• The Liturgical Year celebrates the Mystery of Christ

By preaching the Church “announces” “the whole mystery of Christ” (CD 12) and with the Liturgy it “celebrates it presenting the sacred memory (SC 102).  In such a way it makes present today “the unfathomable treasure of Christ” (Eph 3, 8 ff; cf. 1, 18; 2, 7): his signs of salvation, with which the faithful come into contact in order to draw from it the grace of salvation.  The Liturgical Year which has its “source” and its “summit” in the Paschal Mystery is articulated into five “periods of time” which have a special relationship with the diverse moments of the Mystery of Christ (SC 10; LG 11).  Therefore, they follow a progressive order: Advent and Christmas; Lent and the Passover or Easter; Ordinary Time.

• Time of Advent and of Christmas
Advent is a time of preparation with a twofold characteristic: it recalls the first coming of the Son of God in humility and pre- announces the second coming in glory: it is a time of active waiting, of expectation, of desire, of prayer, of evangelization, of joy.  Christmas is a time of joyful contemplation of the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God and of his first manifestations, who has come for our salvation “man among men”. During this time Mary is particularly celebrated as “Mother of God”.

• Time of Lent and of Passover or Easter
Lent is a time of preparation the purpose of which is to guide to a more intense and gradual participation in the Paschal Mystery.  During this time the catechumens are accompanied through the various degrees of Christian initiation, and the faithful through the living memory of Baptism and Penance. The Passover or Easter is the summit of the Liturgical Year, from which all the other parts draw their efficacy of salvation, it is the fulfilment of the redemption of humanity and of perfect glorification of God: it is the destruction of sin and of death, communication of resurrection and of life.

• Ordinary Time
During this long period of time, which has a first stage between Christmas Time and Lent, and develops more extensively from Pentecost to the following Advent, is a global celebration of the mystery of Christ, which is taken up again and deepened in many of its particular aspects.
Already, we can say that Sundays – “The Day of the Lord” – are the “Weekly Passover or Easter” and therefore, a living grafting into the central nucleus of the mystery of Christ throughout the whole year; but then the Weeks (33 and 34) develop through an intense and continued recourse to the Bible the deepening of small cycles of the mystery of Christ, offering these to the meditation of the faithful in order that this may become a stimulus to the action in the Church and in the world.

Liturgical Colors

Liturgies celebrated during the different seasons of the liturgical year have distinctive music and specific readings, prayers, and rituals. All of these work together to reflect the spirit of the particular season. The colors of the vestments that the priest wears during the liturgy also help express the character of the mysteries being celebrated.

	White, the color of joy and victory, is used for the seasons of Easter and Christmas. It is also used for the feasts of Our Lord, for feasts of Mary, the angels, and for saints who are not martyrs. Gold may also be used on solemn occasions.
	Red (the color of blood) is used on days when we celebrate the passion of Jesus on Passion Sunday and Good Friday. It is also used for the birthday feasts of the apostles and evangelists and for the celebrations of martyrs. Red (the color of fire) recalls the Holy Spirit and is used on Pentecost and for the sacrament of Confirmation.
	Green, seen everywhere in plants and trees, symbolizes life and hope and is used during Ordinary Time.
	The colors violet or purple in Advent help us to remember that we are preparing for the coming of Christ. Lent, the season of penance and renewal, also uses the colors violet or purple.
	Rose may be used on the Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, and on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday. It expresses the joy of anticipation for Christmas and Easter, respectively.

“Blessed are you who are poor!

Alas for you who are rich!”

The light of the Gospel changes our way of looking.

Luke 6:17, 20-26

1. Opening prayer

Lord Jesus, send Your Spirit to help us to read the scriptures with the same mind that You read them to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. In the light of the Word, written in the bible, You helped them to discover the presence of God in the disturbing events of Your sentence and death. Thus, the cross that seemed to be the end of all hope became for them the source of life and of resurrection. 

Create silence in us so that we may listen to Your voice in creation and in the scriptures, in events and in people, above all in the poor and suffering. May Your word guide us so that we too, like the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, may experience the force of Your resurrection and witness to others that You are alive in our midst as source of fraternity, justice and peace. We ask this of You, Jesus, Son of Mary, who revealed the Father to us and sent us Your Spirit. Amen.

2. Reading

a) A key to the reading:

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus declares blessed those who are poor, those who weep, those who are hungry and who are persecuted. And He declares bound to unhappiness the rich, those who laugh, who are satisfied, or who are praised by all. Of what does the happiness consist which Jesus attributes to the poor, to the hungry, to those who weep, to those who are persecuted? Is it happiness? The words of Jesus contrast with the daily experience of our life. The common ideal of happiness is quite different from the happiness that Jesus speaks about. And you, in your heart, do you think that a person who is poor and hungry is really happy?

Keeping in mind these questions, which result from our daily experience, read the text of this Sunday’s Gospel. Read it attentively, perhaps without trying to understand it all. Allow the word of Jesus to enter into you. Keep silent. During the reading try to be attentive to two things: (i) to the social category of people who say they are happy, as well as those who are threatened by unhappiness; (ii) to people whom you know and who are part of the group of your friends and who could be part of one or another of these social categories.

The text of this Sunday’s Gospel omits verses 18 and 19. We take the liberty to include them in the brief comment that follows, because they explain a bit better the public, those to whom the word of Jesus is addressed.

b)  A division of the text to help in the reading:

Luke 6:17: Places the action of Jesus in time

Luke 6:18-19: The crowd seeking Jesus

Luke 6:20-23: The four beatitudes

Luke 6: 24-26: The four threats

c) Text:

 Jesus came down with the twelve and stood on a stretch of level ground with a great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon

came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured. Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.

 And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

3. A moment of prayerful silence

so that the Word of God may penetrate and enlighten our life.

4. Some questions

to help us in our personal reflection.

a) Which is the point that you liked best or that struck you the most? Why?

b) Who constituted the great crowd around Jesus? From where did they come and what were they seeking?

c) What are the social categories of the people who are declared happy (Lk 6:20-23)? What is the promise that each one of them receives from Jesus? How are these promises to be understood?

d) When saying “Blessed are the poor”, would Jesus be trying to say that the poor should continue to live in their poverty?

e) What are the social categories of the people who are threatened by unhappiness? (Lk 6:24-26)? What are the threats for each one of them? How is this threat to be understood?

f) Do I look at life and at people as Jesus does?

5. For those who wish to deepen more on the theme

a) Context of the time and that of today:

Luke presents the teaching of Jesus in a progressive revelation. First, up to verse 6:16, Luke says many times that Jesus taught, but says nothing on the content of the teaching (Lk 4:15,31-32,44; 5:1,3,15,17; 6:6). Now, after informing us that Jesus saw a great multitude desirous of opening themselves to the Word of God, Luke presents the first sermon. The sermon is not long, but it is significant. The one who reads it unprepared will almost be  afraid. It seems to be a sort of shock therapy!

The first part of the sermon (Lk 6:20-38) begins with a provocative contrast: “Blessed you who are poor!” “Alas to you who are rich!” (Lk 6:36-38). The second part (6:39-49) says that nobody can consider himself superior to others (Lk 6:39-42); the good tree bears good fruit, the bad tree bears bad fruit (Lk 6:43-45). Certainly, a person is not helped by hiding behind beautiful words and prayers. What matters is to put the word into practice (Lk 6:46-49).

b) Commentary on the text:

Luke 6:17: Places the action of Jesus in time and space.

Jesus has spent the night in prayer (Lk 6:12) and has chosen the twelve to whom He has given the name of apostles (Lk 6:13-16). Now He goes down from the mountain together with the twelve. Having reached level ground, He finds two groups of people: a numerous group of disciples and an immense crowd of people who had come there from all of Judea, Jerusalem, Tyre, and Sidon.

Luke 6:18-19: The crowds who seek Jesus.

The crowds feel disoriented and abandoned and seek Jesus for two reasons: they want to listen to His word and they want to be cured of their illnesses. Many people were cured, who had been possessed by the evil spirits. The people try to touch Jesus because they are aware that there is a force in Him which does good and cures people. Jesus accepts all those who seek Him. Among these crowds there are also some Jews and foreigners. This is one of the favorite themes of Luke!

Luke 6:20-23  The four Beatitudes

*Luke 6:20: Blessed are you who are poor!

Fixing His eyes on His disciples,  Jesus declared, “Blessed are you who are poor, because the Kingdom of God is yours!” This first Beatitude identifies the social category of the disciples of Jesus. They are poor! Jesus guarantees for them: “Yours is the Kingdom of Heaven!” It is not a promise concerning the future. The verb is in the present. The Kingdom is already theirs. Even being poor, they are already happy. The Kingdom is not a good future. It already exists in the midst of the poor.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus makes the meaning clear and says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit!” (Mt 5:3). The poor are those who have the Spirit of Jesus, because there are also the poor who have the spirit and the mentality of the rich. The disciples of Jesus are poor and have the mentality of the poor. They also, like Jesus, do not want to accumulate, but accept their poverty and like Jesus, struggle for a more just living together where there will be a fraternal spirit and the sharing of goods, without discrimination.

* Luke 6:21: Blessed are you, who are now hungry, blessed are you who now weep!

In the second and third Beatitude Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are now hungry, because you shall have your fill! Blessed are you who now weep, because you shall laugh!” The first part of these declarations is in the present, the second part in the future. What we now live and suffer is not definitive. What is definitive will be the Kingdom which we are constructing today with the force of the Spirit of Jesus. To construct the Kingdom presupposes suffering and persecution, but one thing is certain: the Kingdom will arrive and “you shall have your fill and shall laugh!” The Kingdom is at the same time a present and a future reality. The second Beatitude evokes the Canticle of Mary: “He has filled the starving with good things” (Lk 1:53). The third one evokes the prophet Ezekiel who speaks of those who “grieve and lament over all the loathsome practices” carried out in the city of Jerusalem (Ezek 9:4; cf. Ps 119: 136).

* Luke 6:23: Blessed are you, when people hate you…!

The fourth Beatitude refers to the future: “Blessed are you when people will hate you and will denounce your name as criminal, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice when that day comes and dance for joy, for your reward will be great in Heaven. This was the way the prophets were treated!” With these words of Jesus, Luke points out that the future announced by Jesus is about to arrive,and these people are on the right path.

Luke 6:24-26: The four threats.

After the four Beatitudes on behalf of the poor and the excluded, follow the four threats against the rich, those who are filled, those who laugh or who are praised by everyone. The four threats have the same literary form as the four Beatitudes. The first one is in the present. The second and third one have a part in the present and a part in the future. The fourth one refers completely to the future. These four threats are found in the Gospel of Luke and not in Matthew. Luke is more radical in denouncing injustice.

* Luke 6:24: Alas for you who are rich!

Before Jesus, on that level ground, there are only poor and sick people who have come from all parts (Lk 6:17,19). But before them, Jesus says, “Alas for you who are rich!” In transmitting these words of Jesus, Luke is thinking of the communities of his time, toward the end of the first century. There were rich and poor, there was discrimination against the poor on the part of the rich, discrimination which also affected the structure of the Roman Empire (cf. Jas 2:1-9; 5: 1-6; Rev 3:15-17). Jesus harshly and directly criticizes the rich: “You rich, you have already had your consolation!” It is good to remember what Jesus says at another moment concerning the rich! He does not believe very much in their conversion (Lk 18:24-25). But when the disciples are frightened, He says that nothing is impossible for God (Lk 18:26-27).

* Luke 6:25: Alas for you who now laugh because you will be afflicted and will weep!

“Alas for you who have now been filled, because you will be hungry! Alas for you who now laugh, because you will be afflicted and will weep!” These two threats indicate that for Jesus poverty is nothing fatal, and much less the fruit of prejudices, but rather the fruit of an unjust enrichment on the part of others. Here also, it is good to recall the words of the Canticle of Mary: “You sent the rich away empty handed!” (Lk 1:53).

* Alas for you when everyone speaks well of you!

“Alas for you when everyone speaks well of you; in fact, their fathers did the same with the false prophets!” This fourth threat refers to the Jews, that is, the sons of those who in the past praised the false prophets. In quoting these words of Jesus, Luke thinks about some converted Jews of his time who used their prestige and their authority to criticize the openness toward the gentiles (cf. Acts 15:1,5).

c) Extending the information:

The Beatitudes in Luke

The two affirmations “Blessed are you who are poor!” and “Alas for you who are rich!” urge those who listen to make a choice, an option on behalf of the poor. In the Old Testament, several times God places the people before the choice of the blessing or the curse. The people are free to choose: “I place you before life and death, blessing and curse; choose, therefore, life so that you and your descendants may live” (Deut 30:19). It is not God who condemns. It is the people who choose life or death, it depends on their position before God and of others. These moments of choice are moments of the visit of God to His people (Gen 21:1; 50:24-25; Ex 3:16; 32:34; Jer 29:10; Ps 59:6; Ps 65:10; Ps 80:15; Ps 106:4). Luke is the only evangelist who uses this image of God’s visit (Lk 1:68,78; 7:16; 19:44). For Luke, Jesus is the visit of God who places the crowds before the choice of blessing or the curse: “Blessed are you who are poor!” and “Alas for you who are rich!” But the people do not recognize  God’s visit (Lk 19:44).

The message of Luke for the converted pagans

The Beatitudes and the threats form part of a sermon. The first part of the sermon is addressed to the disciples (Lk 6:20). The second part is addressed to “You who listen to Me” (Lk 1:27), that is to those immense crowds of the poor and the sick, who had come from all parts (Lk 6:17-19). The words which Jesus addressed to this crowd are demanding and difficult: “love your enemies” (Lk 6:27), “blessed are those who curse you” (Lk 6:28), “to those who slap you on one cheek, present the other cheek” (Lk 6:29), to anyone who takes your cloak from you, do not refuse your tunic” (Lk 6:29). Taken literally, these words may benefit the rich, because the harder choice is always for the poor. And these words seem to say the opposite of the message of the Beatitudes and of the threats which Jesus had communicated before to His disciples.

But they cannot be taken literally.  Not even Jesus took them like that. When the soldier slaps Him in the face, He does not offer the other cheek; rather, He reacts firmly: “If there is some offense in what I said, point it out; but if not, why do you strike Me?” (Jn 18:22-23). Then how can we understand these words? Two sentences help to understand what these words want to teach. The first sentence: “Treat others as you would like people to treat you!” (Lk 6:31). The second sentence: “Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate!” (Lk 6:36). Jesus does not simply want to change something, because that would change nothing. He wants to change the system. The new way which Jesus wants to construct comes from the new experience that Jesus has: the Father full of tenderness who accepts everyone! The words of threat against the rich cannot be an occasion of revenge on the part of the poor. Jesus commands them to have the contrary attitude: “Love your enemies!” True love cannot depend on what I receive from the other. Love should want the good of the other independently from what the other does for me. God’s love for us is like this.

The sermon on the mountain, the sermon on the level ground

In the Gospel of Luke Jesus comes down from the mountain and stops on level ground to give a sermon (Lk 6:17). This is why some call it the “sermon on the plain”. In the Gospel of Matthew, this same sermon is given on the mountain (Mt 5:1) and is called the “sermon on the mount”. Because Matthew seeks to present Jesus as the new legislator, the new Moses. It was on the mountain where Moses received the Law (Ex 19:3-6; 31:18; 34:1-2). And it is on the mountain that we receive the new law of Jesus.

6. Prayer of Psalm 34 (33)

“Gratitude which comes from a diverse way of looking at things”

I will bless Yahweh at all times, 

His praise continually on my lips.

I will praise Yahweh from my heart; 

let the humble hear and rejoice.

Proclaim with me the greatness of Yahweh, 

let us acclaim His name together.

I seek Yahweh and He answers me, 

frees me from all my fears.

Fix your gaze on Yahweh and your face will grow bright, 

you will never hang your head in shame.

A pauper calls out and Yahweh hears, 

saves him from all his troubles.

The angel of Yahweh encamps around those who fear Him, 

and rescues them.

Taste and see that Yahweh is good. 

How blessed are those who take refuge in Him.

Fear Yahweh, you His holy ones; 

those who fear Him lack for nothing.

Young lions may go needy and hungry, 

but those who seek Yahweh lack nothing good.

Come, my children, listen to me, 

I will teach you the fear of Yahweh.

Who among you delights in life, 

longs for time to enjoy prosperity?

Guard your tongue from evil, 

your lips from any breath of deceit.

