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

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

[Pope Benedict, homily Turin 2 May 2010]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Pope Francis, Regina Coeli 19 May 2019]

The Other Way, Truth, Life, in the human dimension

(Jn 14:6-14)

Divine hands have wounds of love, they are not claws. They tread the alternative «way» of work, of building and welcoming; a truly special, disinterested, unreflected trajectory.

Hands marked by what one wishes for the world: open, not clenched into a fist - if anything, with that gentle grip that says: «I am with You».

They accompany «the way» that makes the weak become strong. «Way» that expands our horizon to conquer the land of Freedom.

He is «the Truth». We know what happens to news when it passes from mouth to mouth: it becomes defaced.

But united with the True Person - intertwined with his story - we encounter ourselves, we know the divine ‘Fidelity’ [‘Truth’], we choose substance instead of conventional, conformist or volatile ideas (we would become external).

«I Am the Life». The Father expands and enhances inclinations, our existential reaching; He does not vampirize us as if He were the one who needs something.

He is the Totality of Being, and Source in action; springing of particular essences.

His Calling is Seed; a Root that characterizes and expands Life, making it singular, more distinctive; unique, unrepeatable; meaningful and relational.

To build an alternative society capable of creating well-being: smiles and amazement flowing out, cheering everyone up.

«Let us see the Father» (cf. vv.8-9) is the plea - often anonymous - that from the very beginning has accompanied the believers’ People, who spontaneously reveal their Lord as the Way, the Truth and the Life (v.6).

And the Church that reflects Christ is the ‘outgoing’ one, which does not become complacent about its static goals, but moves [precisely: «Way»] from Exodus to Exodus, to improve itself before correcting others.

The assembly of sons is therefore not afraid of becoming impure by frequenting the cultural and existential peripheries, because it has understood the authentic face of God.

Father, Mother, deep Core, Friend.

«Faithful» [«Truth», in the theological sense] who is not afraid to mix with earthly affairs.

He does not flee the critical scrutiny; nor does he abandon those who stray, or those who cannot bear conformist obligations, or who find themselves in penury.

Authentic community is capable of coexistence and reciprocity: that of «the Life» which shows Father and Son in act [Initiative and Correspondence].

In the Spirit, such a Family recovers each person's journey and restores wholeness, fullness of being without boundaries, even to those who have lost hope or self-esteem.

Difference with ancient religion? The Eternal is no longer revealed in the awesome power of sensational outward manifestations: fire, earthquake, thunders and lightnings.

God is not the preserve of those who show great energy.

In the hearths of Faith, the Person of Christ is made present in his being, in his troubled and real life [«in the Name»: vv.13-14].

It is in such a people that God dreams an immediate reflection of ideas, words, works; and mutual immanence.

For the efficacious event of the Father is all in the flesh of the Son. Their Dream, in the human dimension of believers.

[Saturday 4th wk. in Easter, May 17, 2025]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council states that the intimate truth of the whole Revelation of God shines forth for us “in Christ, who is himself both the mediator and the sum total of Revelation” (n. 2). The Old Testament tells us that after the Creation — in spite of original sin, in spite of man’s arrogance in wishing to put himself in his Creator’s place — God once again offers us the possibility of his friendship, especially through the Covenant with Abraham and the journey of a small people, the People of Israel. He did not choose this people with the criteria of earthly power but simply out of love. It was a choice that remains a mystery and reveals the style of God who calls some, not in order to exclude the others, but so that they may serve as a bridge that leads to him. A choice is always a choice for the other. In the history of the People of Israel we can retrace the stages of a long journey during which God made himself known, revealed himself, and entered history with words and actions. In order to do this he used mediators, such as Moses, the Prophets and the Judges, who communicated his will to the people, reminding them of the requirement of faithfulness to the Covenant and keeping alive their expectation of the complete and definitive fulfilment of the divine promises.

