2. The loving God is a God who is not remote, but intervenes in history. When he reveals his name to Moses, he does so to assure him of his loving assistance in the saving event of the Exodus, an assistance which will last for ever (cf. Ex 3: 15). Through the prophets' words, he would continually remind his people of this act of love. We read, for example, in Jeremiah:  "Thus says the Lord:  "The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest, the Lord appeared to him from afar. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you'" (Jer 31: 2-3).

It is a love which takes on tones of immense tenderness (cf. Hos 11: 8f.; Jer 31: 20) and normally uses the image of a father, but sometimes is also expressed in a spousal metaphor:  "I will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy" (Hos 2: 19; cf. vv. 18-25).

Even after seeing his people's repeated unfaithfulness to the covenant, this God is still willing to offer his love, creating in man a new heart that enables him to accept the law he is given without reserve, as we read in the prophet Jeremiah:  "I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts" (Jer 31: 33). Likewise in Ezekiel we read:  "A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh" (Ez 36: 26).

3. In the New Testament this dynamic of love is centred on Jesus, the Father's beloved Son (cf. Jn 3: 35; 5: 20; 10: 17), who reveals himself through him. Men and women share in this love by knowing the Son, that is, by accepting his teaching and his work of redemption.

We can only come to the Father's love by imitating the Son in his keeping of the Father's commandments:  "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; 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" (ibid., 15: 9-10). In this way we also come to share in the Son's knowledge of the Father:  "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you" (ibid., v. 15).

4. Love enables us to enter fully into the filial life of Jesus, making us sons in the Son (...)

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience, 6 October 1999]

Jesus shows us the path to follow Him: the path of love. His commandment is not a simple teaching which is always abstract or foreign to life. Christ’s commandment is new because He realized it first, He gave His flesh and thus the law of love is written upon the heart of man (cf. Jer 31:33). And how is it written? It is written with the fire of the Holy Spirit. With this Spirit that Jesus gives us, we too can take this path!

It is a real path, a path that leads us to come out of ourselves and go towards others. Jesus showed us that the love of God is realized in love for our neighbour. Both go hand-in-hand. The pages of the Gospel are full of this love: adults and children, educated and uneducated, rich and poor, just and sinners all were welcomed into the heart of Christ.

Therefore, this Word of God calls us to love one another, even if we do not always understand each other, and do not always get along... it is then that Christian love is seen. A love which manifests even if there are differences of opinion or character. Love is greater than these differences! This is the love that Jesus taught us. It is a new love because Jesus and his Spirit renewed it. It is a redeeming love, free from selfishness. A love which gives our hearts joy, as Jesus himself said: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (Jn 15:11).

It is precisely Christ’s love that the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts to make everyday wonders in the Church and in the world. There are many small and great actions which obey the Lord’s commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you” (cf. Jn 15:12). Small everyday actions, actions of closeness to an elderly person, to a child, to a sick person, to a lonely person, those in difficulty, without a home, without work, an immigrant, a refugee.... Thanks to the strength of the Word of Christ, each one of us can make ourselves the brother or sister of those whom we encounter. Actions of closeness, actions which manifest the love that Christ taught us.

May our Most Holy Mother help us in this, so that in each of our daily lives love of God and love of neighbour may be ever united.

[Pope Francis, Regina Coeli 10 May 2015]

5th Easter Sunday [18 May 2025]

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! Already in this first week Pope Leo XIV is giving us, in a calm and profound manner, some marching directions to be well interiorised. I invite you not to miss any of his speeches, all of which are always read out and never delivered off the cuff. Why? It is interesting to seek an answer. Today then there will be the homily of the beginning of his Petrine ministry and therefore in a certain sense programmatic of the pontificate of which he will show the style. 

*First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles (14:21b-27)

From Antioch of Syria, Paul and Barnabas had departed by ship to the south coast of what we today call Turkey, passing through Cyprus; they had stopped at Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium (today Konya), Lystra and Derbe and everywhere, as we saw last Sunday, Paul and Barnabas first addressed the Jews, receiving a rather "mixed" reception. Enthusiasm on the part of some who converted and violent rejection on the part of others who opposed them decisively to the point of driving them out, and it was in Antioch of Pisidia that they decided to address not only the Jews, but also those who were called 'God-fearing', that is, practitioners of the Jewish religion although not yet integrated through circumcision, and therefore, strictly speaking, still pagans. This is why Paul says that God through them had "opened to the Gentiles the door of faith" (v.27).  On the return journey of this first missionary journey Paul and Barnabas retrace the same itinerary in the opposite direction and visit again the communities they had recently founded that were already suffering persecution because Luke specifies that Paul and Barnabas exhorted them to remain steadfast in the faith, saying that we must pass through many tribulations to enter the kingdom of God (v.22). Jesus had already used similar expressions: "the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation" (Lk 17:25)... or, addressing the disciples of Emmaus: "Should not Christ have suffered these things in order to enter into his glory?" (Lk 24:26).God does not impose trials or sufferings on us in a preventive manner, but because of the hardness of the human heart, the true prophets encounter persecution until the world is converted to love, justice, and sharing. Paul and Barnabas are therefore concerned to strengthen the faith and courage of the new converts by also watching over the good organisation of the communities. First they appointed leaders, the 'elders', the Greek term 'presbyteros' (from which our term 'priest' derives) and, after praying and fasting, they entrusted them to the Lord. Luke insists on the importance of prayer and fasting because it is not only the organisation that is taken care of, but prayer and fasting are equally important. Indeed, an evangeliser who no longer prays will soon no longer evangelise. Luke notes that they entrusted the leaders of the new communities to the Lord to act with courage and responsibility as Paul and Barnabas had entrusted themselves to the grace of God and continued their journey telling the members of the community of Antioch of Syria all that God had done with them. Luke speaks both of the work that the apostles had done and of what God had done with them, and this makes us realise that the mission entrusted by God to believers is a work of God entrusted to man and a work of man sustained, accompanied, continually inspired by God. 