Turn away from evil and do good, 

seek peace and pursue it.

The eyes of Yahweh are on the upright, 

His ear turned to their cry.

But Yahweh's face is set against those who do evil, 

to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

They cry in anguish and Yahweh hears, 

and rescues them from all their troubles.

Yahweh is near to the broken-hearted; 

He helps those whose spirit is crushed.

Though hardships without number beset the upright, 

Yahweh brings rescue from them all.

Yahweh takes care of all their bones, 

not one of them will be broken.

But to the wicked evil brings death, 

those who hate the upright will pay the penalty.

Yahweh ransoms the lives of those who serve Him, 

and there will be no penalty for those who take refuge in Him.

7. Final Prayer

Lord Jesus, we thank You for the Word that has enabled us to understand better the will of the Father. May Your Spirit enlighten our actions and grant us the strength to practice what Your Word has revealed to us. May we, like Mary, Your mother, not only listen to but also practice the Word. You who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

Luke 4, 1-13

Luke 9:28-36

Season of Lent

1) Opening prayer

Lord God,

You want us to live our faith

not so much as a set of rules and practices

but as a relationship from person to person

with You and with people. Keep our hearts turned to You,

that we may live what we believe

and that we may express our love for You

in terms of service to those around us,

as Jesus did, Your Son,

who lives with You and the Holy Spirit

forever and ever. Amen.

2) Gospel Reading - Matthew 18:21-35

Peter approached Jesus and asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.' Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, 'Pay back what you owe.' Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' But he refused. Instead, he had him put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair. His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?' Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart."

3) Reflection

• Today’s Gospel speaks to us about the need for pardon. It is not easy to forgive, because certain grief and pain continue to burn in the heart. There are people who say, “I forgive, but I do not forget!” Rancor, tensions, diverse opinions, insults, offenses, provocations, all renders pardon and reconciliation difficult. Let us try to meditate on the words of Jesus which speak about reconciliation (Mt 18:21-22) and which speak to us about the parable of pardon without limits (Mt 18:23-35).

• Matthew 18:21-22: To forgive seventy-seven times! Jesus had spoken of the importance of pardon and of the need of knowing how to accept the brothers and sisters to help them to reconcile with the community (Mt 18:15-20) Prior to these words of Jesus, Peter asks, “How often should I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?” Number seven indicates perfection. In this case, it was synonymous with always. Jesus goes far beyond Peter’s proposal. He eliminates any possibility of limitation to pardon: “Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times!” That is, seventy times always! There is no proportion between the pardon which we receive from God and the pardon which we should offer to our brother or sister, as the parable of pardon without limit teaches us.

• The expression seventy-seven times was a clear reference to the words of Lamech who said, “I killed a man for wounding me, a boy for striking me. Seven fold vengeance for Cain but seventy-seven fold for Lamech” (Gen 4:23-24). Jesus wants to invert the spiral of violence which entered the world because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, because of the killing of Abel by Cain and for the vengeance of Lamech. When uncontrolled violence invades life, everything goes wrong and life disintegrates.

• Matthew 18:23-35: The parable of pardon without limits. The denarii was the coin in daily use at the time. 1 talent equaled 3,000 shekel or 6,000 denarii. Thus, the debt of ten thousand talents was approximately 60,000,000 denarii! There is no comparison between the two! Even if the debtor together with his wife and children set to work their whole life, they would never be capable of earning this much. Before God’s love, which forgives gratuitously our debt of 60 million, it is more than just on our part to forgive gratuitously the debt of a single coin, seventy times always! The only limit to the gratuity of pardon of God is our incapacity to forgive our brother! (Mt 18:33-34; 6:15)

• The community, an alternative place of solidarity and fraternity: the society of the Roman Empire was hard and without a heart, without any room for the little ones. They sought refuge for the heart and did not find it. The synagogue was also demanding and did not offer them any place. And in the Christian communities, the rigor of some in the observance of the Law made life together difficult because they used the same criteria as the synagogue. Besides this, toward the end of the first century, in the Christian communities, the same divisions which existed in society between rich and poor began to appear (Jas 2:1-9). Instead of making the community a place of acceptance, they ran the risk of becoming a place of condemnation and conflict. Matthew wants to enlighten the communities, so that these may be an alternative space of solidarity and of fraternity. They should be Good News for the poor.

4) Personal questions

• Why is it so difficult to forgive?

• How do we accomplish reconciliation in our community?

• What is the best way to approach forgiveness and forgetting while still protecting the vulnerable in our care or in our community?

5) Concluding Prayer

Direct me in Your ways, Yahweh,

and teach me Your paths.

Encourage me to walk in Your truth

and teach me, since You are the God who saves me.

For my hope is in You all day long. (Ps 25:4-5)

The death of Jesus:

when love goes to the extreme

Luke 22:14-23,56

1. Opening prayer

Holy Spirit,

poured out on the world by the divine suffering and death,

guide us to contemplate

and understand the way of the cross

of our Savior

and the love with which He walked this way.

Grant us eyes and hearts of true believers,

so that we may perceive

the glorious mystery of the cross.

“Thanks to the cross we no longer wander through the desert,

because we know the true path;

we no longer live outside the house of God, our King,

because we have found the entrance to it;

we no longer fear the fiery spears of the devil,

because we have found a spring of water.

Through Him we are no longer alone,

because we have found the spouse again;

we do not fear the world,

because now we have found the Good Shepherd.

Thanks to the cross

the injustice of the powerful does not frighten us,

because we sit at table with the King” (St. John Chrysostom).

2. Reading

a) A key to the reading:

The liturgical context: the ancient tradition of proclaiming the Gospel of the passion and death of Jesus Christ during the celebration of the Sunday before Easter goes back to the time when the celebrations of Holy Week were reduced to a minimum. The aim of the reading is to lead the hearers to contemplate the mystery of the death that prepares for the resurrection of the Lord and that, therefore, is the condition by which the believer enters into the “new life” in Christ. The custom of reading this long Gospel passage in parts, not only helps to make the reading less monotonous so as to facilitate an attentive listening, but also in order to involve emotionally the participation of the listeners, almost making them feel present and taking part in the narrative.

The two readings before the Gospel of this Sunday help us with an interpretation that gives a certain perspective to the text: the Servant of JHWH is Jesus, the Christ, a divine person who, through His ignominious death, comes into the glory of God the Father and communicates His own life to those who listen to Him and welcome Him.

The Gospel context: it is well known that the literary nucleus around which the Gospels were written was the Paschal Mystery: Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. We have here, therefore, a text that is ancient and homogeneous in its literary composition, even though it was written through a gradual process. However, its importance is paramount: in it we are told the fundamental event of the Christian faith, what every believer must face and conform to (even though the text of the liturgy of this Sunday ends with the burial of Jesus).

As usual, Luke comes through as an efficient and delicate narrator who pays attention to details and is capable of letting the reader glimpse something of the feelings and inner motivations of the main characters, above all of Jesus. The terrible and unjust suffering Jesus undergoes is filtered through His unalterable attitude of mercy towards all, even His persecutors and murderers. Some of these are touched by the way He faces suffering and death, so much so that they show signs of faith in Him: the torment of the passion is rendered soft by the power of the divine love of Jesus.

In the third Gospel, Jesus goes to the holy city only once: that decisive moment for  human history and for the history of salvation. The whole of Luke’s Gospel is like a long preparation for the events of the last days that Jesus passes in Jerusalem, preaching acting at times even grandiosely (esp. the driving of the merchants from the temple 19:45-48), and at other times mysteriously or in a provocative manner (esp. the reply concerning the tribute to Caesar, 20:19-26). It is not by chance that Luke puts together in these last days many events and words that the other synoptic Gospels place elsewhere in the public life of Jesus. All this takes place while the plot of the chiefs of the nation thickens and becomes ever more concrete, until Judas offers them a perfect and unexpected chance (22:2-6).   

In this last and definitive stage of the life of the Lord, the third Evangelist uses various terms such as a “passing” or an “exodus” (9:31), a “taking up” (9:51) and an “attaining of the end” (13:32). Thus, Luke leads us to understand, before the fact, how to interpret the terrible and scandalous death of the Christ to whom they had entrusted their life: He accomplishes a painful and difficult stage to understand, but one “necessary” in the economy of salvation (9:22; 13:33; 17:35; 22:37) in order to bring to success (“fulfillment”) His journey towards glory (cf. 24:26; 17:25). This journey of Jesus is the paradigm of the journey to be achieved by each of His disciples (Acts 14:22).

b) A division of the text to help us in its reading:

The story of the Last Supper: from 22:7 to 22:38;

The prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemani: from 22:39 to 22:46;

The arrest and the Jewish trial: from 22:47 to 22:71

The civil trial before Pilate and Herod: from 23:1 to 23:25

The sentence, crucifixion and death: from 23:26 to 23:49

Events after the death: from 23:50 to 23:56.

c) The text:

The story of the Last Supper

When the hour came, Jesus took his place at table with the apostles. He said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for, I tell you, I shall not eat it again until there is fulfillment in the kingdom of God." Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and said, "Take this and share it among yourselves; for I tell you that from this time on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me." And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you. "And yet behold, the hand of the one who is to betray me is with me on the table; for the Son of Man indeed goes as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed." And they began to debate among themselves who among them would do such a deed. Then an argument broke out among them about which of them should be regarded as the greatest. He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them and those in authority over them are addressed as 'Benefactors'; but among you it shall not be so. Rather, let the greatest among you be as the youngest, and the leader as the servant. For who is greater: the one seated at table or the one who serves? Is it not the one seated at table? I am among you as the one who serves. It is you who have stood by me in my trials; and I confer a kingdom on you, just as my Father has conferred one on me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom; and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. "Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers." He said to him, "Lord, I am prepared to go to prison and to die with you." But he replied, "I tell you, Peter, before the cock crows this day, you will deny three times that you know me." He said to them, "When I sent you forth without a money bag or a sack or sandals, were you in need of anything?" "No, nothing, " they replied. He said to them, "But now one who has a money bag should take it, and likewise a sack, and one who does not have a sword should sell his cloak and buy one. For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me, namely, He was counted among the wicked; and indeed what is written about me is coming to fulfillment." Then they said, "Lord, look, there are two swords here." But he replied, "It is enough!"

The prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemani

Then going out, he went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. When he arrived at the place he said to them, "Pray that you may not undergo the test." After withdrawing about a stone's throw from them and kneeling, he prayed, saying, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done." And to strengthen him an angel from heaven appeared to him. He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground. When he rose from prayer and returned to his disciples, he found them sleeping from grief. He said to them, "Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not undergo the test."

The arrest and the Jewish trial

While he was still speaking, a crowd approached and in front was one of the Twelve, a man named Judas. He went up to Jesus to kiss him. Jesus said to him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?" His disciples realized what was about to happen, and they asked, "Lord, shall we strike with a sword?" And one of them struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said in reply, "Stop, no more of this!" Then he touched the servant's ear and healed him. And Jesus said to the chief priests and temple guards and elders who had come for him, "Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs? Day after day I was with you in the temple area, and you did not seize me; but this is your hour, the time for the power of darkness." After arresting him they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest; Peter was following at a distance. They lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter sat down with them. When a maid saw him seated in the light, she looked intently at him and said, "This man too was with him." But he denied it saying, "Woman, I do not know him." A short while later someone else saw him and said, "You too are one of them"; but Peter answered, "My friend, I am not." About an hour later, still another insisted, "Assuredly, this man too was with him, for he also is a Galilean." But Peter said, "My friend, I do not know what you are talking about." Just as he was saying this, the cock crowed, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter; and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times." He went out and began to weep bitterly. The men who held Jesus in custody were ridiculing and beating him. They blindfolded him and questioned him, saying, "Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?" And they reviled him in saying many other things against him. When day came the council of elders of the people met, both chief priests and scribes, and they brought him before their Sanhedrin. They said, "If you are the Christ, tell us, " but he replied to them, "If I tell you, you will not believe, and if I question, you will not respond. But from this time on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God." They all asked, "Are you then the Son of God?" He replied to them, "You say that I am." Then they said, "What further need have we for testimony? We have heard it from his own mouth."

The civil trial before Pilate and Herod

Then the whole assembly of them arose and brought him before Pilate. They brought charges against him, saying, "We found this man misleading our people; he opposes the payment of taxes to Caesar and maintains that he is the Christ, a king." Pilate asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" He said to him in reply, "You say so." Pilate then addressed the chief priests and the crowds, "I find this man not guilty." But they were adamant and said, "He is inciting the people with his teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee where he began even to here." On hearing this Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean; and upon learning that he was under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod who was in Jerusalem at that time. Herod was very glad to see Jesus; he had been wanting to see him for a long time, for he had heard about him and had been hoping to see him perform some sign. He questioned him at length, but he gave him no answer. The chief priests and scribes, meanwhile, stood by accusing him harshly. Herod and his soldiers treated him contemptuously and mocked him, and after clothing him in resplendent garb, he sent him back to Pilate. Herod and Pilate became friends that very day, even though they had been enemies formerly. Pilate then summoned the chief priests, the rulers, and the people and said to them, "You brought this man to me and accused him of inciting the people to revolt. I have conducted my investigation in your presence and have not found this man guilty of the charges you have brought against him, nor did Herod, for he sent him back to us. So no capital crime has been committed by him. Therefore I shall have him flogged and then release him." But all together they shouted out, "Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us." — Now Barabbas had been imprisoned for a rebellion that had taken place in the city and for murder. — Again Pilate addressed them, still wishing to release Jesus, but they continued their shouting, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" Pilate addressed them a third time, "What evil has this man done? I found him guilty of no capital crime. Therefore I shall have him flogged and then release him." With loud shouts, however, they persisted in calling for his crucifixion, and their voices prevailed. The verdict of Pilate was that their demand should be granted. So he released the man who had been imprisoned for rebellion and murder, for whom they asked, and he handed Jesus over to them to deal with as they wished.

The sentence, crucifixion and death

As they led him away

they took hold of a certain Simon, a Cyrenian,

who was coming in from the country;

and after laying the cross on him,

they made him carry it behind Jesus.

A large crowd of people followed Jesus,

including many women who mourned and lamented him.

Jesus turned to them and said,

"Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me;

weep instead for yourselves and for your children

for indeed, the days are coming when people will say,

'Blessed are the barren,

the wombs that never bore

and the breasts that never nursed.'

At that time people will say to the mountains,

'Fall upon us!'

and to the hills, 'Cover us!'

for if these things are done when the wood is green

what will happen when it is dry?"

Now two others, both criminals,

were led away with him to be executed.

When they came to the place called the Skull,

they crucified him and the criminals there,

one on his right, the other on his left.

Then Jesus said,

"Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."

They divided his garments by casting lots.

The people stood by and watched;

the rulers, meanwhile, sneered at him and said,

"He saved others, let him save himself

if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God."

Even the soldiers jeered at him.

As they approached to offer him wine they called out,

"If you are King of the Jews, save yourself."

Above him there was an inscription that read,

"This is the King of the Jews."

Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying,

"Are you not the Christ?

Save yourself and us."

The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply,

"Have you no fear of God,

for you are subject to the same condemnation?

And indeed, we have been condemned justly,

for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes,

but this man has done nothing criminal."

Then he said,

"Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

He replied to him,

"Amen, I say to you,

today you will be with me in Paradise."

It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land

until three in the afternoon

because of an eclipse of the sun.

Then the veil of the temple was torn down the middle.

Jesus cried out in a loud voice,

"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit";

and when he had said this he breathed his last.

Here all kneel and pause for a short time.

The centurion who witnessed what had happened glorified God and said,

"This man was innocent beyond doubt."

When all the people who had gathered for this spectacle saw what had happened,

they returned home beating their breasts;

but all his acquaintances stood at a distance,

including the women who had followed him from Galilee

and saw these events.

Events after the death

Now there was a virtuous and righteous man named Joseph who, though he was a member of the council, had not consented to their plan of action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea and was awaiting the kingdom of God. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. After he had taken the body down, he wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid him in a rock-hewn tomb in which no one had yet been buried. It was the day of preparation, and the sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come from Galilee with him followed behind, and when they had seen the tomb and the way in which his body was laid in it, they returned and prepared spices and perfumed oils. Then they rested on the sabbath according to the commandment.

3. A moment of prayerful silence

so that the Word of God may enter into our hearts and shed light on our lives.