At Holy Christmas we contemplated the realization of these very promises: the Revelation of God reaching its culmination, its fullness. In Jesus of Nazareth God really visited his people, he visited humanity in a manner that surpassed every expectation: he sent his Only-Begotten Son: God himself became man. Jesus does not tell us something about God, he does not merely speak of the Father but is the Revelation of God, because he is God and thus reveals the face of God. In the Prologue to his Gospel St John wrote: “no one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known” (Jn 1:18).

I would like to dwell on the phrase: “reveals God’s face”. In this regard St John, in his Gospel, records for us a significant event that we have just heard. When he was approaching the Passion, Jesus reassured his disciples, asking them not to be afraid and to have faith; he then begins a conversation with them in which he talks about God the Father (cf. Jn 14:2-9). At a certain point the Apostle Philip asked Jesus: “Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied” (Jn 14:8). Philip was very practical and prosaic, he even said what we ourselves would like to say: “we want to see him, show us the Father”, he asks to “see” the Father, to see his face. Jesus’ answer is a reply not only to Philip but also to us and it ushers us into the heart of Christological faith; the Lord affirmed: “he who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). These words sum up the newness of the New Testament, that newness which appeared in the Bethlehem Grotto: God can be seen, God has shown his face, he is visible in Jesus Christ.

The theme of the “quest for God’s face”, the desire to know this face, the desire to see God as he is, is clearly present throughout the Old Testament, to the extent that the Hebrew term pānîm, which means “face”, recurs 400 times, and refers to God 100 times. One hundred times it refers to God: to the wish to see God’s face is expressed 100 times. Yet the Jewish religion absolutely forbids images, for God cannot be portrayed as, on the contrary, he was portrayed by the neighbouring peoples who worshipped idols; therefore with this prohibition of images the Old Testament seems totally to exclude any “seeing” from worship and from devotion. Yet what did seeking God’s face mean to the devout Israelite, who knew that there could be no depiction of it? The question is important: there was a wish on the one hand to say that God cannot be reduced to an object, like an image that can be held in the hand, nor can anything be put in God’s place; on the other, it was affirmed that God has a face — meaning he is a “you” who can enter into a relationship — and who has not withdrawn into his heavenly dwelling place, looking down at humanity from on high. God is certainly above all things, but he addresses us, he listens to us, he sees us, he speaks to us, he makes a covenant, he is capable of love. The history of salvation is the history of God with humanity, it is the history of this relationship of God who gradually reveals himself to man, who makes himself, his face, known.

At the very beginning of the year, on 1 January, we heard in the liturgy the most beautiful prayer of blessing upon the people: “May the Lord Bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine on you, and be gracious to you. May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace (Num 6:24-26). The splendour of the divine face is the source of life, it is what makes it possible to see reality; the light of his face is guidance for life. In the Old Testament there is a figure with whom the theme of “the face of God” is connected in a special way: Moses. The man whom God chose to set his people free from slavery in Egypt, giving him the Law of the Covenant and leading him to the Promised Land. Well, in Chapter 33 of the Book of Exodus it says that Moses had a close and confidential relationship with God: “The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (v. 11). By virtue of this trust, Moses was able to ask God: “show me your glory”, and God’s response was clear: “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name”…. But he said “you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live.… There is a place by me.... You shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen” (vv. 18-23). Thus on the one hand there was the face-to-face conversation as between friends, but on the other, the impossibility in this life of seeing the face of God which remained hidden; sight is restricted. The Fathers said that these words, “you shall see my back”, meant you can only follow Christ and in following him you see the mystery of God from behind; God can be followed by seeing his back.