*Responsorial Psalm (144 (145), 8-13)

Of Psalm 144 (145), chosen for this fifth Sunday of Easter, there are only six verses here, while in total there are twenty-one as many letters as there are letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It is an alphabetical psalm, an acrostic, and each verse begins with one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, in alphabetical order. It is therefore a psalm of praise for the covenant: a way of saying that our whole life, from A to Z (in Hebrew from aleph to tav), is immersed in God's covenant and tenderness. But why this Psalm 144 (145) today and why only these six verses? First of all, this psalm is part of the Jewish prayer of every morning, and the dawning of a new day evokes for the believing Jew the dawning of the final day, of the future world and renewed creation. For us Christians, at this Easter time, the psalm reminds us that the Day of God's final kingdom has already begun, before our eyes, with the resurrection of Christ. Moreover, in Jewish spirituality, the Talmud (i.e. the teaching of the rabbis of the first centuries after Christ) states that he who recites this psalm three times a day "may be certain to be a child of the future world". For us Christians, the future world of which the Jewish faith speaks is precisely the creation renewed by Jesus Christ, and the six verses chosen for today constitute a condensation of this revelation, and the psalm harmonises perfectly with the tones of the Easter season, in particular, with the other readings of this Sunday.  The first verse: "Merciful and gracious is the Lord, slow to anger and great in love" is the best summary of all biblical revelation: in fact, it is the name God gave of himself to Moses (Ex 34:6).The second verse: 'Good is the Lord towards all, his tenderness is spread over all creatures' is an enormous discovery for mankind that we owe precisely to the chosen people; a theme already present in the Old Testament: God loves all mankind and his plan of love, as St Paul says, concerns the whole of humanity. We sense a particular resonance of this in the Acts of the Apostles and especially in the first reading of this Easter Sunday, which insists that the proclamation of God's love is not reserved for the Jews, but is for all nations. Furthermore, this psalm, especially in the verses read today, insists on God's kingship: 'To make known to men your deeds and the splendid glory of your kingdom, your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, your dominion extends to all generations'. Four times the word "kingdom" returns (once "dominion") and the words "deeds" and "exploits", which in the Bible always refer to the liberation from Egypt: God liberated his people then and liberates them now, and this until the final liberation, which is the victory over death. A psalm therefore particularly suited to the Easter season because the Risen One experiences God's kingship in his flesh. When Israel composed this psalm, the insistence on God's kingship, or his dominion, was a way of affirming that they would never rely on idols because their only King and Lord is God, the God of love. When Christians pray this psalm, they know well that in Christ, the servant king, humble in the Passion and triumphant over death, they see the presence of the King of the universe: "He who has seen me has seen the Father," Jesus told the apostles (Jn.14:9).

NOTE: Reading the entire psalm one notices a profound similarity with the Lord's Prayer: one addresses God as Father - "Our Father... give us... forgive us... deliver us from evil..." - a Father who is the God of mercy and pity as the psalm expresses it. He is also addressed as King: 'Thy Kingdom come'.  In fact, all the phrases that Jesus collected in the Lord's Prayer were already part of the customary prayers of the Jewish people

Depending on whether one counts the sign Sin/Shin as one or two letters (the same symbol is sometimes pronounced Sin, sometimes Shin), one would count 21 or 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Grammarians distinguish the two letters Sin and Shin and the alphabet counts 22 letters, but the psalmist uses only the letter Shin and therefore the psalm counts 21 verses.

*Second Reading from the Book of Revelation of Saint John (21:1-5a)