4. A few questions

to help us in our meditation and prayer.

a) At the end of this long reading, what feeling prevails in me: is it relief for having come to the end, admiration for Jesus, pain for His pain, joy for the salvation achieved, or something else?

b) I re-read the text and pay special attention to the way the many “powerful” acted: the priests, the scribes and Pharisees, Pilate, Herod. What do I think of them? How would I have thought, acted, spoken and decided in their place?

c) I read the passion once more and, this time, pay attention to the action of the “little ones”: the disciples, the people, individuals, the women, the soldiers and others. What do I think of them? How would I have acted, thought and spoken in their place?

d) Finally, I look at my way of acting in my daily life. With which of the main or lesser characters can I identify myself with? Which character would I like to identify myself with?

5. A key to the reading

for those who wish to go deeper into the theme.

A commentary on the text with special emphasis on some key points:

22:14: When the hour came He took His place at table, and the apostles with Him: Although Luke is writing for a Christian community mostly of gentile origin, he stresses that the Last Supper of Jesus is part of the Jewish rite of pesach. Just before the supper he describes the preparations (vv. 7-13).

22:15: I have longed to eat this Passover with you before I suffer: this recalls the words in 12:50: “There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great is My distress till it is over! (cf.  Jn 12:32). Luke gives us a ray of light on the interior dimension of Jesus as He prepares to suffer and die: what impels Him is, as always for Him, the radical choice of conforming to the will of the Father (cf. 2:49), but in these words we glimpse a very human desire for fraternity, for sharing and for friendship.

22:17: Then, taking a cup, He gave thanks: we have not yet come to the Eucharistic chalice strictly speaking, but only to the first of four cups of wine that are drunk at a paschal meal.

22:18: From now on, I tell you, I shall not drink wine until the kingdom of God comes: this is the second explicit reference to His nearing death. It is a repetition of the proclamations concerning the passion (9:22.44; 12:50; 18:31-32) and, like those, it refers implicitly to the resurrection. However, the proclamation, even in all the seriousness of the moment, contains intimations of hope and of the eschatological expectation, together with the certainty that the Father will not abandon Him to death. Jesus is aware of what He has to face, but is quite serene, interiorly free, certain of His final destiny and of the final results of what He is about to experience.

22:19-20: the story of the Eucharistic institution is quite similar to the one mentioned in Paul (1Cor 11:23-25) and has a pronounced sacrificial character: Jesus offers Himself, not things, as an oblation for those who believe in Him.

22:21: Here with Me on the table is the hand of the man who betrays Me: eating with him, Jesus allows even Judas to enter into communion with Him, and yet He knows well that this disciple is about to betray Him definitively. The contrast is strident and made so on purpose by the Evangelist, as is true also elsewhere in this passage.

22:28: You are the men who have stood by Me faithfully in My trials: unlike Judas, the other disciples have “stood by Jesus in His trials”, because they have stayed with Him at least up to the present moment. The Lord, then, acknowledges that they have reached a high level of communion with Him so that they deserve special honor in the glory of the Father (v. 29).  

It is Jesus Himself, then, who creates a close parallel between the constant communion of His disciples (those of then and those of today) with His suffering and the final and eternal sharing in His glory (“eat and drink”, v. 30).

22:31-37: Simon, Simon! Satan, you must know, has got his wish to sift you all like wheat; but I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail: this passage seems to come from another context. Jesus’ reference to Satan and his actions against the disciples recalls what the evangelist had said concerning the cause of Judas’ betrayal (22:3) and is almost parallel with Luke’s view of the passion as the final assault of Satan against Jesus (cf. 4:13; 22:53).  

Peter is protected from the snares of the tempter by the prayers of Jesus Himself and because he chose firmly to be a disciple of the Lord, also because he has a special mission towards his brothers and sisters in the faith (v. 32b). Jesus hastens to warn him: for him, as for the other disciples too, the terrible passion of Jesus will cost them a hard fight against Satan and many ambushes that, in various forms, will assail the disciples who will be close to Jesus during the various stages of the passion (vv. 35-36) on account of the terrible trial that He will have to endure (v. 37); these last words explicitly refer to the text in Isaiah concerning the “suffering Servant” (Isa 53:12), with whom Jesus is clearly identified.

22:33-34: Lord… I would be ready to go to prison with you, and to death… I tell you, Peter, by the time the cock crows today you will have denied three times that you know Me: Peter is a generous man, also a little impatient, as we see from his words, which seem to force Jesus to tell him about the denials. As in verses 24-27 the chiefs of the Christian community were faced with their responsibility as “servants” of the faith of the brothers and sisters entrusted to them, so now they are reminded of their duty to be prudent and vigilant towards themselves and towards their weakness.

22:39-46: the story of the moral-spiritual agony in the garden of Gethsemani follows the text of Mark (14:32-42)closely, except for some details, especially those referring to the consoling appearance of the angel (v.43).   

As the most difficult and insidious moment of his life approaches, Jesus intensifies his prayer. As Luke says, Gethsemani was the “usual” (v.37) place where Jesus often spent nights in (21:37) prayer.

22:47-53: The real passion begins with the arrest of Jesus. This passage presents the following events as “the reign of darkness” (v.53) and shows Jesus as He who overcomes and will overcome violence by patience and the ability to love even His persecutors (v.51); that is why the sad but loving words He addresses to Judas stand out: "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” (v.48).

22:54-71: The Jewish trial does not evolve that night. Nothing is said of Jesus as prisoner until morning. This lack of news concerning Jesus immediately after His arrest and until the beginning of the case is typical of Luke.

22:60-62: “My friend,” said Peter, “I do not know what you are talking about"… the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter and Peter remembered what the Lord had said… And he went outside and wept bitterly: the two looks meeting each other, who knows how they happened in the confusion of that interminable night, mark the moment when Peter becomes aware: notwithstanding his gallant declarations of fidelity, he realizes what Jesus had told him a little earlier. In that look, Peter experiences first hand the mercy of the Lord of which he had heard Jesus talking: it does not hide the reality of sin, but heals it and brings men and women back to a full awareness of their own condition and of the personal love of God for them.

22:70-71: So you are the Son of God then? … It is you who say I am… What need of witness have we now? We have heard it for ourselves from His own lips: the Jewish trial begins officially at first dawn of that day (v.66) and concentrates on seeking proofs (some true, in Luke, but cf. Mk 14:55-59) to sentence Jesus to death. According to Luke, then, the chiefs of the Jews did not bring forth false witnesses, but – even in their savage aversion towards Jesus – they behaved towards Him in a somewhat correct juridical manner.

In replying positively to the question “You are the Son of God then?”, Jesus shows that He is fully aware of His divine dignity. Through this awareness, His suffering, death and resurrection are eloquent witness of the benign will of the Father towards humanity. Thus, however, He “signs” his own sentence of death: it is a blasphemy that profanes the Name and the very being of JHWH since He declares himself explicitly to be “son”.

23:3-5: Are you the king of the Jews? … It is you who say it… He is inflaming the people with His teaching: we are passing from a Jewish juridical process to a Roman one: the Jewish chiefs hand over the condemned person to the governor so that he may carry out their sentence and, to give him an acceptable reason, they “domesticate” the movements of their sentence, presenting them in a political light. Thus, Jesus is presented as subverting the people and usurping the royal title of Israel (which by then was but a memory and a purely honorific title).

The means used by Jesus to carry out His crime, as chance would have it, is His preaching: the words of peace and mercy that He spread freely are now used against Him!       

Jesus confirms the accusation, but it is certain that He is not accused of seeking royal status, only one of the reflections of His divine nature. This, however, neither Pilate nor the others are able to understand.

23:6-12: He passed Him over to Herod: Perhaps Pilate intuited that they were trying to play a “dirty trick” on him, so he probably tries to distance himself from the prisoner by invoking respect for jurisdiction: Jesus comes from a district, which at that historical time, did not come under Roman responsibility but that of Herod Antipas.         

The latter is presented in the Gospels as someone quite ambiguous: he admires and at the same time is averse to John the Baptist, because the prophet had taken him to task over his matrimonial position, which was irregular and almost incestuous, and finally has him arrested and then put to death so as not to show a poor figure before his guests (3:19-20; Mk 6:17-29). Then he tries to get to know Jesus just out of curiosity, because he had heard of His fame as a worker of miracles, and he concocts a case against Him (v.10), He questions Jesus personally, but then – before the obstinate silence of Jesus (v. 9) – leaves Him to the mockery of the soldiers as had happened at the end of the religious process (22:63-65) and as will happen when Jesus is crucified (vv. 35-38). He ends up sending Jesus back to Pilate.

Luke concludes this episode with an interesting footnote: Pilate’s gesture begins a new friendship between him and Herod. The circumstances speak clearly as to the purity of the motivation of this friendship.

23:13-25: You brought this man before me… as a political agitator; …I have found no case against the man in respect of the charges you bring against Him: as he suspected from the first meeting with Jesus (v.4) and as he will repeat later (v.22), Pilate pronounces Him innocent. He tries to convince the chiefs of the people to let Jesus go, but they have already decided that He should die (vv.18,21,23) and insist on a sentence of death.         

What is the substance of the governor’s interrogation?  Not much, according to the few phrases that Luke reports (v.3). And yet, Jesus replied positively to Pilate, declaring Himself “king of the Jews”! At this point, it is clear that Pilate does not consider Jesus a dangerous man on the political level, nor for public order, perhaps because the tone of Jesus’ declaration left no doubt on these scores.

The intention of the Evangelist is quite clear in that he seeks to attenuate the responsibility of the Roman governor. The latter, however, is known from historical sources as a “man of inflexible nature and, on top of his arrogance, hard, capable only of extortion, violence, robbery, brutality, torture, executions without trial and fearful and unlimited cruelty” (Philo of Alexandria) and that “he liked to provoke the nations entrusted to him, sometimes by being rude and at other times by hard repression” (Josephus Flavius).

23:16.22: I shall have Him punished and then let Him go…: the fact that Jesus was held to be innocent would not have spared Him a hard “punishment”, inflicted solely so as not to let down the expectations of the chiefs of the Jews.

23:16.18.25: Away with Him! Give us Barabbas! He released the man they asked for, who had been imprisoned for rioting and murder, and handed Jesus over to them to deal with as they pleased: in the end, Pilate gives in completely to the insistent demands of the chiefs of the people, even though he does not pronounce any formal sentence on Jesus.  

Barabbas, a real delinquent and political agitator, thus becomes the first person saved (at least at that moment) by the sacrifice of Jesus.

23:26-27: They seized on a man, Simon from Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and made him shoulder the cross and carry it behind Jesus. Large numbers of people followed Him, and of women too, who mourned and lamented for Him: Simon and the women were not only privileged witnesses of the passion, but, in Luke, they are models of discipleship, people who show in action to the reader how to follow the Lord. Besides, thanks to them and to the crowd, Jesus is not alone as He approaches death, but is surrounded by men and women who are deeply and emotionally close to Him, even though they need conversion, a matter that He recalls to them in spite of His terrible condition (vv.28-31).      

Simon of Cyrene is “seized”, but Luke does not say that he was reluctant to help the Lord (cf. Mk 15:20-21).

The “large numbers of people” are also quite involved in what is happening to Jesus. This is in strident contrast with the crowd that, a little earlier, was demanding the sentence of death from Pilate.

23, 34: Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing: Luke brings out the main concern of the crucified Lord who, in spite of being in atrocious physical pain from the process of crucifixion, prays for them to the Father: He is not concerned with His own condition nor with the historical causes that produced it, but only with the salvation of all humankind. Stephen the martyr will act like Him (Acts 7:60) to show the paradigmatic character of the life and death of Jesus for the existence of every Christian.

To emphasize this strong orientation of Jesus, Luke omits the anguished cry reported by the other synoptic Gospels: “My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me?”

23:33.39-43: They crucified Him there and the two criminals… Jesus… remember me when You come into Your kingdom… Indeed, I promise you… today you will be with Me in paradise: the episode of the dialogue with one of His condemned companions is emblematic of the way Luke understands the death of Jesus: an act of self-giving made for love and in love to bring salvation to the greatest number of people in whatever condition or situation they may find themselves.

”Today” (v. 43): the thief had spoken in the future, but Jesus replies using a verb in the present: the salvation He gives is immediate, the “final days” begin with this saving event.

”You will be with Me” (v. 43): this expression indicates the full communion in force between God and those He welcomes to Himself in eternity (cf. 1Thess 4:17). According to some apocryphal writings of the late Judaic period, the Messiah Himself had “to open the gates of paradise”.

23:44-46: It was now about the sixth hour… Jesus cried out in a loud voice, He said, Father into Your hands I commit My spirit. With these words He breathed His last: Jesus’ last words, by their good nature, seem to contrast with the preceding declaration that He cried aloud.

Having come to the end of His human life, Jesus makes a supreme act of trust in the Father, for whose will He had suffered so much. In these words we can glimpse a hint at the resurrection: the Father will hand Him back this life that Jesus now entrusts to Him (cf. Ps 16:10; Acts 2:27, 13:35).       

Luke writes very concisely of the last moments of Jesus: he is not interested in dwelling on details that would offer satisfaction to some macabre curiosity, like the one that drew and still draws so many spectators at a capital sentence in many places of the world.

23:47-48: When the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God: “This was a great and good man”. So too the crowds… went home beating their breasts: the saving efficacy of the sacrifice of Jesus acts almost immediately, simply on the evidence of what had happened: pagans (such as the centurion who commanded the platoon in charge of the execution), and the Jews (the people), begin to change. The centurion “glorifies God” and seems to be just a step from becoming a Christian believer. The Jewish people, perhaps without being aware, go back using gestures of repentance as Jesus had asked of the women of Jerusalem (v. 38).

23:49: All those who knew Him watched from afar: at a prudent distance, knowing the Roman attitude that forbade excessive gestures of mourning for those condemned to be crucified (on pain of being crucified themselves), the group of disciples is present dumbfounded by the whole scene. Luke gives no hint as to their emotions or attitudes: perhaps the pain and violence dazed them to the point of making them incapable of any outward reaction.

Similarly, the women disciples do not take part in any way in the work done by Joseph of Arimathea for the burial of Jesus: they just watch (v. 55).

23:53: Joseph took Him down from the cross, wrapped Him in a sheet and placed Him in a tomb dug in the rock: Jesus has really undergone torture. He is really dead, like so many others before and after Him, on the cross, in a common body of flesh. This event, without which there would be no salvation or eternal life for any one, is verified by the fact that it is necessary to bury Him. This is so true that Luke expands on some details concerning the speed with which the rite of burial was carried out by Joseph (vv. 52-54).

23:56: On the Sabbath they observed the day of rest, according to the commandment: as the Creator rested on the seventh day of creation, thus consecrating the Sabbath (Gen 2:2-3), so now the Lord observes the Sabbath in the tomb.

None of His people, now, seem to be able to hope for anything: Jesus’ words concerning the resurrection seem to have been forgotten. The women limit themselves to preparing some oils to make the burial of the Master a little more dignified.

The Gospel of this “Passion Sunday” concludes here, leaving out the story of the discovery of the empty tomb (24:1-12) and allowing us to savor the bitter sweet sacrifice of the lamb of God, we are left in a sad and suspended state where we remain immersed, even though we know the final result of the Gospel story. This terrible death of the young Rabbi of Nazareth does not lose its significance in His resurrection, but acquires an entirely new and unexpected value, which does not take away anything from the dimension of having been killed in sacrifice freely accepted, because of the “excessively” high respect for our human powers of understanding: it is pure mystery.

6. Isaiah 50:4-10

"The Lord God helps me"

The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught,

that I may know how to sustain with a word Him that is weary.

Morning by morning He wakens,

He wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

The Lord God has opened my ear,

and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward.

I gave my back to those who struck me

and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;

I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

For the Lord God helps me;

therefore I have not been confounded;

therefore I have set my face like flint,

and I know that I shall not be put to shame;

he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me?

Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary?

Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me;

who will declare me guilty?

Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;

the moth will eat them up.

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of His servant,

who walks in darkness and has no light,

yet trusts in the name of the Lord and relies upon his God?

7. Closing prayer

of the Eucharistic prayer for this Sunday

Almighty and eternal God, You have given the human race Jesus Christ our Savior as a model of humility. He fulfilled Your will by becoming man and giving His life on the cross. Help us to bear witness to You by following His example of suffering and make us worthy to share in His resurrection.

Easter Time

1) Opening prayer

Lord our God,

there is much in us that obscures Your word

and keeps us from being truly Your Church. We pray You today:

Call us, as once You called Mark,

to speak and live Your word.