Something completely new happened, however, with the Incarnation. The search for God’s face was given an unimaginable turning-point, because this time this face could be seen: it is the face of Jesus, of the Son of God who became man. In him the process of the Revelation of God, which began with Abraham’s call, finds fulfilment in the One who is the fullness of this Revelation, because he is the Son of God, he is both “the mediator and the sum total of Revelation” (Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, n. 2), the content of Revelation and the Revealer coincide in him. Jesus shows us God’s face and makes God’s name known to us. In the Priestly Prayer at the Last Supper he says to the Father: “I have manifested your name to the men... I made known to them your name” (cf. Jn 17:6; 6, 26). The phrase: “name of God”, means God as the One who is present among men and women. God had revealed his name to Moses by the burning bush, that is, he had made it possible to call on him, had given a tangible sign of his “being” among human beings. All this found fulfilment and completion in Jesus: he inaugurated God’s presence in history in a new way, because whoever sees him, sees the Father, as he said to Philip (cf. Jn 14:9). Christianity, St Bernard said, is the “religion of God’s word”; yet “not a written and mute word, but an incarnate and living” (Homilia Super Missus Est, 4, 11: pl 183, 86b). In the patristic and medieval tradition a special formula is used to express this reality: it says that Jesus is the Verbum abbreviatum (cf. Rom 9:28, with a reference to Is 10:23), the abbreviated Word, the short and essential Word of the Father who has told us all about him. In Jesus the whole Word is present.

In Jesus too the mediation between God and man attains fulfilment. In the Old Testament there is an array of figures who carried out this role, in particular Moses, the deliverer, the guide, the “mediator” of the Covenant, as he is defined in the New Testament (cf. Gal 3:19; Acts 7:35; Jn 1:17). Jesus, true God and true man, is not simply one of the mediators between God and man but rather “the mediator” of the new and eternal Covenant (cf. Heb 8:6; 9:15; 12:24); “for there is one God”, Paul says, “and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5 cf. Gal 3:19-20). In him we see and encounter the Father; in him we can call upon God with the name of “Abba, Father”; in him we are given salvation.

The desire to know God truly, that is, to see God’s face, is innate in every human being, even in atheists. And perhaps we unconsciously have this wish simply to see who he is, what he is, who he is for us. However this desire is fulfilled in following Christ, in this way we see his back and, in the end, we see God too as a friend, in Christ’s face we see his face. The important thing is that we not only follow Christ in our needy moments or when we find a slot in our daily occupations, but in our life as such. The whole of our life must be oriented to meeting Jesus Christ, to loving him; and, in our life we must allocate a central place to loving our neighbour, that love which, in the light of the Crucified One, enables us to recognize the face of Jesus in the poor, in the weak and in the suffering. This is only possible if the true face of Jesus has become familiar to us through listening to his word, in an inner conversation with him, in entering this word so that we truly meet him, and of course, in the Mystery of the Eucharist. In the Gospel of St Luke the passage about the two disciples of Emmaus recognize Jesus in the breaking of bread is important; prepared by the journey with him, by the invitation to stay with them that they had addressed to him and by the conversation that made their hearts burn within them, in the end they saw Jesus. For us too the Eucharist is the great school in which we learn to see God’s face, we enter into a close relationship with him; and at the same time we learn to turn our gaze to the final moment of history when he will satisfy us with the light of his face. On earth when we are walking towards this fullness, in the joyful expectation that the Kingdom of God will really be brought about. Thank you.

[Pope Benedict, General Audience 16 January 2013]

1. The Revelation of Mercy

It is "God, who is rich in mercy" 1 whom Jesus Christ has revealed to us as Father: it is His very Son who, in Himself, has manifested Him and made Him known to us.2 Memorable in this regard is the moment when Philip, one of the twelve Apostles, turned to Christ and said: "Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied"; and Jesus replied: "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me...? He who has seen me has seen the Father."3 These words were spoken during the farewell discourse at the end of the paschal supper, which was followed by the events of those holy days during which confirmation was to be given once and for all of the fact that "God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ."4

Following the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and paying close attention to the special needs of our times, I devoted the encyclical Redemptor hominis to the truth about man, a truth that is revealed to us in its fullness and depth in Christ. A no less important need in these critical and difficult times impels me to draw attention once again in Christ to the countenance of the "Father of mercies and God of all comfort."5 We read in the Constitution Gaudium et spes: "Christ the new Adam...fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his lofty calling," and does it "in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love."6 The words that I have quoted are clear testimony to the fact that man cannot be manifested in the full dignity of his nature without reference - not only on the level of concepts but also in an integrally existential way - to God. Man and man's lofty calling are revealed in Christ through the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love.

