Concordism and compromises, or chaos and different stability
(Jn 6:16-21)
Jn narrates the episode differently from the Synoptics: not so much as an outcome of the communion of the loaves, as Manifestation of Christ.
The centre of gravity of the story is Jesus' presentation of his Person: «I Am» (v.20), self-revelation of the God of Exodus [3:14: «I Am who I will be" - that is: «you will understand who I Am by what I will do»].
This is to end the tergiversations in the interpretation of His figure:
The Son of God is not a healer nor a miracle-worker, but the Deliverer from whom the people expect the Manna that heartens, the 'land' that is promised to them, salvation from death.
The passage is a parable of the church in the grip of the troubled waters of the abyss, dominated by doubt, uncertainty, a wavering faith, still lacking a blessed and everlasting seal.
In going hard and unsupported - amidst even internal controversies - we suddenly catch the Lord arriving.
He suddenly comes close, takes our pace and that of the events themselves - to accompany the vertigo and torment.
Our life proceeds towards the opposite shore, where the Master is already.
We go in hope, but sometimes adversity threatens to make us drown, and with us they seem to drag the whole boat down.
Only the Lord "walks on the sea", that is, He advances and overcomes death.
If we host Him, we realize that every element is in His power: and in Him everything is opportunity to reactivate us, also the headwind.
The invisible Friend guides, infallibly realizes, brings us to «shore». Definitive condition that the force of the waves cannot affect, even when we have the feeling of being swept away by the same waves.
Using paraphrases from the book of Exodus, Jn seeks to help his communities understand the Mystery of the Jesus’ Person.
And immersed in His story, we too grasp the vocational reality that can envelop us and characterize us, when we do not reject His Appeal.
A Calling that launches us into a different way of life, starting from unexpected resources - which can be accessed when we stop focusing our attention only on what frightens and seems negative.
The assemblies' debate on the Messiah, as well as the churches' relations with the world, also accentuated dissension and uncertainty.
Some Jewish converts considered Christ to be a character after all in line with their mentality and tradition, in agreement with First Testament prophecies and figures.
Conversely, some pagans who had accepted the Lord advocated a compromise with the worldly mentality. A sort of agreement between Jesus and the Empire, which the evangelist considers idolatrous contamination [the temptation of the pagan crowd to make him King immediately precedes the passage: vv.14-15].
The situation of the tiny believing families in the Empire was dark, doubtful, conflicted inside and out.
Jesus seemed absent, and the sea was rough, the wind contrary, threatening, unknown.
And yet, precisely in the condition of jolted pilgrims, in the essential Faith one experienced a strange and ‘different stability inside’: permanence, against the tide.
Hence awakening, proliferation, growth.
Cultural marginalization, unknowns, comparisons, trials, did not swallow up the believers, on the contrary, they made them more resolute and expeditious (v.21) - according to the Voice of the Risen One, present in the soul of everyone.
Thus, a crossing to Freedom was proposed to the disciples, which came from that intimate perception, only welcoming.
Able to nourish everyone's spirit and tear it away from phobias - in the chaos of external securities. With which the «sons» could make peace.
[Saturday 2nd wk. in Easter, April 18, 2026]