Inspire us through Your Spirit

and teach us to live in the hope

that Your kingdom will come

and remain among us

through Jesus Christ, our Lord,

now and for ever.

2) Gospel Reading - Mark 16:15-20

Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." Then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.

3) Reflection

• Today’s Gospel forms part of the appendix of the Gospel of Mark (Mk 16:9-20) which presents a list of some apparitions of Jesus: to Magdalene (Mk 16:9-11), to the two disciples who were walking out in the country (Mk 16:12-13) and to the twelve apostles (Mk 16:14-18). This last apparition, together with the description of the Ascension into Heaven (Mk 16:19-20), forms the Gospel for today.

• Mark 16:14: The signs which accompany the announcement of the Good News. Jesus appears to the eleven disciples and reproaches them for not believing the persons who had seen Him resurrected. They did not believe Mary Magdalene (Mk 16:11), nor the two disciples on the road out in the country (Mk 16:13). Several times, Mark refers to the resistance of the disciples to believing the witness of those who experienced the resurrection of Jesus. Why does Mark insist so much on the lack of faith of the disciples? Probably to teach two things: First, that faith in Jesus goes through faith in persons who give witness. Second, that no one should be discouraged when there is doubt in the heart. Even the eleven disciples doubted!

• Mark 16:15-18: The mission to announce the Good News to the whole world. After having criticized the lack of faith of the disciples, Jesus confers their mission to them: “Go out to the whole world, proclaim the Gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned”. To those who had the courage to believe in the Good News and who are baptized, Jesus promises the following signs: they will cast out devils, they will speak new languages, they will pick up snakes in their hands and be unharmed if they drink deadly poison, and they will lay their hands on the sick who will recover. This happens even today. To cast out devils is to fight against the force of evil which destroys life. The life of many people improves because they entered into the community and have begun to live the Good News of the presence of God in their life.

- to speak new languages: it means to begin to communicate with others in a new way. Sometimes we meet a person whom we have never seen before, and we care deeply for them and their situation, even though we don't know them well. This happens because we speak the same language, the language of love.

- deadly poison will not harm them: there are many things that poison life together in community. There is gossip which destroys the relationship between persons. The one who lives in the presence of God does not participate in these things and is able to not be disturbed by this terrible poison.

- they cure the sick. Wherever there is a clear and lively knowledge of God’s presence, there is also a special care given to the excluded and marginalized, especially the sick. What can help cure is that the person feels accepted and loved.

• Mark 16:19-20: Through the community, Jesus continues His mission. Jesus Himself, who lives in Palestine and accepts the poor of His time, revealing the love of the Father to them, continues to be alive in our midst in our community. Through us, He wants to continue His mission to reveal the Good News of God’s love to the poor. Even up to this time the resurrection takes place, and it impels us to sing: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ, who will separate us?” No power of this world is capable of neutralizing the force that comes from faith in the Resurrection (Rm 8:35-39). A community which wants to be a witness of the Resurrection should be a sign of life and should struggle against the forces of death in such a way that the world may be a favorable place for life. Above all, in parts of the world such as Latin America and the Middle East, where the life of people is in danger because of the system of death which has become common there, the communities should be a living proof of the hope which overcomes the world without fear of being happy!

4) Personal questions

• How do theses signs of God’s presence take place in my life?

• What are the signs of the presence of Jesus in our midst that convince people the most today?

• Do I proclaim the Gospel through my words and actions every day, or just sometimes?

5) Concluding Prayer

I shall sing the faithful love of Yahweh for ever,

from age to age my lips shall declare Your constancy,

for You have said: love is built to last for ever,

You have fixed Your constancy firm in the heavens. (Ps 89:1-2)

John 13:31-35

1. LECTIO

a) Opening prayer:

Lord Jesus, help us understand the mystery of the Church as community of love. When you gave us the new commandment of love as the charter of the Church, you told us that it is the highest value. When you were about to leave your disciples, you wished to give them a memorial of the new commandment, the new statute of the Christian community. You did not give them a pious exhortation, but rather a new commandment of love. In this ‘relative absence’, we are asked to recognize you present in our brothers and sisters. In this Easter season, Lord Jesus, you remind us that the time of the Church is the time of charity, the time of encounter with you through our brothers and sisters. We know that at the end of our lives we shall be judged on love. Help us encounter you in each brother and sister, seizing every little occasion of every day.

b) Reading:

31 When he had gone, Jesus said: Now has the Son of man been glorified, and in him God has been glorified. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will in turn glorify him in himself, and will glorify him very soon. 33 Little children, I shall be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and, as I told the Jews, where I am going, you cannot come.
34 I give you a new commandment: love one another; you must love one another just as I have loved you. 35 It is by your love for one another, that everyone will recognise you as my disciples.

c) A moment of prayerful silence:

The passage of the Gospel we are about to meditate, recalls Jesus’ farewell words to his disciples. Such a passage should be considered a kind of sacrament of an encounter with the Person of Jesus.

2. MEDITATIO

a) Preamble to Jesus’ discourse:

Our passage is the conclusion to chapter 13 where two themes crisscross and are taken up again and developed in chapter 14: the place where the Lord is going; and the theme of the commandment of love. Some observations on the context within which Jesus’ words on the new commandment occur may be helpful for a fruitful reflection on their content.

First, v.31 says, «when he had gone», who is gone? To understand this we need to go to v. 30 where we read that «as soon as Judas had taken the piece of bread he went out. It was night». Thus the one who went out was Judas. Then, the expression, «it was night», is characteristic of all the «farewell discourses», which take place at night. Jesus’ words in Jn 13,31-35 are preceded by this immersion into the darkness of the night. What is the symbolical meaning of this? In John, night represents the peak of nuptial intimacy (for instance the wedding night), but also one of extreme anguish. Other meanings of the dark night are that it represents the moment of danger par excellence, it is the moment when the enemy weaves plans of vengeance against us, it expresses the moment of desperation, confusion, moral and intellectual disorder. The darkness of night is like a dead end.

In Jn 6, when the night storm takes place, the darkness of the night expresses an experience of desperation and solitude as they struggle against the dark forces that stir the sea. Again, the time marker "while it was still dark" in Jn 20:1 points to the darkness which is the absence of Jesus. Indeed, in John’s Gospel, the light of Christ cannot be found in the sepulchre, that is why darkness reigns (20:1).

Therefore, “farewell discourses” are rightly placed within this time framework. It is almost as if the background colour of these discourses is separation, death or the departure of Jesus and this creates a sense of emptiness or bitter solitude. In the Church of today and for today’s humanity, this could mean that when we desert Jesus in our lives we then experience anguish and suffering.

When reporting Jesus’ words in 3:31-34, concerning his departure and imminent death, John recalls his own past life with Jesus, woven with memories that opened his eyes to the mysterious richness of the Master. Such memories of the past are part of our own faith journey.

It is characteristic of “farewell discourses” that whatever is transmitted in them, especially at the tragic and solemn moment of death becomes an inalienable patrimony, a covenant to be kept faithfully. Jesus’ “farewell discourses” too synthesize whatever he had taught and done so as to draw his disciples to follow in the direction he pointed out to them.

b) A deepening:

As we read the passage of this Sunday of Easter, we focus, first of all, on the first word used by Jesus in his farewell discourse: “Now”. «Now has the Son of man been glorified». Which «now» is this? It is the moment of the cross that coincides with his glorification. This final part of John’s Gospel is a manifestation or revelation. Thus, Jesus’ cross is the «now» of the greatest epiphany or manifestation of truth. In this glorification, there is no question of any meaning that has anything to do with “honour” or “triumphalism”, etc.

On the one hand there is Judas who goes into the night, Jesus prepares for his glory: «When he had gone, Jesus said: “Now has the Son of man been glorified, and in him God has been glorified. If God has been glorified in him, God will in turn glorify him in himself, and will glorify him very soon” (v.31-32). Judas’ betrayal brings to maturity in Jesus the conviction that his death is «glory». The hour of death on the cross is included in God’s plan; it is the «hour» when the glory of the Father will shine on the world through the glory of the «Son of man». In Jesus, who gives his life to the Father at the «hour» of the cross, God is glorified by revealing his divine essence and welcoming humankind into communion with him.

Jesus’ (the Son’s) glory consists of his «extreme love» for all men and women, even to giving himself for those who betray him. The Son’s love is such that he takes on himself all those destructive and dramatic situations that burden the life and history of humankind. Judas’ betrayal symbolises, not so much the action of an individual, as that of the whole of evil humanity, unfaithful to the will of God.

However, Judas’ betrayal remains an event full of mystery. An exegete writes: In betraying Jesus, «it is revelation that is to blame; it is even at the service of revelation» (Simoens, According to John, 561). In a way, Judas’ betrayal gives us the chance of knowing Jesus better; his betrayal has allowed us to see how far Jesus loves his own. Don Primo Mazzolari writes: «The apostles became Jesus’ friends, whether good friends or not, generous or not, faithful or not, they still remain his friends. We cannot betray Jesus’ friendship: Christ never betrays us, his friends, even when we do not deserve it, even when we rebel against him, even when we deny him. In his sight and in his heart we are always his “friends”. Judas is the Lord’s friend even at the moment when he carries out the betrayal of his Master with a kiss» (Discourses 147).

c) The new commandment:

Let us focus our attention on the new commandment.

In v.33 we note a change in Jesus’ farewell discourse. He no longer uses the third person. The Master now addresses “you”. This «you» is in the plural and he uses a Greek word that is full of tenderness “children” (teknía). In using this word and by his tone of voice and openness of heart, Jesus concretely conveys to his disciples the immensity of the tenderness he holds for them.

What is also interesting is another point that we find in v.34: «that you love one another as I have loved you». The Greek word Kathòs «as” is not meant for comparison: love one another as I have loved you. Its meaning may be consecutive of causal: «Because I have loved you, so also love one another».

There are those who like Fr. Lagrange see in this commandment an eschatological meaning: during his relative absence and while waiting for his second coming, Jesus wants us to love and serve him in the person of his brothers and sisters. The new commandment is the only commandment. If there is no love, there is nothing. Magrassi writes: «Away with labels and classifications: every brother is the sacrament of Christ. Let us examine our daily life: can we live with our brother from morning till night and not accept and love him? The great work in this case is ecstasy in its etymological sense, that is, to go out of myself so as to be neighbour to the one who needs me, beginning with those nearest to me and with the most humble matters of every day life» (Living the church, 113).

d) For our reflection:

- Is our love for our brothers and sisters directly proportional to our love for Christ?
- Do I see the Lord present in the person of my brother and sister?
- Do I use the daily little occasions to do good to others?
- Let us examine our daily life: can I live with my brothers and sisters from morning till night and not accept and love them?
- Does love give meaning to the whole of my life?
- What can I do to show my gratitude to the Lord who became servant for me and consecrated his whole life for my good? Jesus replies: Serve me in brothers and sisters: this is the most authentic way of showing your practical love for me.

3. ORATIO

a) Psalm 23:1-6:

This psalm presents an image of the church journeying accompanied by the goodness and faithfulness of God, until it finally reaches the house of the Father. In this journey she is guided by love that gives it direction: your goodness and your faithfulness pursue me.

Yahweh is my shepherd,
I lack nothing.
In grassy meadows he lets me lie.
By tranquil streams he leads me
to restore my spirit.
He guides me in paths of saving justice as befits his name.
Even were I to walk in a ravine as dark as death
I should fear no danger,
for you are at my side.
Your staff and your crook are there to soothe me.
You prepare a table for me under the eyes of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup brims over.
Kindness and faithful love pursue me every day of my life.
I make my home in the house of Yahweh
for all time to come.

b) Praying with the Fathers of the Church:

I love you for yourself, I love you for your gifts,
I love you for love of you
And I love you in such a way,
That if ever Augustine were God
And God Augustine,
I would want to come back and be who I am, Augustine,
That I may make of you who you are,
Because only you are worthy of being who you are.
Lord, you see,
My tongue raves,
I cannot express myself,
But my heart does not rave.
You know what I experience
And what I cannot express.
I love you, my God,
And my heart is too limited for so much love,
And my strength fails before so much love,
And my being is too small for so much love.
I come out of my smallness
And immerse my whole being in you,
I transform and lose myself.
Source of my being,
Source of my every good:
My love and my God.
(St. Augustine: Confessions)

c) Closing prayer:

Blessed Teresa Scrilli, seized by an ardent desire to respond to the love of Jesus, expressed herself thus:

I love you,
O my God,
In your gifts;
I love you in my nothingness,
And even in this I understand,
Your infinite wisdom;
I love you in the many varied or extraordinary events,
By which you accompanied my life…
I love you in everything,
Whether painful or peaceful;
Because I do not seek,
Nor have I ever sought,
Your consolations;
Only you, the God of consolations.
That is why I never gloried
Nor delighted in,
That which you made me experience entirely gratuitously in your Divine love,
Nor did I distress and upset myself,
When left arid and small.
(Autobiography, 62)

Jesus the Good Shepherd: 
his sheep know him
John 10,27-3

1. LECTIO

a) Opening prayer:

Come, Holy Spirit, to our hearts and kindle in them the fire of your love, give us the grace to read and re-read this page of the Gospel, to actively, lovingly and operatively remember it in our life. We wish to get close to the mystery of the Person of Jesus contained in this image of the Shepherd. For this, we humbly ask you to open the eyes of our mind and heart in order to be able to know the power of your Resurrection. Enlighten our mind, oh Spirit of light, so that we may understand the words of Jesus, the Good Shepherd; warm up our heart so as to be aware that these words are not far from us, that they are the key of our present experience. Come, oh Holy Spirit, because without you the Gospel will be dead letter; with you the Gospel is the Spirit of Life. Give us, oh Father, the Holy Spirit; we ask this together with Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our Mother and with Elias, your prophet in the name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen!

b) Reading of the text:

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; 28 and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one."

c) Moments of prayerful silence:

Silence protects the fire of the word which has entered in us through the listening of the Word. It helps to preserve the interior fire of God. Stop for a few moments in the silence, listening to be able to participate in the creative and re-creative power of the divine Word.

2. MEDITATIO

a) Key to the reading:

The passage of the Liturgy of this Sunday is taken from chapter 10 of St. John, a discourse of Jesus during the Jewish Feast of the dedication of the Temple of Jerusalem which was celebrated at the end of December (during which the re-consecration of the Temple, which had been violated by the Syrian-Hellenists, was commemorated, the work of Judas Maccabee in 164 B.C.). The word of Jesus concerning the relation between the Shepherd (Christ) and the sheep (the Church) belongs to a true and proper debate between Jesus and the Jews. They ask Jesus a clear question and demand a response, just as concrete and public: “If you are the Christ, tell us the plain truth” (10,24). John, other times in the Gospel presents the Jews who intend to get a clear affirmation from Jesus concerning his identity (2,18; 5,16; 8,25). In the Synoptics a similar question is presented during the process before the Chief Priests (Mt 26,63; Mk 14,61; Lk 22,67). Jesus’ answer is presented in two stages (vv. 25-31 and 32-39). Let us consider briefly the context of the first stage where our liturgical text is inserted. The Jews have not understood the parable of the Shepherd (Jn 10,1-21) and now they ask Jesus a clearer revelation of his identity. In itself, the reason for their unbelief is not to be sought in the lack of clarity but in their refusal to belong to his flock, to his sheep. An analogous expression of Jesus may throw light on this as we read in Mk 4,11: “To you I have made known the mystery of the Kingdom of God, but the others who are on the outside, hear all things by means of parables”. The words of Jesus are light only for those who live within the community, for those who decide to remain outside these words are an enigma which disconcerts. To the unbelief of the Jews, Jesus opposes the behaviour of those who belong to him and whom the Father has given to him; and also the relationship with them.