For this reason it is now fitting to reflect on this mystery. It is called for by the varied experiences of the Church and of contemporary man. It is also demanded by the pleas of many human hearts, their sufferings and hopes, their anxieties and expectations. While it is true that every individual human being is, as I said in my encyclical Redemptor hominis, the way for the Church, at the same time the Gospel and the whole of Tradition constantly show us that we must travel this day with every individual just as Christ traced it out by revealing in Himself the Father and His love.7 In Jesus Christ, every path to man, as it has been assigned once and for all to the Church in the changing context of the times, is simultaneously an approach to the Father and His love. The Second Vatican Council has confirmed this truth for our time.

The more the Church's mission is centered upon man-the more it is, so to speak, anthropocentric-the more it must be confirmed and actualized theocentrically, that is to say, be directed in Jesus Christ to the Father. While the various currents of human thought both in the past and at the present have tended and still tend to separate theocentrism and anthropocentrism, and even to set them in opposition to each other, the Church, following Christ, seeks to link them up in human history, in a deep and organic way. And this is also one of the basic principles, perhaps the most important one, of the teaching of the last Council. Since, therefore, in the present phase of the Church's history we put before ourselves as our primary task the implementation of the doctrine of the great Council, we must act upon this principle with faith, with an open mind and with all our heart. In the encyclical already referred to, I have tried to show that the deepening and the many-faceted enrichment of the Church's consciousness resulting from the Council must open our minds and our hearts more widely to Christ. Today I wish to say that openness to Christ, who as the Redeemer of the world fully reveals man himself," can only be achieved through an ever more mature reference to the Father and His love.

[Dives in Misericordia]

In this passage of the Gospel (see Jn 14:1-14), Jesus’s farewell discourse, Jesus says that He is going to the Father. And He says that He will be with the Father, and that also those who believe in Him “will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me anything in my name, and I will do it” (vv. 12-14). We can say that this passage of the Gospel of John is the declaration of ascent to the Father.

The Father was always present in Jesus's life , and Jesus spoke about Him. Jesus prayed to the Father. And many times, He spoke about the Father who cares for us, as He cares for the birds, the lilies of the field… the Father. And when the disciples asked to learn how to pray, Jesus taught them to pray to the Father: “Our Father” (Mt 6:9). He always addresses the Father. But in this passage it is very strong; it is also as if He opened the doors of the omnipotence of prayer. “Because I am with the Father: ask me and I will do anything. Because the Father will do it with me” (see Jn 14:11). This trust in the Father, trust in the Father who is capable of doing everything, This courage to pray, because it takes courage to pray! It takes the same courage, the same boldness it takes to preach: the same. Let us think of our father Abraham, when he - I think the right word is - “negotiated” with God to save Sodom (see Gen 18:20-33: “And if there were fewer? And fewer? And fewer…? He truly knew how to negotiate. But always with this courage: “Excuse me, Lord, but give me a discount: a bit less, a bit less…”. Always the courage of struggling in prayer, because praying is struggling: struggling with God. And then, Moses: the two occasions that the Lord wanted to destroy the people (see Ex 32:1-35 and Nm 11:1-3), and to make him the leader of another people, Moses said “No!”. And he said “No” to the Father! With courage! But if you go and pray like this [whispers a timid prayer] - this is a lack of respect! Praying is going with Jesus to the Father who will give you everything. Courage in prayer, boldness in prayer. The same that it takes to preach.

And we have heard in the first Reading about that conflict in the early times of the Church (see Acts 6:1-7), because the Christians of Greek origin were grumbling, complaining - they were already doing it back then: it is obvious that it is one of the Church's habits - they were complaining that their widows, their orphans were not well cared for; the apostles did not have the time to do many things. And Peter [with the apostles], enlightened by the Holy Spirit, “invented”, let’s put it that way, the deacons. “Let’s do something: let’s look for seven people who are good and these men can take care of the service” (see Acts 6:2-4). The deacon is the one who takes care of service, in the Church. “And so these people, who are right to complain, have their needs taken care of, and we”, Peter says, we heard him, “and we can devote ourselves to prayer and the proclamation of the Word” (see v. 5). This is the bishop's task: praying and preaching. With this power that we heard in the Gospel: the bishop is the first who goes to the Father, with the trust that Jesus gave him, with courage, with parrhesia, to fight for his people. The first task of a bishop is to pray. Peter said so: “And to us, prayer and the proclamation of the Gospel”.