"Behold, I make all things new": a new heaven, a new earth, a new Jerusalem; this is our future, our "a-coming", that is, what is to come. Gone are the tears, the death, the groans, the cries, the sadness... all this belongs to the past: the first heaven and the first earth are gone. In other words, the past is past, accomplished. John warned us: his book is a book of visions, revealing the future to give courage to face the present. The first heaven and the first earth refer back to the biblical account of creation and to understand this passage of Revelation we must refer back to the book of Genesis which in the first chapter presents "the first creation" of which Revelation states that it was totally good: "God saw what he had made, and behold, it was very good" (Gen 1:31). Despite this, however, every day we see tears, cries, sadness, death as Revelation repeats and the cause lies in the account of the forbidden fruit (Gen.3) explaining what corrupted the goodness of creation. The root of all suffering is the rift created between God and mankind with the original suspicion that destroys the Covenant and drives mankind down paths that only lead to failure. The chosen people heard, through the prophets, the call to the way of the Covenant which is the only way to true happiness. It is necessary for God to truly dwell among us so that we may be His people, and He may be our God. Restoring the Covenant as a dialogue of love is Israel's thirst throughout its history, and many prophets announce what the author of Revelation now sees fulfilled. Isaiah writes: "Behold, I create a new heaven and a new earth...the past shall no longer be remembered, it shall no longer come to mind...There shall no longer be heard in it voices of weeping, nor cries of distress...There shall no longer be a child who lives but a few days, nor an old man who does not complete his days" (Isaiah 65:17-20). But why symbolically is the renewal of all things represented by the disappearance of the sea even though Israel is not a people of sailors? The reason is that the creation of the universe, in the Bible, is read from the birth of the chosen people, and this birth, i.e. the coming out of slavery in Egypt, was a victory over the sea: God made the land appear dry to allow the passage of his people; the saved people crossed the sea on foot and the forces of evil, slavery and oppression were swallowed up. Later, in the New Testament, the Son of God made man manifested his victory over evil and its forces by walking on water. Now the victory is total, the Apocalypse suggests: the sea has disappeared and with it every form of evil: suffering, crying, death. Humanity and the entire universe await the fulfilment of the plan that God had when he created the world: to establish with humanity a Covenant without shadows, an eternal dialogue of love as it appears in the theme of the wedding between God and humanity always present in the Bible. One thinks of the prophets Hosea or Isaiah and the Song of Songs, and in the New Testament, the wedding story of Cana, to name but one. Here, in our passage from Revelation, this promise emerges from two images: that of the new Jerusalem, "ready as a bride adorned for her husband" (v.2) and from the expression "God with them" (v.3) where "with" expresses the covenant of love, a spousal covenant. "Then I heard a mighty voice, coming from the throne, saying, 'Behold the tent of God with men! He will dwell with them and they will be his people and he will be the God-with-them" (v.3. ). Moreover, the centre of the new creation bears the name of the holy city - 'behold, the new Jerusalem "descends from God"' - the city that for centuries has symbolised the expectation of the chosen people, and the very name Jerusalem means 'City of justice and peace' 'descending from God' and for this reason is called 'new'. The new Jerusalem is not just a human work because the kingdom of God, which we await and in which we seek to collaborate, is at the same time in continuity and in rupture with this land. We are therefore invited to collaborate with God and our efforts contribute to the renewal of creation through God's intervention that will transfigure our efforts.We also perceive this in St Paul's letter to the Romans: "The sufferings of the present time are not comparable to the future glory that will be revealed in us. For the ardent expectation of creation is directed towards the revelation of the sons of God...for creation too will be delivered from the bondage of corruption, to enter into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God. For we know well that the whole creation groans and suffers until now in labour pains" (Rom 8:19-22).

*From the Gospel according to John (13:31- 35)

The first sentences of this text are like variations on the theme of "glory":

"When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him, and will glorify him now': all this may seem a little complicated to us, but in fact it is a very Jewish way of speaking: it expresses the reciprocity of the relationship between the Father and the Son, or rather their profound union: 'He who has seen me has seen the Father', writes John (14:8) and again: 'I and the Father are one' (10:30). "The Son of Man is glorified, or God is glorified in him", means that the Son is a reflection of the Father and we note once again how much effort is required to understand the language of Jesus and his contemporaries.  At the very moment when Judas goes out on the night of the betrayal, Jesus fulfils his vocation to be the reflection of the Father. But John did not understand this immediately because together with the apostles they had helplessly witnessed his passion and death; they had experienced this succession of events as a moment of horror and only later did John understand that this was in fact the moment of Jesus' glory: because it was there that the Son revealed how far the Father's love reaches. And since the Son betrayed, abandoned, persecuted by all, he alone continues against all, to be only love, kindness, forgiveness, he reveals to the world how far the Father's love reaches, an infinite love. And then - and this is the second part of our text - those who contemplate this mystery of God's mad love become capable in their turn of loving like him. Jesus in fact clearly connects the two things: he says that now he will reveal to the world how far the Father's love goes and he specifies: "now I give you a new commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you", but he also adds that only now will you be able because you will draw on my own love. In reality, the novelty is not the commandment to love; Jesus does not invent the commandment of love that already exists in the teaching of the rabbis of his time. What is new is to love like him, but not only "in his way", that is, to the point of giving one's life, rejecting all power, dominion and violence. What is new is to love 'really like him', that is, being completely led by his Spirit. Only thus can we understand in a completely new way the famous phrase: "By this all will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for one another". This is not just a commandment, but rather a statement: we are truly his disciples because it is his own Spirit that guides our behaviour. God knows how difficult everyday love is, and if we succeed in our communities in loving one another, the world will be forced to admit this evidence: that the Spirit of Christ is at work in us. We are therefore first of all invited to an act of faith: to believe that his Spirit of love dwells in us, that his resources of love dwell in us: that we possess unsuspected capacities to love, because they are his, and then it becomes possible to love 'like' him, because we allow his Spirit to act in us. However, we know from experience that it is not at all easy to love those around us, indeed with some it is even impossible to speak of love and forgiveness. Jesus certainly did not ignore this when he commanded his disciples to love one another; but we must not confuse love and sensitivity. Jesus showed with gestures of what love we must love one another when at the Last Supper he washed the feet of the apostles and concluded by saying: 'I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you'. This, then, is what it means to love 'as' he loved us! If we think about it, it is possible by his Spirit to serve one another, even those for whom we feel no sympathy. But faithfulness to this commandment is vital for us because it is by this that our communities are judged. For Jesus, the most important thing is not the quality of our speeches, our theology and knowledge, nor the beauty of our celebrations, but the quality of the love we offer one another. Jesus cried out on that last dramatic evening: "Now the Son of Man has been glorified (i.e. revealed as God), and God has been glorified in him. Humanity is introduced into the glory, the presence, the life of God, through the event of Christ's passion-death-resurrection. And now introduced into God's 'glory' (i.e. Christ's sacrifice), his disciples can live entirely under the sign of love, since God is love and his presence shines through them as well. All we have to do is believe it and let the Spirit work in us.