Jesus’ language is not immediately evident for us; rather in comparing the believers to a flock leaves us perplexed. We are not, at all, strangers to the life of farmers and shepherds, and it is not easy to understand what the flock would represent for a people who are shepherds. The audience to whom Jesus addresses the parable, on the other hand, were precisely shepherds. It is evident that the parable is understood from the point of view of the man who shares almost everything with his flock. He knows his sheep: he sees the quality of each one and every defect; the sheep also experience his guidance: they respond to his voice and to his indications.

i) The sheep of Jesus listen to his voice: it is a question not only of an external listening (3,5; 5,37) but also of an attentive listening (5,28; 10,3) up to an obedient listening (10,16.27; 18,37; 5,25). In the discourse of the shepherd this listening expresses the trust and the union that the sheep have with the shepherd (10,4). The adjective “my, mine” does not only indicate the simple possession of the sheep, but makes evident that the sheep belong to him, and they belong in so far as he is the owner (10,12).

ii) Here, then, is established an intimate communication between Jesus and the sheep: “and I know them” (10,27). It is not a question of intellectual knowledge; in the Biblical sense “to know someone” means, above all, to have a personal relation with him, to live in some way in communion with him. A knowledge which does not exclude the human features of sympathy, love, communion of nature.

iii) In virtue of this knowledge of love the shepherd invites his own to follow him. The listening to the Shepherd involves also a discernment, because among the many different possible voices, the sheep choose that which corresponds to a concrete Person (Jesus). Following this discernment, the response is active, personal and becomes obedience. This results from the listening. Therefore, between the listening and following the Shepherd is the knowledge of Jesus.

The knowledge which the sheep have of Jesus opens an itinerary which leads to love: “I give them eternal life”. For the Evangelist, life is the gift of communion with God. While in the Synoptics ‘life’ or ‘eternal life’ is related to the future; in John’s Gospel it indicates an actual possession. This aspect is frequently repeated in John’s narration: “He who believes in the Son possesses eternal life” (3,36); “I am telling you the truth: whoever hears my words and believes in him who sent me has eternal life” (5,24; 6,47).

The relation of love of Jesus becomes concrete also by the experience of protection which man experiences: it is said that the sheep “will never be lost”. Perhaps, this is a reference to eternal damnation. And it is added that “no one will snatch them”. These expressions suggest the role of the hand of God and of Christ who prevent the hearts of persons to be snatched by other negative forces. In the Bible the hand, in some contexts, is a metaphor which indicates the force of God who protects (Deut 33,3: Ps 31,6). In others, the verb “to snatch” (harpázö) suggests the idea that the community of disciples will not be exempt from the attacks of evil and of temptations. But the expression “no one will snatch them” indicates that the presence of Christ assures the community of the certainty of an unflinching stability which allows them to overcome every temptation of fear.

b) Some questions:

To orientate the meditative reflection and the updating:

i) The first attitude which the Word of Jesus makes evident is that man has “to listen”. This verb in Biblical language is rich and relevant: it implies joyous adherence to the content of what is listened to, obedience to the person who speaks, the choice of life of the one who addresses us. Are you a man immersed in listening to God? Are there spaces and moments in your daily life which you dedicate, in a particular way, to listening to the Word of God?

ii) The dialogue or intimate and profound communication between Christ and you has been defined by the Gospel in today’s Liturgy by a great Biblical verb, “to know” This involves the whole being of man: the mind, the heart, the will. Is your consciousness of Christ firm at a theoretical-abstract level or do you allow yourself to be transformed and guided by his voice on the journey of your life?

iii) The man who has listened and known God “follows” Christ as the only guide of his life. Is your following daily, continuous? Even when in the horizon one foresees the threat or nightmare of other voices or ideologies which try to snatch us from communion with God?

iv) In the meditation of today’s Gospel two other verbs emerged: we will never be “lost, damned” and nobody will be able to “snatch” us from the presence of Christ who protects our life. This is the foundation and motivation of our daily assurance. This idea is expressed in such a luminous way by Paul: “For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below – there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus, our Lord” (Rm 8,38-39). When between the believer and the Person of Jesus is established a relation made by calls and listening, then life proceeds assured to attain spiritual maturity and success. The true foundation of this assurance lies in discovering every day the divine identity of this Shepherd who is the assurance of our life. Do you experience this security and this serenity when you feel threatened by evil?

v) The words of Jesus “I give them eternal life” assure you that the end of your journey as believer, is not dark and uncertain. For you, does eternal life refer to the number of years that you can live or instead does it recall your communion of life with God himself? Is the experience of the company of God in your life a reason for joy?

3. ORATIO

a) Psalm 100, 2; 3; 5

Serve the Lord with gladness! 
Come into his presence with singing! 
Know that the Lord is God! 
It is he that made us, and we are his; 
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 
For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures for ever, 
and his faithfulness to all generations.

b) Final Prayer:

Lord, we ask you to manifest yourself to each one of us as the Good Shepherd, who by the force of the Paschal Mystery reconstitutes, animates your own, with your delicate presence, with all the force of your Spirit. We ask you to open our eyes, so as to be able to know how you guide us, support our will to follow you any place where you want to lead us. Grant us the grace of not being snatched from your hands of Good Shepherd and of not being in the power of evil which threatens us, from the divisions which hide or lurk within our heart. You, oh Christ, be the Shepherd, our guide, our example, our comfort, our brother. Amen!

4. CONTEMPLATIO

Contemplate the Word of the Good Shepherd in your life. The preceding stages of the Lectio Divina, important in themselves, become practical, if orientated to lived experience. The path of the “Lectio” cannot be considered ended if it does not succeed to make of the Word a school of life for you. Such a goal is attained when you experience in you the fruits of the Spirit. These are: interior peace which flourishes in joy and in the relish for the Word; the capacity to discern between that which is essential and work of God and that which is futile and work of the evil; the courage of the choice and of the concrete action, according to the values of the Biblical page that you have read and meditated on.

The multiplication of the loaves for the hungry
Jesus teaches sharing
Luke 9:10-17

1. Opening prayer

Lord Jesus, send your Spirit to help us read the Scriptures with the same mind that you read them to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. In the light of the Word, written in the Bible, you helped them to discover the presence of God in the disturbing events of your sentence and death. Thus, the cross that seemed to be the end of all hope became for them the source of life and of resurrection. 
Create in us silence so that we may listen to your voice in Creation and in the Scriptures, in events and in people, above all in the poor and suffering. May your word guide us so that we too, like the two disciples from Emmaus, may experience the force of your resurrection and witness to others that you are alive in our midst as source of fraternity, justice and peace. We ask this of you, Jesus, son of Mary, who revealed to us the Father and sent us your Spirit. Amen.

2. Reading

a) A key to the reading: the literary context:

Our text comes from the middle of Luke’s Gospel: Jesus expands and intensifies his mission in the villages of Galilee and he sends the twelve disciples to help him (Lk 9:1-6). This news reaches the ears of Herod, the same who had John the Baptist killed (Lk 9:7-9). When the disciples come back from their mission, Jesus invites them to go to a solitary place (Lk 9:10). Then follows our text concerning the multiplication of the loaves (Lk 9:11-17).
Immediately after this, Jesus asks: “Who do people say that I am?” (Lk 9:18-21). Then, for the first time, he goes on to speak of his passion and death and the consequences of all this for the disciples (Lk 9:22-28). Then we have the Transfiguration where Jesus speaks with Moses and Elijah concerning his passion and death in Jerusalem (Lk 9:28-43). There follows another proclamation of his passion, to the consternation and incomprehension of his disciples (Lk 9:44-50). Finally, Jesus decides to go to Jerusalem to meet his death (Lk 9:52).

b) A division of the text as an aid to its reading:

Luke 9:10: They go to a place apart.
Luke 9:11: The crowd learns that Jesus is there and he welcomes them.
Luke 9:12: The disciples worry about the people going hungry.
Luke 9:13: Jesus makes a suggestion and the reply of the disciples.
Luke 9:14-15: Jesus’ initiative to resolve the problem of the people’s hunger
Luke 9:16: Eucharistic connotations and sense
Luke 9:17: The great sign: all will eat

c) The text:

10 On their return the apostles told him what they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a city called Bethsaida. 11 When the crowds learned it, they followed him; and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God, and cured those who had need of healing. 12 Now the day began to wear away; and the twelve came and said to him, "Send the crowd away, to go into the villages and country round about, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a lonely place." 13 But he said to them, "You give them something to eat." They said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish -- unless we are to go and buy food for all these people." 14 For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, "Make them sit down in companies, about fifty each." 15 And they did so, and made them all sit down. 16 And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. 17 And all ate and were satisfied. And they took up what was left over, twelve baskets of broken pieces.

3. A moment of prayerful silence

so that the Word of God may penetrate and enlighten our life.

4. Some questions

to help us in our personal reflection.

a) What did you like best and what struck you most in the text?
b) In what situation does the crowd find itself according to the text?
c) What is the reaction or feeling of the disciples before the situation of the crowd?
d) What is the reaction or feeling of Jesus before the situation of the crowd?
e) Which facts from the Old Testament story does this text recall?
f) Do you know of any initiatives of persons who, today, give the hungry crowd food to eat?
g) How do we help the crowd? Do we distribute fish or do we teach them to fish?

5. A key to the reading

for those who wish to go deeper into the theme.

a) The historical context of our text:

The historical context of Luke’s Gospel always has two aspects: the aspect of the times of Jesus, that is, the 30’s in Palestine, and the context of the Christian communities of the 80’s for whom he is writing his Gospel. 
At the time of Jesus in Palestine, the people lived in expectation of a Messiah who would be a new Moses and who would repeat the great signs worked by Moses in Exodus: leading the people through the desert and feeding them with manna. The multiplication of the loaves in the desert was for the crowd a sign that the messianic time had come (cf. Jn 6:14-15).
In Luke’s time, in the Greek communities, it was important to confirm the Christians in the conviction of their faith and to give them direction in the midst of difficulties. The way Luke describes the multiplication of the loaves, recalls the celebration of the Eucharist as celebrated in the communities in the 80’s, and helps them to deepen their understanding of the Eucharist in their daily lives. Besides, in his description of the multiplication of the loaves, as we shall see, Luke recalls important figures in the history of the people of God: Moses, Elijah and Elisha, thus showing that Jesus is truly the Messiah who is to come to fulfil the promises of the past.

b) A commentary on the text:

Luke 9:10: Jesus and the disciples go apart in a lonely place
The disciples return from the mission to which they were sent (Lk 9:1-6). Jesus invites them to go to a lonely place near Bethsaida, north of Lake Galilee. Mark’s Gospel adds that he invites them to rest a little (Mk 6:31). When Luke describes the mission of the 72 disciples, he is also describing Jesus’ revision of his missionary activity, an activity carried out by the disciples (Lk 10: 17-20).

Luke 9:11: The crowd seeks Jesus and Jesus welcomes them
The crowd knows where Jesus went and they follow him. Mark is more explicit. He says that Jesus and the disciples went by boat whereas the crowd followed on foot by another road to a specific place. The crowd arrives before Jesus (Mk 6:32-33). When Jesus arrives at the place of rest, He sees the crowd and welcomes them. He speaks to them of the Kingdom and heals the sick. Mark adds that the crowd was like sheep without a shepherd. Before such a situation, Jesus reacts as a “good shepherd”, leading the crowd by his words and feeding them with loaves and fishes (Mk 6,34ff).

Luke 9:12: The worry of the disciples and the hunger of the crowd
The day is fading, it is almost sunset. The disciples are worried and ask Jesus to send the crowd away. They say that it is impossible to find food sufficient for so many people in the desert. For them, the only solution is to let the people go to nearby villages to buy bread. They cannot imagine any other solution.
Reading between the lines of this description of the situation of the crowd, we find something very important. People forget to eat in order to stay with Jesus. This means that Jesus must have known how to attract people, even to the point that they forget everything to follow him in the desert.

Luke 9:13: Jesus’ suggestion and the reply of the disciples
Jesus says: “You give them something to eat”. The disciples are frightened, because they only have five loaves and two fish. But it is they who must solve the problem and the only thing that comes to their mind is to send the crowd away to buy bread. They can only think of the traditional solution, namely that someone has to obtain bread for the people. Someone has to get money, buy bread and distribute it among the crowd, but in the desert such a solution is impossible. They cannot see any other possibility. In other words, if Jesus insists on not sending the crowd away, then there is no solution to the hunger of the crowd. It does not occur to them that the solution could come from Jesus and from the crowd itself.

Luke 9:14-15: Jesus’ initiative to solve the problem of the hunger
There were five thousand persons. A lot of people. Jesus asks the disciples to make them sit in groups of fifty. It is at this point that Luke begins to use the Bible to throw light on the facts of Jesus’ life. He recalls Moses. It was Moses who first gave the hungry crowd something to eat in the desert after leaving Egypt (cf. Num chs. 1 to 4). Luke also recalls the prophet Elisha. It was he, in fact, who in the Old Testament, had made that a few loaves were more than sufficient to feed a multitude (2 Kings 4:42-44). The text suggests, then, that Jesus is the new Moses, the new prophet who must come into the world (cf. Jn 6:14-15). The multitude of the communities knew the Old Testament, and half an allusion would have been sufficient for them. Thus they discover gradually the mystery that is unfolding in the person of Jesus.

Luke 9:16: Recalling the Eucharist and its meaning
When the people sit on the ground, Jesus multiplies the loaves and asks the disciples to distribute them. It is important to note the way Luke describes this action. He says: “Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, raised his eyes to heaven, and said the blessing over them; then he broke them and handed them to his disciples to distribute among the crowd”. This manner of speaking to the communities of the 80’s (and of all times) recalls the Eucharist. For these very words will be used (and are still used) in the celebration of the Supper of the Lord (22:19). Luke suggests that the Eucharist must lead to the multiplication of the loaves, that is, to sharing. It must help Christians to take care of the concrete needs of the neighbour. It is the bread of life that gives courage and leads the Christian to face the problems of the crowd in a new way, not from outside, but from among the crowd.

Luke 9:17: The great sign: all will eat
All will eat, all will be satisfied and there will be basketsful left over! An unexpected solution, performed by Jesus and born from within the crowd itself, beginning from the little that they had brought, five loaves and two fish. And there were twelve baskets full of scraps after the five thousand had eaten of the five loaves and two fish!

c) A deepening: The greater miracle:

Some will ask: “There was no miracle then? It was just a sharing?” Here are three reflections by way of an answer:

A first reflection: Which would be the greater miracle today: for instance, that on a certain day of the year, say Christmas, everyone has enough to eat and receives a Christmas hamper; or perhaps that people begin to share their bread so that no one goes hungry and there would be leftovers for other crowds. Which would be the greater miracle? What do you think?

A second reflection: The word Miracle (miraculum) comes from the verb to admire. A miracle is an extraordinary action, outside the normal, that causes admiration and leads to think of God. The greatmiracle, the greatest miracle of all, is (1) Jesus himself, God made man! Thus God becomes extraordinarily human as only God can be human! Another great miracle is (2) the change that Jesus succeeds in working among the crowd that is used to solutions from outside. Jesus succeeds in making the crowd face its problem from within and to take into account the means at their disposal. A great miracle, an extraordinary thing is (3) that through this gesture of Jesus’, all eat and there are leftovers! When we share, there is always more... and leftovers! So there are three great miracles: Jesus himself, the conversion of people and the sharing of goods leading to an abundance! Three miracles born of a new experience of God as Father revealed to us in Jesus. This experience of God changed all mental categories and the way of life, it opened an entirely new horizon and created a new way of living together with others. This is the greatest miracle: another world made possible!

A third reflection: It is difficult to know how things happened. No one is saying that Jesus did not work a miracle. He worked many miracles! But we must not forget that the greatest miracle is the resurrection of Jesus. Through their faith in Jesus, people begin to live in a new way, sharing bread with the brothers and sisters who have nothing and are hungry: “None of their members was ever in want, as all those who owned land or houses would sell them, and bring the money from them to present it to the apostles” (Acts 4:34-35). When a miracle is described in the Bible, the greater attention is drawn not towards the miraculous aspect, but rather towards the meaning the miracle has for life and for the faith of the community of those who believe in Jesus, the revelation of the Father. In the so-called “first world” of the so-called “Christian” countries, animals have more to eat than human beings of the “third world”. Many people are hungry! This means that the Eucharist has not taken deep root yet nor does it reach out as it could and should.

6. The prayer of a Psalm: 81(80)

The God who frees and feeds his people

Sing aloud to God our strength; 
shout for joy to the God of Jacob! 
Raise a song, sound the timbrel, 
the sweet lyre with the harp. 
Blow the trumpet at the new moon, 
at the full moon, on our feast day. 
For it is a statute for Israel, 
an ordinance of the God of Jacob. 
He made it a decree in Joseph, 
when he went out over the land of Egypt. 
I hear a voice I had not known: 
"I relieved your shoulder of the burden; 
your hands were freed from the basket. 
In distress you called, and I delivered you; 
I answered you in the secret place of thunder; 
I tested you at the waters of Meribah. 
Hear, O my people, while I admonish you! 
O Israel, if you would but listen to me! 
There shall be no strange god among you; 
you shall not bow down to a foreign god. 
I am the Lord your God, 
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. 
"But my people did not listen to my voice; 
Israel would have none of me. 
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, 
to follow their own counsels. 
O that my people would listen to me, 
that Israel would walk in my ways! 
I would soon subdue their enemies, 
and turn my hand against their foes. 
Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him, 
and their fate would last for ever. 
I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, 
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you."