I knew a priest, a holy parish priest, good, who when he found a bishop, greeted him well, very amiably, and always asked the question: “Your Excellency, how many hours a day do you pray?”, and he always said, “Because your first task is to pray”. Because it is the prayer of the head of the community, interceding to the Father so that He may safeguard the people.

The prayer of the bishop, the first task: to pray. And the people, seeing the bishop pray, learn to pray. Because the Holy Spirit teaches us that it is God who does things. We do very little but it is He who “does things” in the Church, and prayer is what makes the Church progress. And therefore the heads of the Church, so to speak, the bishops, must persevere in prayer.

Peter’s word in this case is prophetic: “May the deacons do all this, so that the people are taken care of well, their problems are solved and their needs met. But to us, bishops, prayer and the proclamation of the Word”.

It is sad to see good bishops, good people, but busy with many things, the finances, with this, that and the other… Prayer must take first place. Then the other things. But when the other things take away space from prayer, then something is not right. And prayer is strong because of what we have heard in the Gospel of Jesus. It is “because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (Jn 14:12-13). Thus the Church progresses in prayer, in the courage of prayer because the Church knows that without this ascent to the Father, she cannot survive.

[Pope Francis, St Marta homily 10 May 2020]

The Other Way in the ministerial Church

(Jn 14:1-6)

«Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God and believe in me» (v.1).

Jesus invites to Faith in Him because He was condemned as a sinner, deranged and cursed, by the very teachers of the things of God.

His proposal for a «Way» breaks away from the illusory plots of religion without Exodus.

Disciples must learn to experience physical separation from the Master. And by process of love, as on a road trodden on foot, in Him continue to reach sisters and brothers.

Now they know the Father’s descending «Way»: the Person of Christ is all that mankind needs for a life redeemed from the subordination, the fears, the lies of ancient religion.

The itinerary is not individualistic and isolated. Nor does Jesus return surrounded by ostentation and power, for He never ‘left’: in the Spirit, He never separated himself.

He is the motor and motive, the force of the concrete journey, the dynamic principle that accompanies, guides and surpasses; as well as the purpose [not external].

He manifests himself and lives in the inner Mystery within us, not at the end of time or in a location (v.5).

The Incarnation continues in unique, ever new ways, which are identified in personal paths and especially in the relationship of working Faith.

Under the image of the House [almost divided into spaces] the Lord alludes to the new condition of Life and complete Communion with the Father.

The popular figure of the afterlife was linked to a certain number of "places" in which the devoted people would be housed, accommodated.

In this archetypal configuration, the Faith of believers introduces a different kind of representation, which fulfils and exceeds the ancient promises - no longer anchored in the usual distinction between vices and virtues.

Women and men have a «place» (v.2) [task, mission] already ready and assured: there we will be with the Son who Comes.

In the House of the Father there are many places (v.2), that is - according to sensitivity, inclination and history - various ways to serve the brethren; to fulfil oneself, to weave community relationships, to expand the presence of the Risen One.

The conscious and ministerial Church broadens the horizon of holiness and the apostolate.

We are all called to become fully involved members, collaborators in the work of salvation. Protagonists in the activities of the People of God, valuing each one - this is the Victory of the Son.

And the Assembly that reflects Christ is the outgoing one. A Fraternity that is not self-congratulatory about its static goals, but is moving [precisely: «Way»].

On this journey, it learns and deepens in an uninterrupted, increasing, growing way, the language of gratuitousness Love that gives spontaneously, without intimate dissociations or artificial conflicts.