+Giovanni D'Ercole

(Jn 15:1-8)

The allegory of the vine and the branches describes the Presence of the Lord in the midst of His own. He is the source of intimate life and works.

The imperative to believe in Him (c.14) becomes a requirement to ‘abide’ in Him [cf. Jn 6:56: Eucharistic theme of the ‘one body’].

Jesus uses the image of the vine and the branches to convey a teaching on familiarity with Him and fraternity among disciples, illustrating the profound bond.

Intimate union, common nourishment, solidarity, continuity of the friendship, require careful and constant work, including «cutting and cleaning» because not all shoots and sprouts bear fruitfulness.

But beware: divine Love is an impulse that demands that we “allow ourselves to be carried”. It drags; it takes us and becomes nourishing Sap. It invests us, purifying us.

It’s not a dimension to be understood as an “effort” (basically ours) but as a... being grasped and becoming involved in the motion of the life of Grace.

Jesus invites us to take care of the codes of interiority: to take from them the resolute impulse to which we entrust our choices, and which has already guided us to grow.

In the Gospel passage the Creator-peasant «cuts and purifies», to rekindle this personal ‘understanding’.

Jesus speaks of «the Vine the real one» (v.1): He alone is the authentic Bud of the People planted by the Father.

It means that deviant teachings were inculcated around, and false “vines” were planted or displayed [like the fabulous one filled with golden pampins, on the door of the inner Sanctuary of the Jerusalem’s Temple].

The lifeblood does not flow from riches, nor from doctrines and disciplines - not even from the great, impressive magnificence of the old cult.

And the farmer’s interest is that the Vine brings more and more «Fruit»: Love, nothing else.

Christ's «abiding» in the disciples, His ‘union’ with each one, is essential to live the same divine life on earth.

Faith-love ‘incorporates’ and is contagious.

Where it meets with resistance, it is precisely this obstacle that will incite it to greater purity, hence to more vigour (v.2).

For this reason He first «Cuts off» what was lush in the past but would no longer give anything.

We realize this in the time of the crisis, which unmasks and overturns nagging and importunate positions that deaden development.

Then he «Purifies» (v.2: Greek text) i.e. He proceeds, as the good peasant does, to a second light pruning of the shoots of the vine; by detaching those that absorb sap but thicken too much and lack proper vitality [so as not to deprive the propulsive points of nourishment].

This passage has often been interpreted as an invitation par excellence to embrace a spirituality of 'pruning' [the term in the Gospels does not exist] that makes no sense from the perspective of Faith, that is, of Love.

In traditional religions it is the subject - the «branch» - that has to focus on himself, to identify the shortcomings, defects and vices, and “lopping”, "trimming” them.

Instead, only the Father-farmer knows how to recognize the harmful elements, those parasitic ones and without a future, that are not worth continuing to support.

Life in Christ does not settle us on an image of sterile external perfection, which God is not interested in.

A spontaneous Power, the mystery of vocational roots, the multi-layered work of a radical essence, innate, that accompanies us, are able to feed and correct any geometry at the desk.

It’s the Father that takes care of the hindrances, not the individual branch or other branches.

In this way - by giving up external dirigisme - we will not produce irreparable damage.

To internalize and live the message:

Which Lymph satiates you, the external one? What mundane, normal geometry do you follow? What is your idea of improvement in the Faith?

[Wednesday 5th wk. in Easter, May 21, 2025]

(Jn 15:1-8)

The allegory of the vine and the branches describes the Presence of the Lord in the midst of his own. He is the source of intimate life and works.

The imperative to believe in Him (c.14) becomes a requirement to abide in Him [cf. Jn 6:56: Eucharistic theme of the "one body"].

The vine is a plant that demands much attention. In the biblical texts it is taken as a symbol of God's care for His people, and conversely its destruction depicted ancient national calamities.

Jesus uses the image of the vine and the branches to convey a teaching on familiarity with Him and fraternity between disciples, illustrating the deep bond.

Intimate union, common nourishment, solidarity and the continuity of the bond require careful and constant work, including cutting and pruning, because not all shoots and sprouts bear fruitfulness.

But beware: divine Love is an impulse that demands that we allow ourselves to be carried. It drags; it takes us and becomes nourishing sap. It invests us, purifying us.

It is not a dimension to be understood as an effort (essentially ours) but as a ... being grasped and becoming involved in the motion of the life of Grace.

In comparison with the allusions of the First Testament, one notices a substitution: although the vine-dresser continues to represent the Father, the vine is no longer a figure of the people, but of Jesus.

And 'bearing fruit' is a frequent expression indicating only Love: the true result that God expects, the unique work to be achieved in all our works.

Christ's abiding in the disciples, his union with each one, is essential to living the same divine life on earth.

Faith-love incorporates and is contagious. Where it encounters resistance, it is this very obstacle that will incite it to greater purity, hence to greater vigour (v.2).

The man, on the other hand, left to himself does not prolong the influence of Christ; he does not overcome the barriers of nomenclature and normality.

He who imagines himself to be self-sufficient - by breaking the union - cracks the Mystery that envelops him, and will fall prey to his own festering clusters.

But it is also true that a well-bred vineyard is intrusive by its very nature: it blatantly demonstrates a full willingness to express... love (fruit, taste, life).