7. Final Prayer

Lord Jesus, we thank for the word that has enabled us to understand better the will of the Father. May your Spirit enlighten our actions and grant us the strength to practice that which your Word has revealed to us. May we, like Mary, your mother, not only listen to but also practise the Word. You who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

Jesus welcomes and defends 
the woman with the ointment.
Poor people’s trust in Jesus 
Luke 7:36 to 8:3

1. Opening prayer

Lord Jesus, send your Spirit to help us to read the Scriptures with the same mind that you read them to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. In the light of the Word, written in the Bible, you helped them to discover the presence of God in the disturbing events of your sentence and death. Thus, the cross that seemed to be the end of all hope became for them the source of life and of resurrection. 

Create in us silence so that we may listen to your voice in Creation and in the Scriptures, in events and in people, above all in the poor and suffering. May your word guide us so that we too, like the two disciples from Emmaus, may experience the force of your resurrection and witness to others that you are alive in our midst as source of fraternity, justice and peace. We ask this of you, Jesus, son of Mary, who revealed to us the Father and sent us your Spirit. Amen.

2. Reading

a) A key to the reading:

The text of this Sunday’s Gospel puts before us two related episodes. The first episode is quite emotional. A woman who was thought to be a sinner in the city, has the courage to go into Simon’s house, a Pharisee, during a meal, to meet Jesus, wash his feet and cover them with kisses and ointment. The second episode describes Jesus’ community of men and women. 

As you read the text, imagine being in the Pharisee’s house at table and look carefully at the attitudes, actions and words of those present, the woman, Jesus and the Pharisees. Read again the brief information that Luke gives concerning the community that grew around Jesus and try to examine carefully the words used to show that the community was made up of men and women who followed Jesus.

c) A division of the text to help with the reading:

Luke 7:36-38: A woman washes Jesus’ feet in the house of a Pharisee
Luke 7:39-40: The Pharisee’s reaction and Jesus’ reply
Luke 7:41-43: The parable of the two debtors and the Pharisee’s reply
Luke 7:44-47: Jesus applies the parable and defends the girl
Luke 7:48-50: Love generates forgiveness and forgiveness generates love
Luke 8:1-3: The men and women disciples of Jesus’ community

c) Text:

36 One of the Pharisees invited Jesus to a meal. When he arrived at the Pharisee's house and took his place at table, 37 suddenly a woman came in, who had a bad name in the town. She had heard he was dining with the Pharisee and had brought with her an alabaster jar of ointment. 38 She waited behind him at his feet, weeping, and her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them away with her hair; then she covered his feet with kisses and anointed them with the ointment. 
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, 'If this man were a prophet, he would know who this woman is and what sort of person it is who is touching him and what a bad name she has.' 40 Then Jesus took him up and said, 'Simon, I have something to say to you.' He replied, 'Say on, Master.' 41 'There was once a creditor who had two men in his debt; one owed him five hundred denarii, the other fifty. 42 They were unable to pay, so he let them both off. Which of them will love him more?' 43 Simon answered, 'The one who was let off more, I suppose.' Jesus said, 'You are right.' 44 Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, 'You see this woman? I came into your house, and you poured no water over my feet, but she has poured out her tears over my feet and wiped them away with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but she has been covering my feet with kisses ever since I came in. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 For this reason I tell you that her sins, many as they are, have been forgiven her, because she has shown such great love. It is someone who is forgiven little who shows little love.' 48 Then he said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven.' 49 Those who were with him at table began to say to themselves, 'Who is this man, that even forgives sins?' 50 But he said to the woman, 'Your faith has saved you; go in peace.'
8:1 Now it happened that after this he made his way through towns and villages preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. With him went the Twelve, 2 as well as certain women who had been cured of evil spirits and ailments: Mary surnamed the Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 Joanna the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their own resources.

3. A moment of prayerful silence

so that the Word of God may penetrate and enlighten our life.

4. Some questions

to help us in our personal reflection.

a) What struck you most in the text? Why? 
b) What does the woman do and how does she do it?
c) What is the Pharisee’s attitude towards Jesus and towards the woman: what does he do and say? 
d) What is Jesus’ attitude towards the woman: what does he do and say?
e) The woman would not have done what she did unless she was absolutely certain that Jesus would welcome her. Do present day people who are marginalized have the same certainty in our regard as Christians? 
f) Love and forgiveness. Who are the women who follow Jesus? What binds them together? 
g) Jesus’ community: Who are the women who follow Jesus? What do they do?

5. For those who wish to go deeper into the theme

a) The literary and historical context of the text:

In chapter 7 of his Gospel, Luke describes the new and surprising things that happen among the people since Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God. In Capernaum, he praises the faith of the foreigner: “Amen I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith! (Lk 7:1-10). In Naim he raises the widow’s son from death (Lk 7:11-17). The way Jesus proclaims the Kingdom surprises the Jewish brethren so that even John the Baptist is surprised and sends word to ask: “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Lk 7:18-30). Jesus criticises the wavering of his adversaries: "They are like children who do not know what they want!" (cfr. Lk 7:31-35). And here, at the end of the chapter, that is our text (Lk 7:36 to 8:3), something else that is new begins to appear and to surprise in the Good News of the Kingdom: Jesus’ attitude towards women. 
At the time of the New Testament in Palestine, women were marginalized. They took no part in the synagogue nor could they witness in public life. From the time of Ezra (IV century B.C.), resistance towards women kept growing as we note in the stories of Judith, Esther, Ruth, Naomi, Susanna, the Sulamite woman and many others. This resistance towards women did not find an echo in Jesus who welcomed them. In the episode of the woman with the ointment (Lk 7:36-50) we see anti-conformism in Jesus’ welcome of the woman. In the description of the community that was growing around Jesus (Lk 8:1-3), we see men and women gathered around Jesus, equal in standing as disciples.

b) A commentary on the text:

Luke 7:36-38: A woman washes Jesus’ feet in the house of a Pharisee
Three totally different persons meet: Jesus, a Pharisee and a woman who was said to be a sinner. Jesus is in Simon’s house, a Pharisee who had invited him to eat in his house. A woman comes in, kneels at Jesus’ feet, weeps, bathes his feet with her tears, loosens her hair to wipe Jesus’ feet, kisses them and anoints them with ointment. The act of loosening her hair in public was a sign of independence. This is the scene that causes the debate that follows.

Luke 7:39-40: The Pharisees’ reply and Jesus’ reply
Jesus does not retreat, does not reprove the woman but rather welcomes what she does. The woman is someone who, according to the observant Jews of the time, could not be welcomed. Seeing what was going on, the Pharisee criticises Jesus and condemns the woman: "This man, were he a prophet, would surely know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner!" In reply to the Pharisee’s provocation, Jesus tells a parable; a parable that will help the Pharisee and all of us to see the invisible call of the love of God who reveals himself in that scene.

Luke 7:41-43: The parable of the two debtors and the Pharisee’s reply 
The parable recounts the following: A creditor had to debtors. One owed him 500 denarii and the other 50. A denarius was equivalent to a day’s wage. Thus the wages for fifty days! Neither of the two could pay. Both were forgiven. Which of them will love him more? The Pharisee replies: "He to whom he forgave more!" The parable presupposes that earlier, both the Pharisee and the woman had received some favour from Jesus. Now, in their attitude towards Jesus, they show their appreciation for the favour received. The Pharisee shows his love, his gratitude, by inviting Jesus to his house. The woman shows her love, her gratitude with her tears, with kisses and with the ointment. Which of these actions shows a greater love; eating or the kisses and ointment? Does the measure of one’s love depend on the size of the present offered?

Luke 7:44-47: Jesus applies the parable and defends the woman
When he had received the correct answer from the Pharisee, Jesus applied it to the situation which arose with the coming in of the woman during the meal. He defends the sinful woman against the criticism of the practising Jew. What Jesus is saying to the Pharisees of all times is this: "He to whom little is forgiven, loves little!" The personal security that I, the Pharisee, create for myself because of my observance of the laws of God and of the Church, frequently prevents me from experiencing the gratuitous love of a forgiving God. What matters is not the observance of the law as such, but the love with which I observe the law. Using the symbols of the love of the sinful woman, Jesus answers the Pharisee who considered himself just: «You see this woman? I came into your house, and you poured no water over my feet, but she has poured out her tears over my feet and wiped them away with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she has been covering my feet with kisses ever since I came in. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. For this reason I tell you that her sins, many as they are, have been forgiven her, because she has shown such great love. It is someone who is forgiven little who shows little love». It is as if he said: "Simon, in spite of the banquet you offer me, you have little love!" Why? The prophet Jeremiah had once said that in the future, in the new covenant, “no longer will they need to teach their friends and kinsmen how to know the Lord. All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the Lord, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more”. (Jer 31:34). It is awareness of being freely forgiven that makes one experience the love of God. When the Pharisee calls the woman a “sinner”, he is considering himself to be a just man who observes and practices the law. He is like the Pharisee from the other parable who said: “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, robbers, dishonest, adulterers, or even like this publican” (Lk 18:11). Simon must have thought: “O God, I thank you because I am not like this sinful woman!” But the one who went home justified was not the Pharisee but the publican who had said: “Be merciful to me a sinner!” (Lk 18:14). From the beginning, Pharisees always consider themselves sinless, because in all things they observe the law of God, they go to Mass, pray, give alms and pay their taxes. They place their security in what they do for God, not in the love and the forgiveness of God towards them. That is why Simon, the Pharisee cannot experience the gratuitousness of God’s love.

Luke 7:48-50: Love generates forgiveness and forgiveness generates love
Jesus says to the woman: "Your sins are forgiven you." Then the guests begin to think: "Who is this who even forgives sins?" But Jesus says to the woman: "Your faith has saved you. Go and sin no more!" Here we see Jesus’ new attitude. He does not condemn but welcomes. It is faith that enables the woman to know herself and to accept herself and God. In her exchange with Jesus, a new force breaks forth in her that enables her to be reborn. An important question comes to our mind. Would the sinful woman in the city have done what she did had she not been absolutely certain that Jesus would welcome her? This means that for the poor people of Galilee in those days, Jesus was someone to be trusted absolutely! “We can trust him. He will welcome us!” Do the marginalized people of today have this same certainty towards us Christians?

Luke 8:1-3: The disciples of Jesus’ community
Jesus went to the villages and towns of Galilee, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God and the twelve were with him. The expression “following Jesus” shows the condition of a disciple who follows the Master seeking to imitate his example and sharing in his fate. It is surprising that besides the men there were also women who “followed Jesus”. Luke places the men and women disciples on an equal level. He also says that the women servedJesus with their goods. Luke also mentions the names of some of these women disciples: Mary Magdalene, born in the city of Magdala. She had been delivered of seven demons. Joanna, the wife of Cuza, Herod Antipa’s procurator, who was governor of Galilee. Susanna and many others.

c) Further information:

i) Luke’s Gospel has always been considered the Gospel of women. Indeed, Luke is the one who most records occasions that show the relationship of Jesus with women. However, the novelty, the Good News concerning women, is not simply because of the many citations of their presence around Jesus, but in Jesus’ attitude towards them. Jesus touches them, allows them to touch him, without fear of being contaminated (Lk 7:39; 8:44-45.54). The difference between Jesus and the masters of the time is that Jesus accepts women as followers and disciples (Lk 8:2-3; 10”39). The liberating force of God, which acts in Jesus, raises women to assume their place of dignity (Lk 13:13). Jesus feels the suffering of the widow and joins in her sorrow (Lk 7:13). The work of the woman who prepares food, is seen by Jesus as a sign of the Kingdom (Lk 13:20-21). The persevering widow who fights for her rights is presented as a model of prayer (Lk 18:1-8), and the poor widow who shares her meagre goods with others is presented as the model of gift and of dedication (Lk 21:1-4). At a time when the witness of women was not considered valid, Jesus chooses women as witnesses of his death (Lk 23:49), of his burial (Lk 23:55-56) and of his resurrection (Lk 24:1-11.22-24).

ii) The Gospels record different lists of the names of the twelve disciples who followed Jesus. The names are not always the same, but there are always twelve names, evoking the twelve tribes of the new people of God. There were women who also followedJesus, from Galilee to Jerusalem. Mark’s Gospel defines their attitude in three words, three verbs: following, serving, going upto Jerusalem (Mk 15:41). The Evangelists do not give a list of the women disciples who followed Jesus, but their names are known to this day through the pages of the Gospels, especially of Luke, and they are:: Mary Magdalene (Lk 8:3; 24:10); Joanna the wife of Chuza (Lk 8;,3); Susanna (Lk 8:3); Salome (Mk 15:45); Mary, James’ mother (Lk 24:10); Mary, Cleophas’ wife (Jn 19:25); Mary, the mother of Jesus (Jn 19:25).

6. Prayer: A hymn to Love (1 Cor 13:1-13)

Above all, love!

1 Though I command languages both human and angelic -- if I speak without love, I am no more than a gong booming or a cymbal clashing.
2 And though I have the power of prophecy, to penetrate all mysteries and knowledge, and though I have all the faith necessary to move mountains -- if I am without love, I am nothing.
3 Though I should give away to the poor all that I possess, and even give up my body to be burned -- if I am without love, it will do me no good whatever.
4 Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited, 5 it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not take offence or store up grievances. 6 Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth. 7 It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes. 8 Love never comes to an end. But if there are prophecies, they will be done away with; if tongues, they will fall silent; and if knowledge, it will be done away with. 9 For we know only imperfectly, and we prophesy imperfectly; 10 but once perfection comes, all imperfect things will be done away with.
11 When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, and see things as a child does, and think like a child; but now that I have become an adult, I have finished with all childish ways. 12 Now we see only reflections in a mirror, mere riddles, but then we shall be seeing face to face. Now I can know only imperfectly; but then I shall know just as fully as I am myself known.
13 As it is, these remain: faith, hope and love, the three of them; and the greatest of them is love.

7. Final Prayer

Lord Jesus, we thank for the word that has enabled us to understand better the will of the Father. May your Spirit enlighten our actions and grant us the strength to practice that which your Word has revealed to us. May we, like Mary, your mother, not only listen to but also practice the Word. You who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

The difficult process of forming the disciples.
How to be born again.

Luke 9:51-62

1. Opening prayer

Lord Jesus, send your Spirit to help us to read the Scriptures with the same mind that you read them to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. In the light of the Word, written in the Bible, you helped them to discover the presence of God in the disturbing events of your sentence and death. Thus, the cross that seemed to be the end of all hope became for them the source of life and of resurrection. 
Create in us silence so that we may listen to your voice in Creation and in the Scriptures, in events and in people, above all in the poor and suffering. May your word guide us so that we too, like the two disciples from Emmaus, may experience the force of your resurrection and witness to others that you are alive in our midst as source of fraternity, justice and peace. We ask this of you, Jesus, son of Mary, who revealed to us the Father and sent us your Spirit. Amen.

2. Reading

a) A key to the reading: The literary context

In the context of Luke’s Gospel, the text for this Sunday is at the beginning of the new phase of Jesus’ activity. The frequent conflicts with the people and the religious authorities (Lk 4:28; 5:21.30; 6:2.7; 7:19.23.33-34.39) confirmed Jesus as being the Servant Messiah as foreseen in Isaiah (Is 50: 4-9; 53:12) and as assumed by Jesus himself from the beginning of his apostolic activities (Lk 4:18). From now on, Jesus begins to proclaim his passion and death (Lk 9:22.43-44) and decides to go the Jerusalem (Lk 9:51). This change in the course of events created a crisis among the disciples (Mk 8:31-33). They cannot understand and are afraid (Lk 9:45), because they still hold on to the old way of thinking of a glorious Messiah. Luke describes various episodes touching on the old mentality of the disciples: the desire to be the greatest (Lk 9:46-48); the will to control the use of the name of Jesus (Lk 9:49-50); the violent reaction of James and John at the refusal of the Samaritans to welcome Jesus (Lk 9:51-55). Luke also points out how hard Jesus tries to get his disciples to understand the new concept concerning his mission. This Sunday’s text (Lk 9: 51-62) gives some examples of the way Jesus tried to form his disciples.

b) A division of the text to help with the reading:

Luke 9:51-52: Jesus decides to go to Jerusalem
Luke 9:52b53: A village in Samaria does not welcome him
Luke 9:54: The reaction of John and James at the Samaritans’ refusal
Luke 9:55-56: Jesus’ reaction to the violence of James and John
Luke 9:57-58: Jesus’ first condition for following him
Luke 9:59-60: Jesus’ second condition for following him
Luke 9:61-62: Jesus’ third condition for following him

c) The text:

51 When the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him; 53 but the people would not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to bid fire come down from heaven and consume them?" 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 And they went on to another village. 
57 As they were going along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." 58 And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head." 59 To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." 60 But he said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." 61 Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." 62 Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

3. A moment of prayerful silence

So that the Word of God may penetrate and enlighten our life.