Thus, the Church itself, with its wide range of collaborators (of equal dignity) is not afraid to question itself. On the contrary, from Exodus to Exodus it experiences, concretises and deepens its knowledge of the Father. Almighty because He provides for his lesser sons.

«Truth» [of God]: He is «Faithful».

Precisely on this orientation, here we are introduced to the decisive discovery: it is the Father himself who dilates, strengthens inclinations, our existential bearing. To the point of recovering opposites.

God does not vampirize us, but rather expands existence, transmitting the fullness of being multifaceted; thus communicating his own «Life».

The end of God's invisibility.

[Friday 4th wk. in Easter, May 16, 2025]

(Jn 14:1-14)

The Other Way in the ministerial Church

(Jn 14:1-6)

Disciples must learn to experience physical separation from the Master.

And by a process of love, as on a road trodden on foot, in Him continue to reach the brethren. 

Now they know the descending Path of the Father: the Person of Christ is all that the whole of humanity needs for a life redeemed from the subordination, the fears, the lies of the old religion.

The way is not individualistic and isolated. Nor does Jesus return surrounded by ostentation and power, for he never left: in the Spirit he never separated.

He is the motor and motive, the force of the concrete path, the dynamic principle that accompanies, guides and surpasses; as well as the [non-external] goal.

He manifests Himself and lives in the intimate Mystery in us, not at the end of time or in a location (v.5).

The Incarnation continues in unique, ever new ways, which are identified in personal journeys and especially in the relationship of working Faith.

Under the image of the House (almost divided into spaces) the Lord alludes to the new condition of Life and complete Communion with the Father Faithful Love.

The popular figure of the afterlife was linked to a certain number of 'places' in which the fulfilling people would be accommodated.

In this archetypal configuration, the Faith of believers introduces a different kind of representation, which fulfils and exceeds the ancient promises - no longer anchored in the usual distinction between vices and virtues.

Women and men have a "place" (v.2) [task, mission] already ready and assured: there we will be with the Son who comes.

Recognising us in dignity, the Lord Himself will descend from heaven: He will even come down to meet us (cf. 1 Thess 4:15-17) - as if each of us had become an "alter Christus".

That is, as if we had been reshaped by the Father on the very image of Jesus, on a principle of original love - in the way we should have been and perhaps even could have been (excluding the spurious aspects, of unfaithfulness to the call to life).

Finally shining with the open Mystery, convivial in their differences and fully given. Like Him, enthusiastic lords-servants of freedom.

Exultant heralds of a universal centrality, but at the opposite end of the political or fundamentalist messianic expectations, who do not know and close themselves off, do not see or meet.

In the Father's House there are many places (v.2), i.e. - according to sensitivity, inclination and history - many ways to serve the brethren, to fulfil oneself, to weave community relationships and to expand the presence of the Risen One.

The conscious and ministerial Church broadens the horizon of holiness and apostolate.

We are all called to become fully involved members, co-workers in the work of salvation and protagonists in the activities of the People of God, valuing each one - this is the Victory of the Son.

The hands of the Living One in His Assemblies have wounds of love, not claws like those of the leaders of ancient religiosity.

His-our works are of a different quality: they do not grab, they do not hold back, they do not smack, they do not chastise; they do not just serve to set up catwalks and theatrics.

They tread the alternative path of work, of building and welcoming; truly special, because unknown, disinterested and without limelight.

Hands marked by what one desires for the world: open, not clenched into a fist - if anything, with that gentle squeeze that says: "I am with You" - so that others too may feel caressed and be helped to trace the path that corresponds to them.

The Way that makes the weak strong.

"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God and believe in me" (v.1).

Jesus invites faith in Him because He was condemned as a sinner, deranged and cursed, by the very masters of the things of God.

His proposed path breaks away from the illusory plots of religion without Exodus.

Instead of doctrine and discipline, the Way expands our horizon (tearing from the cages that seize and hold hostage) to conquer the land of Freedom.

He is Truth. We know what happens to news when it passes from mouth to mouth: it becomes defaced.