In short, if mission is marking time today, it is because it has already lost its dynamic vitality: adaptation plans or narratives and external reform will not suffice to resurrect it.

It is the vital encounter that brings out the waves of strength and friendliness.

Over the years, the Vocation has guided and led us to a personal way of being and a characterising sphere of relationships.

Still the Lord continues to call us, so that by entering into his language [unrepeatable, commensurate with each story and sensitivity] we are removed from conditioning that does not belong to us.

Jesus invites us to take care of the codes of interiority, and from them to assume the resolute impulse to which we entrust our choices and which has already guided us to grow.

From the dawn of our history and personality, He alone continues to be the intimate and gushing source of development - even of the imprints we had withheld.

If we had relied on externality, the soul would have dissipated its sap, losing the essence that belonged to it and specified it.

Thus we would not have encountered ourselves and would never have nourished ourselves with the most efficient constituent resources, which now together give balance, greater wholeness, the ability to judge in a situation, amiable transparency.

One becomes oneself, one becomes a well-rounded person, one becomes a missionary, in the same way: by understanding that a lymph, a stimulus, runs through one's veins, which comes from One who knows more than us and opinions.

There are plants in the undergrowth, others towering up; still others, sneaking into the empty areas and mysteriously left to the full light are growing at a much faster rate than those that have been planted and installed for a long time - habitués to the point of seeming homologated.

The magic of creation - vines, shoots - speaks of another realm, of a Logos that relates to us and wisely directs its flows and life forces.

This is what happens in the Spirit, which internalises, calls, nurtures, transmits balance or prophecy, and generates the awe of wholeness and oneness.

How did those seeds (in the example I have in front of me, a double pine and a single pine) take root in precisely the right, intermediate and characteristic places - both aesthetically and in terms of utility, density and breadth? Not even I could have thought of them so neatly arranged; so perfectly aligned in proportion, size, volume and scale.

Only the Hidden Ally sees well the whole, the structure, the functionality and the details of our fibres.

He knows where to lead, and how to nourish us to regain the Ego, the qualitative unity of being.

He does this by sowing, injecting, regenerating, calibrating the energy of his and our Dream. At a convenient pace, and taking care of the rational utilitarian banality of our projects. 

Unceasingly refocusing personal bearing, self-awareness, spontaneous inclination.

As well as by detaching the soul from those who in a thousand ways want to leave us in ignorance of the Creatural Way, to hold on to the commonplaces and totems of their habitual, unnerving world.

This while the Spirit separates our multifaceted thinking from false, one-sided guides [old-fashioned and narrow-minded, or hysterical and sophisticated, but disembodied].

The top of the class perhaps stalk, press, and plagiarise, distracting us from the non-conformist Dialogue with the unrepeatable task of personal life.

In the Gospel passage, the Creator-farmer cuts and purifies, to reconnect.

Jesus speaks of "Vine the true one" (v.1): He alone is the authentic seed of the People planted by the Father.

He means that deviant teachings were being inculcated around, and false vines were being buried or displayed - like the fabulous one filled with golden vines on the door of the inner sanctuary of the Temple of Jerusalem.

The lifeblood does not flow from riches, nor from doctrines and disciplines - not even from the grand, impressive magnificence of the old cult. 

Not even from spineless, à la page fantasies.

The Farmer's interest is that the Vine bears more and more Fruit i.e. Love, nothing else.

In such a trajectory, the Farmer who knows what to do, 'cuts' (v.2) [also so that there are no gangs, no organised marpions. They who absorb the energies of his people [milked and sheared] without the slightest thought of communicating - in turn - authentic life to others.

First they 'cut off' what was thriving in the past but would no longer give anything.

We realise this in the time of the crisis, which unmasks and overturns nagging and importunate positions, mortifying development.

Then he "purifies" (v.2: Greek text), that is, he proceeds as the good peasant does, to a second light pruning of the shoots of the vine; detaching those that absorb sap but thicken too much and do not have the right vitality [so as not to take nourishment away from the propulsive points].

This passage has often been interpreted as an invitation par excellence to embrace a spirituality of 'pruning' [the term in the Gospels does not exist] that makes no sense from the perspective of Faith, that is, of Love.

In ancient religions, it is the subject - the "branch" - that has to focus on itself, identify its shortcomings, faults and vices, and "prune" them.

In contrast, only the Father-farmer knows how to identify the harmful elements, the parasitic ones with no future, which are not worth continuing to support.

He acts in the reality of our path, as one would do with an antiquated and intimately corrupt papier-mache construction [as well as, with fashionable fantasies, which lead to emptiness].

Life in Christ does not concern itself with external limits, indeed it avoids making the [renegade!] flaws of the spiritual life the protagonists.

Such a configuration would be obsessive, inconclusive, because settled on an image of sterile 'perfection' that God is not interested in.

Rather, it will be an astonishment to observe how on the path of Faith precisely the uncertain souls, their unsteady steps and sides considered obscure, can hide the true Pearls of the world.

A spontaneous Power, the mystery of images that spring from the depths of vocational roots and reactivate energies; the multi-layered work of a radical, innate essence that accompanies us [immanent being and knows more about it than we do] are energies all capable of nourishing and correcting any geometry at the table.

How not to produce irreparable damage? By giving in to external dirigisme.

The Father takes care of the impediments, not the individual branch, nor other branches - veterans, experts, veterans that is.

Though higher, bigger... elected to life, they would not provide the right vital mood, nor organic bonding: they would only present us with buried content, and the bill.