4. Some questions

to help us in our personal reflection.

a) Which part of the text pleased you most and which touched you most?
b) What defects and limitations of the disciples can we discover in the text?
c) What teaching method does Jesus use to correct these defects?
d) What facts from the Old Testament are recalled in this text?
e) With which of these three vocations (vv. 57-62) do you identify yourself? Why?
f) Which of the defects of Jesus’ disciples is most prevalent in us, his disciples of today?

5. A key to the reading

that may help us to go deeper into the theme.

a) The historical context of our text:

The historical context of Luke’s Gospel always contains the following two aspects; the context of the time of Jesus in the 30’s in Palestine, and the context of the Christian communities of the 80’s in Greece for whom Luke is writing his Gospel.

At the time of Jesus in Palestine. It was not easy for Jesus to form his disciples. It is not simply the fact of following Jesus and living in community that makes a person holy and perfect. The greatest difficulty comes from “the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod” (Mk 8:15), that is, from the time’s dominant ideology, promoted by the official religion (the Pharisees) and by the government (the Herodians). Fighting against the leaven was part of the formation he gave his disciples; especially that the manner of thinking of the great had taken deep root and always raised its head again in the minds of the little ones, the disciples. The text of our meditation this Sunday gives us an insight into the way Jesus faced this problem.

In Luke’s time, within the Greek communities. For Luke, it was important to help the Christians and not leave them prey to the “leaven” of the Roman empire and pagan religion. The same applies today. The “leaven” of the neo-liberal system, spread by the media, propagates a consumeristic mentality, contrary to Gospel values. It is not easy for people to realise that they are being duped: “What I have in my hand is nothing but a lie!” (Is 44:20).

b) A commentary on the text:

Luke 9:51-52a: Jesus decides to go to Jerusalem
“Now as the time drew near for him to be taken up to heaven”. This statement shows that Luke reads Jesus’ life in the light of the prophets. He wants to make it quite clear to his readers that Jesus is the Messiah in whom is accomplished that which the prophets foretold. The same manner of speaking is in John’s Gospel: “Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to pass form this world to the Father, ...” (Jn 13,1). Jesus is obedient to the Father, “he decisively set out towards Jerusalem”.

Luke 9:52b53: A village in Samaria does not welcome him
Hospitality was one of the pillars of community life. It was difficult for anyone to let someone spend the night outside without welcoming him (Jn 18:1-5; 19:1-3; Gs 19;,15-21). But in Jesus’ time, the rivalry between Jews and Samaritans urged the people of Samaria not to welcome Jews who were on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and this led the Jews from Galilee not to pass through Samaria when they went to Jerusalem. They preferred to go through the valley of the Jordan. Jesus is contrary to this discrimination and, therefore, goes through Samaria. Consequently he suffers discrimination and is not made welcome.

Luke 9:54: The violent reaction of John and James at the refusal of the Samaritans
Inspired by the example of the prophet Elijah, James and John want to call down fire from heaven to exterminate that village! (2 Kings 1:10.12; 1Kings 18:38). They think that by the simple fact that they are with Jesus, everyone should welcome them. They still cling to the old mentality, that of privileged persons. They think that they can keep God on their side to defend them.

Luke 9:55-56: Jesus’ reaction to the violence of James and John
“Jesus turned and rebuked them”. Some versions of the Bible, basing their translation on some old manuscripts wrote: “You know not what spirit dwells in you. The son of man did not come to take the life of men, but to save it”. The fact that someone is with Jesus does not give that person the right to think that he or she is superior to others or that others owe them honour. The “Spirit” of Jesus demands the opposite: to forgive seventy times seven (Mt 18:22). Jesus chose to forgive the criminal who prayed to him on the cross (Lk 23:43).

Luke 9:57-58: The first condition for following Jesus
One says: “I will follow you wherever you go”. Jesus’ reply is very clear and without any hidden meaning. He leaves no room for doubt: the disciple who wishes to follow Jesus must impress this on his or her mind and heart: Jesus has nothing, not even a stone to lay his head on. The foxes and the birds are better off because they at least have holes and nests.

Luke 9:59-60: The second condition for following Jesus
Jesus says to one: “Follow me!” These were the words addressed to the first disciples: “Follow me” (Mk 1:17.20; 2:14). The reaction of the one called is positive. The person is ready to follow Jesus. He only asks that he may be allowed to bury his father. Jesus’ reply is hard: “Leave the dead to bury their dead; your duty is to go and spread the news of the kingdom of God”. This is probably a popular proverb used for saying that one has to be radical in one’s decision making. The one who is ready to follow Jesus must leave everything behind. It is as though one were dead to all one’s possessions resurrected to another life.

Luca 9,61-62: The third condition for following Jesus
A third one says: “I will follow you, but first let me go and say good-bye to my people at home”. Again the reply of Jesus is hard and radical: “Once the hand is laid on the plough, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God”. Jesus is more demanding than the prophet Elijah when Elijah called Elisha to be his disciple (1 Kings 19:19-21). The New Testament is greater than the Old Testament in its demands on the practice of love.

c) A further deepening: Jesus the formator

The process of the formation of the disciples is demanding, slow and painful, because it is not easy to give birth to a new experience of God in them, a new vision of life and of the neighbour. It is like being born again! (Jn 3:5-9). The old mindset keeps creeping back in the life of people, of families and communities. Jesus spares no effort in forming his disciples. He gave much time to this, not always successfully. Judas betrayed him, Peter denied him and, in the moment of trial, all abandoned him. Only the women and John stayed close to him, near the cross. But the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent to us after his resurrection, completed the work Jesus began (Jn 14:26; 16,13). Apart from what we have said concerning the text of this Sunday (Lk 9:51-62), Luke speaks of many other examples to show how Jesus went about forming his disciples and helping them to overcome the misleading mentality of the time:

In Luke 9:46-48 the disciples argue among themselves as to who is the greatest among them. The competitive mindset here is that of fighting for power, characteristic of the society of the Roman Empire, and it had already infiltrated the just-beginning and small community of Jesus! Jesus tells them to hold to the opposite way of thinking. He takes a child to his side and identifies himself with the child: “Anyone who welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me!” The disciples were arguing as to who was the greatest, and Jesus tells them to look at and welcome the smallest! This is the point most stressed by Jesus and the one to which he witnessed: “[I] did not come to be served, but to serve” (Mk 10:45).

In Luke 9:49-50, someone who was not part of the group of the disciples was using the name of Jesus to drive out devils. John saw him and stopped him: “Let us stop him because we do not know him”. In the name of the community, John stops a good action! He thought he owned Jesus and wanted to stop anyone from using the name of Jesus to do good. He wanted a closed community. This was the old mentality of the “Chosen people, a separate people!” Jesus replies: “Do not forbid him, because anyone who is not against you is for you”. The aim of formation cannot lead to a feeling of privilege and ownership, but must lead to an attitude of service. What is important for Jesus is not whether someone is part of the group or not, but whether the person is doing the good that should be done by the community.

Here are some more examples of the way Jesus educated his disciples. It was a way of giving human form to the experience he had of God the Father. You can complete the list:
* he involves them in his mission and on their return he goes over what happened with them (Mk 6:7; Lk 9:1-2; 10:1-12, 17-20)
* he corrects them when they go wrong (Lk 9:46-48; Mk 10:13-15)
* he helps them discern (Mk 9:28-29)
* he questions them when they are slow (Mk 4:13; 8:14-21)
* he prepares them for the conflict (Mt 10:17ff)
* he reflects with them concerning present problems (Lk 13:1-5)
* he sends them to look at reality (Mk 8:27-29; Jn 4:35; Mt 16:1-3)
* he confronts them with the needs of the people (Jn 6:5)
* he teaches them that the needs of the people are above ritual prescriptions (Mt 12,7.12)
* he defends them when they are criticised by their adversaries (Mk 2:19; 7:5-13)
* he thinks of their rest and nourishment (Mk 6:31; Jn 21:9)
* he spends time alone with them to teach them (Mk 4:34; 7:17; 9:30-31; 10:10; 13,3)
* he insists on vigilance and teaches them to pray (Lk 11:1-13; Mt 6:5-15).

6. Psalm 19 (18), 8-14

The law of God source of formation

The precepts of the Lord are right, 
rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, 
enlightening the eyes; 
the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever; 
the ordinances of the Lord are true, 
and righteous altogether. 
More to be desired are they than gold, 
even much fine gold; 
sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 
Moreover by them is thy servant warned; 
in keeping them there is great reward. 
But who can discern his errors? 
Clear thou me from hidden faults. 
Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; 
let them not have dominion over me! 
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression. 
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart 
be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, 
my rock and my redeemer.

7. Final Prayer

Lord Jesus, we thank for the word that has enabled us to understand better the will of the Father. May your Spirit enlighten our actions and grant us the strength to practice that which your Word has revealed to us. May we, like Mary, your mother, not only listen to but also practise the Word. You who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

The Holy Spirit will help us
understand Jesus’ words
John 14,23-29

1. Opening prayer

Shaddai, God of the mountain,
You who make of our fragile life
the rock of your dwelling place,
lead our mind
to strike the rock of the desert,
so that water may gush to quench our thirst.
May the poverty of our feelings
cover us as with a mantle in the darkness of the night
and may it open our heart to hear the echo of silence
until the dawn,
wrapping us with the light of the new morning,
may bring us,
with the spent embers of the fire of the shepherds of the Absolute
who have kept vigil for us close to the divine Master,
the flavour of the holy memory.

2. LECTIO

a) The text:

23 Jesus answered him, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.
25 "These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. 26 But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, 'I go away, and I will come to you.' If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe.

b) A moment of silence:

Let us allow the voice of the Word to resonate within us.

3. MEDITATIO

a) Some questions:

- “And we will come to him and make our home with him”: looking in our interior camp, will we find there the tent of the shekinah (presence) of God?
- “He who does not love me does not keep my words: Are the words of Christ empty words for us because of our lack of love? Or could we say that we observe them as a guide on our journey?
- “The Holy Spirit will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you”: Jesus turns to the Father, but everything which he has said and done remains with us. When will we be able to remember the marvels which divine grace has accomplished in us? Do we receive or accept the voice of the Spirit who suggests in our interior the meaning of all that has taken place, that has happened?
- “My peace I give to you: The peace of Christ is his resurrection”: When will we be able in our life to abandon the anxiety and the mania of doing, which draws us away from the sources of the being? God of peace, when will we live solely from you, peace of our waiting?
- “I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe”: Before it takes place... Jesus likes to explain to us beforehand what is going to happen, so that the events do not take us by surprise, unprepared. But, are we ready to read the signs of our events with the words heard from him?

b) Key for the reading:

To make our home. Heaven does not have a better place than a human heart which is in love. Because a dilated heart extends the boundaries and all barriers of time and space disappear. To live in love is equal to live in Heaven, to live in Him who is love, and eternal love.

v. 23. Jesus answered him: If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. In the origin of every spiritual experience there is always a movement forward. Take a small step, then everything moves harmoniously. And the step to be taken is only one: If a man loves me. Is it really possible to love God? And how is it seen that his face is no longer among the people? To love: What does it really mean? In general, to love for us means to wish well to one another, to be together, to make choices to construct a future, to give oneself... to love Jesus is not the same thing. to love him means to do as he did, not to draw back in the face of pain, of death; to love as he did takes us very far... and it is in this love that the word becomes daily bread to eat and life becomes Heaven because of the Father’s presence.

vv. 24-25. He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. If there is no love, the consequences are disastrous. The words of Jesus can be observed only if there is love in the heart, otherwise they remain absurd proposals. Those words are not the words of a man , they come for the Father’s heart who proposes to each one of us to be like Him. In life it is not so much a question of doing things, even if they are very good. It is necessary to be men, to be sons, to be images similar to the One who never ceases to give Himself completely.

vv. 25-26. These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. To remember is an action of the Spirit; when in our days the past is seen as something lost forever and the future is there as something threatening to take away our joy today, only the divine Breath in you can lead you to remember it. To remember what has been said, every word coming from God’s mouth for you, and forgotten because of the fact that time has gone by.

v. 27. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. The peace of Christ for us is not absence of conflicts, serenity of life, health... but the plenitude of every good, absence of anxiety in the face of what is going to happen. The Lord does not assure us well-being, but the fullness of son-ship in a loving adherence to his projects which are good for us. We will possess peace, when we will have learnt to trust in that which the Father chooses for us.

v. 28. You heard me say to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you’. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. We come back to the question of love. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced. But what is the sense of this expression pronounced by the Master? We could complete the phrase and say: If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father... but since you think of yourselves, you are sad because I am leaving, going away. The love of the disciples is an egoistic love. They do not love Jesus because they do not think of Him, they think of themselves. Then, the love which Jesus asks, is this love! A love capable of rejoicing because the other will be happy. A love capable of not thinking of self as the centre of all the universe, but as a place in which one feels open to give and to be able to receive: not in exchange, but as the “effect” of the gift received.

v. 29. I have told you before it takes place, so when it does take place, you may believe. Jesus instructs his own because he knows that they will remain confused and will be slow in understanding. His words do not vanish, they remain as a presence in the world, treasures of understanding in faith. An encounter with the Absolute who is always and for always in favour of man.

c) Reflection:

Love: a magic and ancient word as old as the world, a familiar word which is born in the horizon of every man in the moment in which he is called into existence. A word written in his human fibres as origin and end, as an instrument of peace, as bread and gift, as himself, as others, as God. A word entrusted to history through our history of every day. Love, a pact which has always had one name alone: man. Yes, because love coincides with man: love is the air that he breathes, love is the food which is given to him, love is the rest to which he entrusts himself, love is the bond of union which makes of him a land of encounter. That love with which God has seen in his creation and has given: “It is something very good”. And he has not taken back the commitment taken when man made of himself a rejection more than a gift, a slap more than a caress, a stone thrown more than a silent tear. He has loved even more with the eyes and the heart of the Son, up to the end. This man who became a burning torch of sin, the Father has redeemed him, again and solely out of love, in the Fire of the Spirit.

4. ORATIO

Psalm 37,23-31

The steps of a man are from the Lord,
and he establishes him in whose way he delights;
though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong,
for the Lord is the stay of his hand.
I have been young, and now am old;
yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
or his children begging bread.
He is ever giving liberally and lending,
and his children become a blessing.
Depart from evil, and do good;
so shall you abide for ever.
For the Lord loves justice;
he will not forsake his saints.
The righteous shall be preserved for ever,
but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
The righteous shall possess the land,
and dwell upon it for ever.
The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom,
and his tongue speaks justice.
The law of his God is in his heart;
his steps do not slip.

5. CONTEMPLATIO

I see you, Lord, dwelling in my days through your word which accompanies me in my more intense moments, when my love for you becomes courageous, audacious and I do not give up in the face of what I feel that does not belong to me. that Spirit which is like the wind: blows where it wants and his voice is not heard, that Spirit has become space in me, and now I can tell you that he is like a dear fried with whom to remember. To go back to remember the words said, to the lived events, to the presence perceived while on the way, does good to the heart. I feel profoundly this indwelling every time that in silence one of your phrases comes to mind, one of your invitations, one of your words of compassion, your silence. The nights of your prayer allow me to pray to the Father and to find peace. Lord, tenderness concealed in the pleads of my gestures, grant me to treasure all that you are: a scroll which is explained in which it is easy to understand the sense of my existence. May my words be the dwelling place of your words, may my hunger be your dwelling, bread of life, may my pain be the empty tomb and the folded shroud so that everything that you want may be accomplished, up to the last breath. I love you, Lord, my rock.