Out of ignorance and self-interest, the most varied agencies of conscience manipulation (able to turn the meaning of the Gospel and the story of Christ upside down - not without gain) still tread the scene.

But united with the True Person - intertwined with his story - we encounter ourselves, we know divine Fidelity, we choose substance instead of the surface that plagues us with conventional, conformist or volatile ideas (we would become totally external).

"I am Life". The Father dilates and enhances inclinations, our existential bearing; to the point of recovering opposites.

It does not vampire us as if He were the one in need of something.

He is totality of Being and Source in action, the source of particular essences.

In religions, woman and man are depersonalised, because they live as a function of God.His Calling is instead a Seed, a Root that characterises our profound identity and expands the pulse of life, making it singular, more distinguished; unique, unrepeatable, meaningful and relational.

The Father does not make the usual moralistic appeal to elevate us, detaching us from others - perhaps by adopting devotional models configured on the mysticism of suffering, at the risk of ruining the load-bearing lines of our personality.

He does not force His children to obey (as if we were servants or sheep) but calls us to resemble Him, trusting in our inner resources - as if in germ we were already perfect and capable of producing any development.

So it is He who comes - but not with a dirigiste or paternalistic attitude - and respectfully knocks to merge with us; because He already considers us better, not inadequate and deficient.

It allows us to say: 'I' and meet ourselves - and on this solid platform build the living community, in the exchange of resources and dreams; in listening to eccentricities (which are also ours).

When we are able to transmute again, accepting its proposal, starting from our innate resources to push down others, we expand our orientation - and become more open to the providential Newness in real life - ready for any direction.

By allowing ourselves to be saved, by letting the intuitions of his Spirit flow through us, we will be People capable of thought, convinced, well-rounded; not shrunken or contraband.

In short: called to express ourselves personally and give our contribution, unprecedented and equally dignified, to build an alternative society capable of creating wellbeing: smiles and amazement bursting out, rejoicing everyone.

The end of God's invisibility.

Mysticism of the convincing Force

(Jn 14:7-14)

"Let us see the Father" is the plea - often anonymous - that has accompanied the People of believers from the beginning, who reveal their Lord as Way, Truth and Life (v.6).

Love cannot be learnt except over time, by treading many paths and risking oneself: it follows the path of man and the Exodus. The Church that reflects Christ is the outgoing one, which does not become complacent about its achievements, but moves (Way).

The assembly of the sons is not afraid to make itself impure by frequenting the cultural and existential peripheries, because it has understood the authentic face of God: Faithful (Truth, in the theological sense) that is not afraid to mingle with earthly affairs: it does not flee the critical scrutiny; nor does it abandon those who stray, do not bear obligations, or find themselves in penury.

The authentic community is that of Life: it shows Father and Son in action. In the Spirit, it reclaims each person's itinerary and restores completeness and fullness of being without boundaries even to those who have lost hope or self-esteem (often despised by those who have nothing superior).

Difference with ancient religion? The Eternal is no longer revealed in the astonishing power of clamorous outward manifestations: fire, earthquake, thunder and lightning.

In the fraternities of Faith where the Person ("Name": vv.13-14) of Christ is made present in his troubled and real vicissitude, God dreams an immediate reflection of ideas, words, works, and mutual immanence.

The Father's efficacious event is all in the flesh of the Son. Their Dream, in the human dimension of believers.

Jn frequently emphasises the relationship of Jesus with the Father: a kind of direct vision, which brings about union and mission.

The Way-for, the Truth-Faithfulness-Notwithstanding-all of the Most High, his Life of indestructible quality... are not only future realities: personal and communal experience of Faith realises them.

We too want to see God, and it is possible... but not face to face in the way we perceive things and people (v.8).

The contemplation of his Face and Presence to be known and believed comes to man through his Word-event: Jesus himself, through whom we have perfect knowledge.

His mission in the world has made his own the uncreated plan of love, which wants to spread life - not in the hard and pure (who are even familiar with how to escape the scrutiny of the Gospels) but in the poor who do not know where and to whom to cling.