To internalise and live the message:

Which lymph satiates you, the external one?

What mundane, normal geometry do you follow?

What is your idea of improvement in the Faith?

The image of the vineyard with its moral, doctrinal and spiritual implications was to recur in the discourse at the Last Supper when, taking his leave of the Apostles, the Lord said: "I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit" (Jn 15: 1-2). Thus, starting from the Paschal event, the history of salvation was to reach a decisive turning point and those "other tenants" were to play the lead as chosen shoots grafted on Christ, the true vine, and yield abundant fruits of eternal life (cf. Collect). We too are among these "tenants", grafted on Christ who desired to become the "true vine" himself. Let us pray the Lord that in the Eucharist he will give us his Blood, himself, that he will help us to "bear fruit" for eternal life and for our time.

[Pope Benedict, Homily XII Synod 5 October 2008]

The parable of the vine and the branches highlights, in a special way, that bond, in a certain sense 'organic', that exists between Christ and the Church: between Christ and all those who draw life from him, just as the branch draws life from the vine.

This refers to each individual man, and at the same time it refers to the entire community of God's people: to the Church.

The whole Church - as a rich 'whole' of branches remains in Christ: in the vine. From him it draws life. "Without him it can do nothing": nothing truly salvific.

All salvation, all grace, is found in him: in Christ. And in us: in men, from him, and only by him and through him.

2. Let us give thanks today to the eternal Father, 'for the Father is the vinedresser', for this life that has been revealed to us and given to us, men, in Jesus Christ crucified and risen.

We give thanks for the paschal mystery, in which Christ revealed himself once and for all as the vine, and at the same time revealed his Father as the one who cultivates.

We desire that every man, every Christian, may mature as the "divine cultivator" of the Father - in the Son - in the risen Christ.

We desire that each one, through this "organic" bond with him, bears much fruit.

3. And it is precisely this prayer of ours that we wish to present to the Mother of Christ, inviting her - laetare! - to the Easter joy of the Church.

May she help us to abide in her Son: in Christ the vine, that we may constitute with him one body, vivified by the Spirit of Easter Pentecost.

[Pope John Paul II, Regina Coeli, 5 May 1985]

The Lord presents himself as the true vine, and speaks of us as branches that cannot live without being united to him. He says: “I am the vine, you are the branches” (v. 5). There is no vine without branches, and vice versa. Branches are not self-sufficient, but depend totally on the vine, which is the source of their existence. 

Jesus insists on the verb “to abide”. He repeats it seven times in today’s Gospel reading. Before leaving this world and going to the Father, Jesus wants to reassure his disciples that they can continue to be united with him. He says, “Abide in me, and I in you” (v. 4). This abiding is not a question of abiding passively, of “slumbering” in the Lord, letting oneself be lulled by life: no, it is not this. The abiding in him, the abiding in Jesus that he proposes to us is to abide actively, and also reciprocally. Why? Because the branches can do nothing without the vine, they need sap to grow and to bear fruit; but the vine, too, needs the branches, because fruit does not grow on the tree trunk. It is a reciprocal need, it is a question of a reciprocal abiding so as to bear fruit. We abide in Jesus and Jesus abides in us.

First of all, we need him. The Lord wants to tell us that before the observance of his commandments, before the beatitudes, before works of mercy, it is necessary to be united to him, to abide in him. We cannot be good Christians if we do not abide in Jesus. With him, instead, we can do all things  (cf. Phil 4:13). With him we can do all things.

But Jesus needs us too, like the vine with the branches. Perhaps to say this may seem bold to us, and so let us ask ourselves: in what sense does Jesus need us? He needs our witness. The fruit that as branches we must bear, is the witness of our lives as Christians. After Jesus ascended to the Father, it is the task of the disciples — it is our task — to continue to proclaim the Gospel in words and in deeds. And the disciples — we, Jesus’ disciples — do so by bearing witness to his love: the fruit to be borne is love. Attached to Christ, we receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and thus we can do good to our neighbour, we can do good to society, to the Church. The tree is known by its fruit. A truly Christian life bears witness to Christ.

And how can we achieve this? Jesus says to us: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you” (v.7). This too is bold: the certainty that what we ask for will be given to us. The fruitfulness of our life depends on prayer. We can ask to think like him, to act like him, to see the world and things with the eyes of Jesus. And in this way, love our brothers and sisters, starting from the poorest and those who suffer most, like he did, loving them with his heart and bringing to the world fruits of goodness, fruits of charity, fruits of peace.

Let us entrust ourselves to the intercession of the Virgin Mary. She always remained completely united to Jesus and bore much fruit. May she help us abide in Christ, in his love, in his word, to bear witness to the Risen Lord in the world.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 2 May 2021]

(Jn 14:27-31)

In the Gospels, Christ's Peace-Shalôm is an emancipation nod from humiliation and rejection; assumed and reinterpreted in order to the imperative of the Apostolic Proclamation.

It creates a new situation.

And indeed, the 'I Go and Come to you' (v.28) is a Semitic endiad: two statements joined together, referring to the same generative, vital occurrence of death and complete life.

The expression-event is not such that it becomes subject to conditions.

The arc of the Lord's earthly ministry comes to an end; a Covenant is lit.

A time of widespread Word and action, with overall results; of new fathers and mothers, new Creation.

In short, the Peace of Jesus is not a state, but a relationship.

Full realisation of the human - a condition no longer balanced, according to convention.

Rather, fulfilment recalibrated to the measure of Christ in Person, in the Hour of Birth.

