional expectations of the Messiah as a glorious leader and executioner.

Thus, in our vocational experience we have often realized that full existence and paths of indestructible quality (vv.28-29) are not subject to immediately satisfying demands of the common mentality.

The Life of the Eternal (v.28) reveals itself as a goad: not to mortify intentions, but to set us on paths of growth.

The Gospel is not confirmation of tastes, of preferences and convictions.

And Jn 10:22-24 applies this criterion blatantly - in the blow by blow friction with the chiefs of conformist religiosity: contradicting the mentality of the experts.

Religious rule developed the idea that the Torah could cleanse the mind of errors, and the inclination of impurities - in order to chisel out a people pleasing to God.

In this way, the authorities felt no need to search for the Mystery of God.

The top of the class wanted Jesus to define himself so that they could judge him according to the fundamentalist criteria that permeated their teaching and common mentality.

The Master, on the other hand, did not place himself in established ideas, into a fixed framework; He was not stuck on a wavelength.

Christ is a fraternal presence for us, not a “ratifier”.

Jesus, the authentic guide, was a «friend of publicans and sinners» in the sense that he taught to broaden the harmony of creaturely being.

The new Rabbi did not want to sterilize emotions or situations.

The inner world and anxieties were not to be silenced at all, but rather encountered and known.

To enter into the life of Faith and become liberators of others, one must be emancipated and tirelessly available, able to shake convictions - starting with oneself.

In short, for those who considered themselves already arrived and masters of the situation, the “new” one always had to present authorizations, credentials, permits - or he would not have the right to speak and act.

Instead, the Lord calls for confidence, unfiltered conversation, collaboration: a propitious climate that allows the Father to reveal himself.

And beyond words, which indeed can always be misunderstood, it is the works of life alone that are eloquent language (v.25).

But it is the soul that does not want to believe: a feeling of those who do not belong to Him (v.26).

The problem is the calibrated eye, or openness. Only the perception of the unsteady is free of affected ballast.

Being One (v.30) has motivated Christ, and still today guides the lesser family members to feel adequate, on an equal footing; He leads them to the Face to face.

Not to disciplinary obedience, but to prophetic likeness.

[Tuesday 4th wk. in Easter, May 13, 2025]

Complete vs Perfect ones

(Jn 10:22-30)

In the so-called Book of Signs of the Fourth Gospel (Jn.1-12) there is a progressive revelation of the divine Mystery that envelops the Person of Jesus.

As this unveiling becomes more precise, both adhesion and incomprehension grow around His figure, even of His neighbours - to the extent that He departs from the traditional expectations of the Messiah, the glorious leader and executioner.

Even in our vocational experience, we have often realised that full existence and paths of indestructible quality (vv.28-29) are not subject to demands immediately satisfying the common mentality.

The Life of the Eternal (v.28) is revealed as a goad: not to mortify intentions, but to set us on paths of growth.

The Gospel is not confirmation of likes, dislikes and convictions.

And Jn 10:22-24 applies this criterion in a blatant manner - in blow by blow friction with the leaders of conformist religiosity: contradicting the mentality of the experts.

The religious rule developed the idea that the Torah could cleanse the mind of errors, and the inclination of people of impurities - in order to chisel out a people pleasing to God.

Anything that disturbed the prescribed balance had to be immediately condemned and punished, as deleterious to fixed stability, mass cohesion, and its very efficiency.

The complete configuration of the indisputable religious proposal, and the magnificence of the official cult structures, guaranteed the eloquence and imperturbability of conditioning (on the misfits).

Doubts and insecurities were immediately branded as disturbing factors in the landscape of reassurance and the profile of normality - to be repressed from adolescence onwards.

The new Rabbi, on the other hand, did not want to sterilise emotions or situations.

The inner world and anxieties were not to be silenced at all, but to be encountered and known.

On the other hand, [as we do today] looking around he realised that it was precisely in observant people, the standard-bearers of ethics or manners, who repressed spontaneous impulses or, conversely, profound criteria, that narrowness and disorders increased.

Precisely those who faced the spiritual path... by increasing dirigisme, manners and control, became exaggeratedly snobbish, confrontational and secretly untrustworthy.

Burdened with suffocating norms, the naive people were reduced to unhappiness.

Everyone felt restlessness and parchedness - precisely because the obsession with sin poured out on the unwell, preventing them from integrating their desires.

In short, what had to be reduced and annihilated for reasons of social, civil, devout consonance, ended up penetrating souls in a more intimate manner, resurfacing here and there in a paradoxical manner, with duplicity and very serious relational imbalances.

Authentic Jesus the Guide was a 'friend of publicans and sinners' in the sense that He taught to expand the harmony of creaturely being.

He himself wanted to learn the art of looking without prejudice, and to treasure various experiences; of all that could emerge even from within.

The perfection he preached to others was in the imperfection of selflessness, in the irrationality of love, in the absurdity of pure gift-giving and tolerance, which gleaned pearls of experience from everywhere.

Indeed, according to the True Shepherd, it was important precisely to be troubled, rather than impassive.

All in order to know in time and make sense even of the signs that worry [even according to a pious, or à la page, and aligned mentality] - thus completing ourselves.

Learning to welcome, not to establish.

The authentic Master and Friend knows that ... Only what touches, involves, and upsets us personally will succeed in shifting our gaze, to grow. To activate exodus to fertile pastures, the land of freedom.