Consequently, the divine vision grows to the extent that one deepens one's knowledge of the Son and his founding relationship.

The fourth Gospel expresses a formula of mutual immanence (vv.9-11) that says the same feeling speak operate, for our benefit.

Faith is ultimately an action ... believing the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father. Salvation of the little flock (in constant renewal and crisis)... not process of election and predestination.

So our belief-love in Christ brings us closer to God, and when the Father places himself in the believer, he does not detach himself, adjusting himself to the perfections, but works in the first person through him (as he worked through Jesus).Signs and gestures - even of reversal - that become intimately personal and ecclesial.

Works unfolded in history, even greater ("greater": v.12) than their Seed planted in our mud, that is, those of a poor, landless carpenter's son, a village preacher, pressed and humiliated by the authorities - in whom we recognise ourselves and who offers access, but not out of old-fashioned privilege.

Even in our irreverent flesh, in the paradox and inter-communion of the little remnant of the saved, here is the strange Fulfillment of the broken paths - by the Word of the Father, in the Spirit.

Manifestation of the relational Mystery of his Being, which in the faithful Gift of his reaffirmed Covenant recovers the opposing faces and redeems the shadow sides. By force of conviction.

To internalise and live the message:

How do you glimpse God's plan for you through the face of the Son? How do you sense that you have accepted His communion in the "Name", and reached out to the Father? How do you adhere to the Call? How do you enter into divine familiarity? What is your close correlation with the Son, who manifests the Father?

The Gospel [...] proposes a twofold commandment of faith: to believe in God and to believe in Jesus. In fact, the Lord said to his disciples: “Believe in God, believe also in me” (Jn 14:1). They are not two separate acts but one single act of faith, full adherence to salvation wrought by God the Father through his Only-begotten Son.

The New Testament puts an end to the Father's invisibility. God has shown his face, as Jesus’ answer to the Apostle Philip confirms: “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). With his Incarnation, death and Resurrection, the Son of God has freed us from the slavery of sin to give us the freedom of the children of God and he has shown us the face of God, which is love: God can be seen, he is visible in Christ.

St Teresa of Avila wrote: “the last thing we should do is to withdraw from our greatest good and blessing, which is the most sacred humanity of Our Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. The Interior Castle, 6, ch. 7). Therefore, only by believing in Christ, by remaining united to him, may the disciples, among whom we too are, continue their permanent action in history: “Truly, truly, I say to you,” says the Lord, “he who believes in me will also do the works that I do” (Jn 14:12).

Faith in Jesus entails following him daily, in the simple actions that make up our day. “It is part of the mystery of God that he acts so gently, that he only gradually builds up his history within the great history of mankind; that he becomes man and so can be overlooked by his contemporaries and by the decisive forces within history; that he suffers and dies and that, having risen again, he chooses to come to mankind only through the faith of the disciples to whom he reveals himself; that he continues to knock gently at the doors of our hearts and slowly opens our eyes if we open our doors to him” (Jesus of Nazareth II, 2011, p. 276).

St Augustine says that “it was necessary for Jesus to say: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ (Jn 14:6) because once the way was known, the end remained to be known” (cf. In Evangelium Iohannis Tractatus, 69, 2: CCL 36, 500), and the end is the Father. For Christians, for each one of us, hence, the way to the Father is to allow ourselves to be guided by Jesus, by his word of truth, and to receive the gift of his life. Let us make St Bonaventure’s invitation our own: “Open, therefore, your eyes, lend your spiritual ear, open your lips and dispose your heart, so that you will be able to see, hear, praise, love, venerate, glorify, honour your God in all creatures” (Itinerarium mentis in Deum, i, 15).

Dear friends, the commitment to proclaim Jesus Christ, “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6), is the main task of the Church. Let us invoke the Virgin Mary that she may always assist the Pastors and those in the different ministries to proclaim the Good News of salvation, that the Word of God may be spread and the number of disciples multiplied (cf. Acts 6:7).

[Pope Benedict, Regina Coeli 22 May 2011]