On the lips of Jesus, «Shalôm» [excellence and overcoming of the ancient blessings] takes on the features of its proper, Messianic meaning.

Presence of 'anointing'. Judgement of the Gospels, and essential Announcement (cf. Lk 10:5).

Breadth of well-being: without this precious reading code, the Word of the Lord remains incomprehensible, and the Mission to which we are sent becomes prey to obsessions, the most sloppy, inauthentic ones.

In the territories of the empire the Pax Romana had triumphalistic traits - it was synonymous with violence, competition, repression of rebels.

As an armed truce, it was the guarantor of a prosperous economy, but secured in its social dimension only by inequalities, especially through a vast slave base.

The Peace that Jesus introduces is not just any wish, of normal expected improvements, but the transmission of his own Person.

Such propensity, vicissitude, and priceless Friendship, spur us on to a complete rearrangement, reconfiguration, reorganisation of all life.

And it often breaks down our existence, in order to ravage its circumstance quietism.

In our language, we would perhaps speak of Happiness and new public order.

Being the secret desire of each one, no difficulty can extinguish its promise and power of fulfilment (v.30).

Shalôm is fullness of saved existence, "success" in our journey of flourishing through a thousand undertakings.

Shalôm is perfection and complete joy, fulfilment of desires.

Victory of the Covenant between God and the people. Endless attunement and communion between the innate impulse of our particular essence and the fulfilment of hopes.

Success of the Alliance between soul impulse and evolutionary achievements experienced in real life.

Shalôm - full realization of humanity rediscovering itself - indicates vital and complete totality of every aspiration.

Qualities of new relationships arising from this: the supreme good of an in-act Presence, entrusted to us.

[Tuesday 5th wk. in Easter, May 20, 2025]

(Jn 14:27-31)

The Semitic peoples wished each other Peace in their meetings and commemoration. The traditional wish for peace was also Greek.

However, in the Gospel this nod, wish, or leave-taking is assumed and reinterpreted in order to the imperative of the Apostolic Announcement.

The Shalôm of Christ is a kind of emancipation from the humiliations of religion, and from the rejections suffered in earthly ministry.

It becomes a distinctive word, designating the ownership of the divine messianic Presence, outside and within us.

An epiphanic emblem, it conveys to each person the personal, reserved happiness of divine favour, for the growth of all.

Not a deserved reward for labours, nor an omen, but a personal, non-conditional Gift.

Free proposal, of the now, which becomes surplus to the journey. Cosmic and acutely intimate passage.

Fullness of being and boundless totality, of Life, which marks us - but in the sense of exceeding expectations.

Worldly and religious prosperity [in the ancient sense] are similar: opulence that is not born of faith-love.

It looks like a reward for services rendered, or blackmail for those expected. A deadly power.

A kind of bliss at mercy and under 'righteous purpose'.

With ambiguous features at all levels of relationship: with God, the community, the You and even the self.

It is not re-creative confrontation with the Cross, which leaps up.

The "I go and come to you" (v.28) is a Semitic endiad: two statements joined together, referring to the same [generative, vital] event of death and complete life, which creates a new situation.

The expression-event is not such as to make itself subject to conditions.

The arc of the Lord's earthly ministry comes to an end; a covenant is made.

Time of widespread Word and action, with overall results of new fathers and mothers, new Creation.

In short, the Peace of Jesus is not a state, but a relationship.

Full realisation of the human - a condition no longer balanced, according to convention.

Rather, fulfilment recalibrated to the measure of Christ in Person, in the Hour of Birth.

On Jesus' lips, 'Shalôm' [excellence and surpassing of ancient blessings] takes on the features of its proper, messianic meaning.

Presence of 'anointing'. Discription of the Gospels and essential announcement (cf. Lk 10:5).

Broadness of well-being: without this precious reading code the Word of the Lord remains incomprehensible, and the Mission to which we are sent becomes prey to obsessions, the most sloppy, inauthentic ones.

In the territories of the empire, the Pax Romana had triumphalist traits - it was synonymous with violence, competition, repression of rebels.

As an armed truce, it was the guarantor of a prosperous economy, but secured in its social dimension only by inequalities, especially by a vast slave base.

The Peace that Jesus introduces is not just any wish, of normal expected improvements; rather, the transmission of his own Person.

Such propensity, affair and priceless Friendship stimulates us to a complete rearrangement, reconfiguration, reorganisation of the whole of life.

And it often throws it off, in order to spurn the quietism of circumstance.

In our language, we would perhaps speak of Happiness and new order and public order.

Being the secret desire of each one, no difficulty can extinguish its promise and power of fulfilment (v.30).

Shalôm is fullness of saved existence, "success" in our journey of flourishing through a thousand undertakings.

Shalôm is perfection and complete joy, fulfilment of desires.

Victory of the Covenant between God and the people. Endless attunement and communion between the innate impulse of our particular essence and the fulfilment of our hopes.

Success of the Covenant between soul drive and evolutionary achievements experienced in real life.

Shalôm [full realisation of humanity rediscovering itself] indicates vital and fulfilled totality of every aspiration.

Quality of new relationships arising from it: the supreme good of a Presence in action. Entrusted to us.

To internalise and live the message:

Is your Peace a furrow, an unmistakable path, an echo of Christ, or empty trust - an exemption from struggle?

And your witness to establish God on earth in what is it competitive, provocative, renewed, living?

Peace and Signs. Citadels and ideology of power

(Lk 19:41-44)

We like to be in the wake of fashion or opportunism, but to reject the Lord's Call is a great responsibility.