The Feast of the Dedication [Feast of Lights] was being celebrated, a commemoration of the purification of the Temple, consecration and dedication of a new altar [following the Hellenist desecration by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who had forced his hand by imposing the cult to Olympian Zeus in that place].

The debate with the institutional masters takes place as usual in Solomon's Portico - each time trying to educate them to let go of their sense of inquisition and domination, still unbearable today.

The authorities felt no need to seek the Mystery of God.

In this way, the leaders wanted Jesus to define himself, so that they could judge him according to the criteria of their abstract world; which impregnated their teaching and common mentality.

On the contrary, the Master even for us today does not place himself in the armour of established ideas, in a pre-established, contrived, external framework.

He does not stagnate, stuck on a wavelength; as if he were fearful of the unknown - hence for us the bearer of a non-alarming devotion.

Christ is a fraternal presence, certainly - not a 'ratifier'.To enter the life of Faith and become liberators of others, one must be emancipated and tirelessly available, able to shake up convictions - starting with oneself.

In short, for those who consider themselves arrived and masters of the situation, the new must present the imprint of authorisations, credentials, permissions - or one has no right to speak and act.

Instead, the Lord calls for confidence, for conversation, for collaboration: a propitious climate that allows the Father to reveal himself.

He only rejects fanaticism, sophisticated, cerebral, mannered, and one-sided thinking.

In short, Jesus did not want to be mistaken for 'the' [that] expected political Messiah: resembling David. That is why it requires the so-called messianic secret.

And beyond words, which indeed can always be misunderstood, it is the works of life alone that are eloquent language (v.25).

But it is the soul that did not want to believe: the feeling of those who do not belong to him (v.26).

In fact, sincere Faith is activated from a first testimony within, in the being, in one's own character and creaturely imprint (Jn 6:44).

(Vv.25-26) If you do not lead people to think differently, giving evidence is of no use. The problem is the shaky eye, or openness. And it is only the perception of the unhealthy that is free of interested ballast.

The mutual understanding between Jesus and the least of the people is complete transparency, total harmony even on the basis of an elementary sympathy: the natural Way that unites Father and sons.

All this, starting from a sure testimony in oneself, not from a preconceived religious rationalism.

Being One (v.30) motivated Christ, and still leads the voiceless to feel adequate, equal.

It leads them to face-to-face, without the need for models, rigmarole, legalisms, affected manners.

Not disciplinary obedience, but prophetic likeness.

It annoys us to be compared to a flock, but in ancient Israel the archetype of the shepherd who shares everything with his sheep remained even in Jesus' time a prototype of existence and life of communion with God.

The metaphor must be understood in the sense of the family relationship, of total sharing: feeling the burden and the goals together; grasping the spirit of each one and seeing the qualities, or providing for them; trusting even in destitution.

In the life of Faith, the guiding specialists should introduce us into this special relationship with the Father who knows each of his kinsmen, and redeems their loneliness or vice versa.

Immediacy and personal freedom in love are the cornerstone of the new relationship with the Most High.

A frankness that Jesus teaches without looking anyone in the face who is still enraptured by worldly elements - let alone being intimidated by marauders (vv.1.5.8.10.12-13) in angelic garb.

His Word and extreme events are still the Gates that lead [radically] to Heaven and humanity.

All this despite the fact that his Message is considered crazy and demonic by those interested in the status quo (vv.20-21).

Conversely, by crossing all the expected thresholds, in our imbalances we penetrate the furrows of reality and mystery; we introduce ourselves there where royal decisions ripen - finding surpassing fascination.

Perfect correspondence with our vocational trait and yearning for the fullness of life.

Knowledge of the heart

Jesus speaks of himself as the Good Shepherd who gives eternal life to his sheep (cf. Jn 10:28). That of the shepherd is an image well rooted in the Old Testament and dear to the Christian tradition. The title "Shepherd of Israel" is attributed by the Prophets to the future descendant of David, and thus possesses undoubted messianic significance (cf. Ez 34:23). Jesus is the true Shepherd of Israel, in that he is the Son of Man who wanted to share the condition of human beings in order to give them new life and lead them to salvation. Significantly to the term "shepherd" the evangelist adds the adjective kalós, beautiful, which he uses solely in reference to Jesus and his mission. Also in the story of the wedding feast of Cana, the adjective kalós is used twice to connote the wine offered by Jesus and it is easy to see in it the symbol of the good wine of the messianic times (cf. Jn 2:10).

"I give them (my sheep) eternal life, and they shall never be lost" (Jn 10:28). So says Jesus, who shortly before had said: "The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (cf. Jn 10:11). John uses the verb tithénai - to offer, which he repeats in the following verses (15.17.18); we find the same verb in the account of the Last Supper, when Jesus "laid down" his garments and then "took them up again" (cf. Jn 13:4.12). It is clear that he wants to affirm in this way that the Redeemer disposes of his life with absolute freedom, so that he can offer it and then take it back freely. Christ is the true Good Shepherd who gave his life for his sheep, for us, by sacrificing himself on the Cross. He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him, just as the Father knows Him and He knows the Father (cf. Jn 10:14-15). It is not a matter of mere intellectual knowledge, but of a deep personal relationship; a knowledge of the heart, proper to the one who loves and the one who is loved; of the one who is faithful and the one who knows that he can be trusted in turn; a knowledge of love by virtue of which the Shepherd invites his own to follow him, and which is fully manifested in the gift he gives them of eternal life (cf. Jn 10:27-28).

[Pope Benedict, homily for priestly ordination 29 April 2007]