One must recognise His Visitation, in Presence, in the inspiration that emerges.

And scrutinise the signs, seize the moments of grace instead of closing in stubbornly; do not turn your back.

All this changes life at the root - it leads to the heart of history.

Jesus wants to storm the closed gates of every citadel; first of all of the hardest bone: Jerusalem, the holy city.The 'eternal' territory is less capable of accepting the Lord's proposals - even those flaunted to others but lived out in their own right with aberrant behaviour here and there (forcing repeated appeals).

There, the extremists of ancient or super-modern convenience remain all bent on guarding and covering interests, privileges, habits, comforts.

A situation that drags the problems themselves - which gradually become chronic.

Not infrequently, the astute leaders remain seated and closed in the defence of the world that sees only itself, in the perfect greed of every vain thing.

So much for the ferment of conversion, the engine of society, the seed of new life!

Result: the much flaunted Truth often remains hostage to the most blatant injustices, which cheerfully consume the worst betrayals in daily life.

Jesus, too, was aware of the same situation, which produced degradation and dehumanisation.

Sometimes, in fact, the search for the divine and human tension are rendered vain, due to an exclusive, snobbish or sectarian official world - that of the sacred - that seems to be under the sign of a completely different 'divinity'.

On the part of the 'directors', the choice of an ideology of power feeds on illusions.

It leads to hard proselytism, but it leads the whole people - harassed, despised, marginalised - to disaster.

By blurring the gaze, it does not allow one to rid oneself of the most insidious idols that disfigure existence and the mind.

In this way, the dirigiste, superficial and violent outlook confuses and sidetracks the path to Shalôm.

It is impossible to realise the Visitation of God, in the perennial city of ancient religiosity or elitist, disembodied ideology.

At one time, there were trenches, killings and destruction of walls and houses by Nebuchadnezzar; then the Roman one in 70, to which the text alludes more directly.

But the grim forecast extends, and perhaps the image of the pile of ruins concerns us. Historical background, ecclesial and pastoral meditation.

Not infrequently the competent authority has unfortunately continued to condemn Jesus-Peace as an evildoer to be expelled.

But in filigree, Christ today stands out in the position of King, reluctantly pronouncing a final sentence.

Perhaps he even does so on his intimates, when they indulge in compromise, ideal degradation, venal corruption [idol worship].

Where salvation is prepared, offered and re-proposed so intensely but in vain, the rejection becomes more painful - so for us and for this passionate, moving, almost heartbroken Son.

Yet the class of the chosen and exclusive still chooses to fall and ruin, thereby self-destructing.

Receiving in return only the worldly fodder of a title to pin down.

And in the same 'spirit of permanence', rejecting the servant Messiah.

Misrecognising even in time the good work of its authentic witnesses.

Therefore, the City of cities - the great religious centre - will continue to lose its special character as a saving sign.

There will be a fulfilment nevertheless, but the anticipation is realised now.

So: are we with the Redeemer [resistance to oppression and prophetic activity without acquiescence] or with Jerusalem [deviations covered by docility, friendship of the ruler, notoriety, monetary rewards]?

Today too is a time of the Master's visit, who knocks and asks permission to enter, to open the seals of the great questions of history and life.

The warning is global, communal, and personal; again with tears of father, mother and son.

An appeal that is still in the making - for the current cultural tendency towards nothingness, surrender and the ephemeral.

The encyclical Fratelli Tutti denounces precisely the regress of an extravagant world that - with a shrunken sense of the 'here and now' - seems to have learnt little from the tragedies of the 20th century, to the point of rekindling anachronistic conflicts (nn.11.13).

The Father has reserved an alternative kingdom for the Church, and where it tries to occupy the place of others, it only ends up living off the handouts of the magazine, and making its closest children stay.

Better not to ruin love. Standing up for oneself is a mask of dwarfs, not a virtue of the strong - nor of family members.

But by also noticing the places of rupture, and catching up with the social pace, it is with new evangelical acumen that we will be able to make the God-for-all really work and live, rather than grieve over us.

This is best done from his People: from the soul of his Fraternities of silent lambs, engaged not in managing positions, but in the sine glossa craft of real life.

To internalise and live the message:

What do you consider to be hidden from your eyes, but previously announced - and crying bitterly?

With what orientation are you willing to live in the 'craft of Peace', even family or social, putting aside enmities and the ephemeral [cf. FT nn. 57. 100. 127. 176. 192. 197. 216-217. 225-236. 240-243. 254-262. 271-272. 278-285]?Peace, in Truth

11. In the face of the dangers that humanity is experiencing in our times, it is the task of all Catholics to intensify, in every part of the world, the proclamation and witness of the 'Gospel of peace', proclaiming that the recognition of the full truth of God is a prior and indispensable condition for the consolidation of the truth of peace. God is Love that saves, a loving Father who desires to see his children recognise each other as brothers and sisters, responsibly striving to place their different talents at the service of the common good of the human family. God is the inexhaustible source of hope that gives meaning to personal and collective life. God, God alone, makes every work of good and peace effective. History has amply demonstrated that waging war against God to eradicate him from human hearts leads a fearful and impoverished humanity towards choices that have no future. This must spur believers in Christ to become convincing witnesses of the God who is inseparably truth and love, placing themselves at the service of peace, in broad collaboration ecumenically and with other religions, as well as with all people of good will.

[Pope Benedict, Message for the XXXIX World Day of Peace, 2006].