The mission of the Church:
To give witness to the pardon which Jesus offers to all
Luke 24, 46-53

Opening prayer

Shaddai, God of the mountain,
You who make of our fragile life
the rock of your dwelling place,
lead our mind
to strike the rock of the desert,
so that water may gush to quench our thirst.
May the poverty of our feelings
cover us as with a mantle in the darkness of the night
and may it open our heart to hear the echo of silence
until the dawn,
wrapping us with the light of the new morning,
may bring us,
with the spent embers of the fire of the shepherds of the Absolute
who have kept vigil for us close to the divine Master,
the flavour of the holy memory.

1. LECTIO

a) The text:

46 and he said to them, 'So it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses to this. 49 'And now I am sending upon you what the Father has promised. Stay in the city, then, until you are clothed with the power from on high.' 50 Then he took them out as far as the outskirts of Bethany, and raising his hands he blessed them. 51 Now as he blessed them, he withdrew from them and was carried up to heaven. 52 They worshipped him and then went back to Jerusalem full of joy; 53 and they were continually in the Temple praising God.

b) A moment of silence:

Let us allow the voice of the Word to resonate within us.

2. MEDITATIO

a) Some questions:

- In the name of the Lord: In whose name do I live my daily life?
- To all nations. Am I capable of welcoming all or do I discriminate easily according to my point of view?
- Stay in the city. Do I have staying power in the most difficult situations or do I try, even before I understand their meaning, to eliminate them?
- My prayer. Do I praise the Lord for all he does in my life or do I ask things for myself?

b) A key to the reading:

These few lines speak of life, motion, journey, meeting… This is the aim of the so it is written and all the nations. Life is marked by witness. The apostles are those sent, they do not bring anything of their own but become life, motion, journey, meeting, a way that brings life wherever they go.

v. 46. «So it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. What is written? Where? The only scripture we know is that of encounter. It seems that God cannot do without humankind, and so God goes seeking people wherever they are and will not give up until God embraces them. This is what is written: An eternal love, capable of enduring suffering, of drinking the chalice of pain to its dregs, so as to look once more upon the face of the beloved children. In the depths of non-life, Christ descends to take the hand of humankind to lead humankind back home. Three days! Three moments: passion, death, resurrection! This is what is written for Christ and for all those who belong to him. Passion: you surrender trustingly, and the other does with you whatever he wishes, he embraces you or ill-treats you, he welcomes you or rejects you… but you go on loving to the end. Death: a life that cannot be taken back… dies, is snuffed out… but not forever, because death has power over the flesh but the spirit that comes from God goes back to God. Resurrection: Everything makes sense in the light of Life. Love once given will not die but will always resurrect again.

v. 47. And in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Jesus’ word, spoken in time, does not come to an end. It needs those who proclaim it. The apostles go, sent in the holy name of God. They go to all nations. No longer to one chosen people, but to all who are now chosen. They go to put their arms around the shoulder of their brothers and sisters and to convert them, to turn them around towards them and to tell them: All is forgiven, you can live the divine life once more, Jesus died and rose again for you! Faith is not an invention. I come from Jerusalem, I saw him with my eyes, I experienced him in my life. I am telling you no more than my story, a story of salvation.

v. 48. You are witnesses to this. We know God from experience. To be witnesses means carrying the word that is Christ written in one’s skin, woven syllable by syllable. When one is touched by Christ, one becomes a bright lamp, even without one’s knowledge! And if one wanted to put out the flame, it would light up again, because the light comes not from the lamp but from the Spirit poured into the heart and beams eternal communion endlessly. 

 v. 49. And now I am sending upon you what the Father has promised. Stay in the city, then, until you are clothed with the power from on high». Jesus’ promises are always fulfilled. He goes away, but he does not leave his friends orphans. He knows that they need God’s constant presence. And God comes back to humankind. This time no longer in the flesh, but invisibly in the fire of an intangible love, in the ardour of a bond that will never be broken, the rainbow of the ratified covenant, the splendour of God’s smile, the Holy Spirit. Clothed in Christ and in the Holy Spirit, the apostles will not be afraid and can finally go!

v. 50. Then he took them out as far as the outskirts of Bethany, and raising his hands blessed them. The moment of separation is a solemn one. Bethany is the place of friendship. Jesus raises his hands and blesses his own. This is a salute and a gift. Goes does not draw away from his own, God simply leaves them to come back in different guise.

v. 51. Now as he blessed them, he withdrew from them and was carried up to heaven. Every separation brings sorrow with it. But in this case the blessing is a legacy of grace. The apostles live in such an intense communion with their Lord that they are not aware of a separation.

v. 52. They worshipped him and then went back to Jerusalem full of joy. Great is the joy of the apostles, the joy of going through the streets of Jerusalem with a limitless treasure, the joy of belonging. Christ’s humanity goes to heaven, to open a gate that will never be shut again. The joy of the superabundance of life that Christ has now poured into their experience will never cease…

v. 53. And they were continually in the Temple praising God. To stay… is a very important verb for the Christian. To stay presupposes a special strength, the ability not to flee from situations but to live them out savouring them to their depths. To stay: an evangelical programme to be shared with all. Then praise flows out sincerely, because in staying God’s will is sipped like a healthy and intoxicating drink of bliss.

c) Reflection:

The witness of charity in the life of the church is without any doubt the clearest mirror for evangelisation. It is the instrument that loosens the soil so that when the seed of the Word falls it may bear abundant fruit. The good news cannot choose other ways to touch the hearts of people than that of mutual love, an experience that leads directly to the source: «This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you» (Jn 15:12). We find all this in the early Church: «This is the proof of love, that he laid down his life for us, and we too ought to lay down our live for our brothers» (1 Jn 3:16). The disciple who met and knew Jesus, the beloved disciple, knows that he cannot speak of him and not walk the ways he walked. «I am the way, the truth and the life» (Jn 14:6). What better words can express that the high road of every evangelisation is gratuitous love? Christ is the way of evangelisation. Christ is the truth to transmit in evangelising. Christ is evangelised life. And the love with which he loved us is evangelisation, a love given without conditions, that will not retreat but goes forward to the end, faithful to itself even at the price of death on a cross of malediction, to show the face of the Father as one of Love, a love that respects the freedom of human beings, even when this means rejection, contempt, aggression and death. «Christian charity has a great evangelising force. To the extent that it reveals itself as a sign and a window of God’s love, it opens the minds and hearts to the proclamation of the Word of truth. As Paul VI said, today’s people who look for authenticity and concreteness, value witnesses more than teachers, and generally will only allow themselves to be guided to discover the depth and the demands of God’s love if they have been touched by the tangible sign of charity». (CEI, Evangelisation and the witness of charity, in Enchiridion CEI, vol. 1-5, EDB, Bologna 1996 n. 24). Every pastoral endeavour that wants to show the deep relationship between faith and charity in the light of the Gospel, and that characteristic note of Christian love that is proximity and caring, has the duty of motivating and sustaining openness to others in service. (cfr Lk 10:34).

3. ORATIO

Psalm 22, 22-31

I shall proclaim your name to my brothers,
praise you in full assembly:
'You who fear Yahweh, praise him!
All the race of Jacob, honour him!
Revere him, all the race of Israel!'

For he has not despised
nor disregarded the poverty of the poor,
has not turned away his face,
but has listened to the cry for help.

Of you is my praise in the thronged assembly,
I will perform my vows before all who fear him.
The poor will eat and be filled,
those who seek Yahweh will praise him,
'May your heart live for ever.'

The whole wide world will remember
and return to Yahweh,
all the families of nations bow down before him.
For to Yahweh, ruler of the nations,
belongs kingly power!

All who prosper on earth will bow before him,
all who go down to the dust will do reverence before him.
And those who are dead,
their descendants will serve him,
will proclaim his name to generations
still to come;
and these will tell of his saving justice to a people yet unborn:
he has fulfilled it.

4. CONTEMPLATIO

Lord, I know that evangelisation requires deep spirituality, authenticity and holiness of life on the part of witnesses, people of mature faith, able to mix well so as to make their personal experience of faith a meeting place and a place of growth in interpersonal contacts thus building deep relationships open to the Church, the world and history. As yet, I feel inadequate. In a context where images, words, proposals, projects and records follow each other swiftly and disorient, almost intoxicate thought and confuse feelings, bearing witness is a privileged word for a reflective pause, for a moment of rethinking. But am I one who is carried away by these images, words and projects?  Of one thing I am certain, and this comforts me. Even the most beautiful witness would in the long run be powerless were it not enlightened, justified, made explicit by a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the Lord Jesus. The Good News, proclaimed by a living witness, sooner or later needs to be proclaimed by the word of life. I will justify my hope by proclaiming your name, your teaching, your life, your promises, your mystery as Jesus of Nazareth and Son of God. This seems to me to be the simplest way to arouse interest in knowing and meeting you, Master and Lord, who have chosen to live as son of man so as to show us the face of the Father.  Every pastoral endeavour today that finds itself chained by faith, will be able to ask you, God, that the gates of preaching be reopened to proclaim the mystery of Christ, the kind of preaching that as divine word works wonders in those who believe.

The promise of a Consoler. The Holy Spirit,
teacher and living memory of the Word of Jesus
John 14, 15-16.23-26

1. Opening prayer

Most merciful Father, on this most holy day I cry to you from my room behind closed doors. I raise my prayer to you in fear and immobility in the face of death. Grant that Jesus may come to me and dwell at the centre of my heart that he may drive away all fear and all darkness. Grant me your peace, which is true peace, peace of heart. Grant that the Holy Spirit may come to me, the Spirit who is the fire of love, that warms and enlightens, that melts and purifies; who is living water, flowing even to eternal life, that quenches and cleans, that baptises and renews; who is the strong and at the same time soft wind, the breath of your voice and breath; who is dove announcing pardon, a new and lasting beginning for the whole world.
Send your Spirit upon me when I read and listen to your Word so that I may penetrate the mysteries it holds; grant that I may be overwhelmed and submerged, baptised and made into a new person, so that I may give my life to you and to my brothers and sisters. Amen, Alleluia

2. Reading

a) Placing the passage in its context:

These few verses, which are not even well connected, are a few drops of water taken from an ocean. In fact, they are part of that long and grandiose discourse in John’s Gospel, which begins with chapter 13:31 and goes up to and including the whole of chapter 17. The whole of this very deep discourse deals with only one theme, that is, the “going of Jesus”, which we find in 13:33: “Yet a little while I am with you… Where I go you cannot come” and in 16:28: “I came from the Father and have come into the world. Again I leave the world and go to the Father” and again in 17:13: “Now I am coming to you, [Father]”. Jesus’ going to the Father signifies also our going, our essential and faith journey in this world; it is here that we learn to follow Jesus, to listen to him, to live like him. It is here that we receive the complete revelation of Jesus in the mystery of the Trinity as well as the revelation concerning a Christian life, its power, its tasks, its joys and sorrows, its hopes and struggles. In reflecting on these words we find the truth of the Lord Jesus and of ourselves before Him and in Him.
These verses speak especially of three very strong consoling reasons for us: the promise of the coming of the Consoler; the coming of the Father and the Son within those who believe; the presence of a master, the Holy Spirit, through whom the teachings of Jesus will never cease.

b) To help us with the reading of the passage:

vv. 15-16: Jesus reveals that the observance of the commandments is not a matter of obligation, but a sweet fruit that is born of the love of the disciple for Him. This loving obedience is due to the all-powerful prayer of Jesus for us. The Lord promises another Consoler, sent by the Father, who will always remain with us in order to drive away our solitude once and for all.
vv. 23-24: Jesus repeats that love and observance of the commandments are two vital truths essentially related to each other, that have the power to introduce the disciple into the mystical life, that is, into the experience of immediate and personal communion with Jesus and with the Father.
v. 25: Jesus says something very important: there is a substantial difference between what he said while he was with the disciples and what he will say later, when, thanks to the Spirit, He will be in them, within them. At first, understanding is limited because the relationship with him is an external one: the Word comes from outside and reaches ears, but not pronounced within. Later, understanding will be full.
v. 26: Jesus announces the Holy Spirit as master who will teach no longer from outside but from within us. He will give new life to the Words of Jesus, those forgotten will be remembered and will be understood by the disciples within their capabilities.

c) The text:

15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor, to be with you for ever.
23 Jesus answered him, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.
25 "These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. 26 But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

3. A time of prayerful silence

I go to the Master’s school, the Holy Spirit. I sit at his feet and I abandon myself in his presence. I open my heart, without any fear, so that he may instruct, console, reprove and make me grow.

4. A few questions

a) “If you love me”. Is my relationship with Jesus a relationship of love? Do I make room for him in my heart? Do I look within myself honestly and ask: “Where is love in my life, is there any?” If I realise that there is no love within me, or just a little, do I try to ask myself: “What is preventing me, what is it that keeps me closed, imprisoned, rendering me sad and lonely?”
b) “You will observe my commandments”. I notice the verb “to observe” with the many meanings it implies: to look after well, to protect, to pay attention, to keep alive, to reserve and preserve, not to throw away, to keep carefully, with love. Am I aware and enlightened by these attitudes, by my relationship as disciple, as Christian, with the Word and the commandments that Jesus gave us for our happiness?
c) “He will give you another Consoler”. How often have I not searched for someone to console me, to look after me, to show me affection and care for me! But, am I truly convinced that true consolation comes from the Lord? Or do I still trust much more in the consolations I find, the ones that I beg for here and there, that I gather like crumbs without ever being able to be satisfied?
d) “Make our home with him”. The Lord stands at the door and knocks and waits. He does not force or oblige. He says: “If you wish…”. He suggests that I might become his home, the place of his repose, of his intimacy. Jesus is ready and happy to come to me, to unite himself to me in a very special kind of friendship. But, am I ready? Am I expecting his visit, his coming, his entering into my most intimate, most personal self? Is there room for him in the inn?
e) “He will…bring to your remembrance all that I have said”. The word “remembrance” recalls another very important, even essential matter. Am I challenged and scrutinised by Scripture? What is it that I recall? What do I try to remember, to bring to life in my interior world? The Word of the Lord is a most precious treasure; it is the seed of life that is sown in my heart; but do I look after this seed? Do I defend it from a thousand enemies and dangers that assail it: the birds, the rocks, the thorns, the evil one? Do I, every morning, carry with me a Word of the Lord to remember during the day and to make my inner light, my strength, my food?

5. A key to the reading

I now approach each one of the characters in the reading and I listen prayerfully, meditatively, reflectively, in contemplation…

The face of the Father:

Jesus says: “I will ask the Father” (v. 26) and thus draws aside a little the mysterious veil surrounding prayer: prayer is the life that leads to the Father. To go to the Father, we are given the way of prayer. As Jesus lives his relationship with the Father by means of prayer, so also must we. I need to read the Gospels and become a careful searcher of signs concerning this secret of the love of Jesus and his Father, so that, by entering into that relationship, I too may grow in the knowledge of God, my Father

“He will give you another Consoler”. The Father is the one who gives us the Consoler. This gift is preceded by the Father’s act of love, who knows that we need consolation: He saw my misery in Egypt and heard my cry. He indeed knows my sufferings and sees the oppressions that torment me (cfr. Es 3: 7-9); nothing goes unnoticed by his infinite love for me. That is why He gives us the Consoler. The Father is the Giver. Everything comes to us from Him and no one else.

“My Father will love him” (v. 24). The Father is the Lover who loves with an eternal love, absolute, inviolable, uncancellable. Thus do Isaiah, Jeremiah and all the Prophets say (cfr. Jer 31:3; Is 43:4; 54: 8; Hos 2:21; 11:1).

“We will come to him”. The Father is united with the Son, Jesus, and is one with Him, and with Him comes to each one of us. He moves, goes out, bends and walks towards us. Urged by a mad and inexplicable love, He comes to us.

“And we will make our home with him”. The Father builds his house within us; he makes of us, of me, of my existence, of my whole being, his home. He comes and will not leave but faithfully stays.

The face of the Son:

“If you love me…” (v. 15); “If anyone loves me…” (v. 23). Jesus enters into a unique and personal relationship with me, face to face, heart to heart, soul to soul; he wants to have an intense relationship, unique, unrepeatable, and he unites me to Him by love if I so wish. He always puts an “if” and says when he asks me by name: “If you wish…”. The only way He constantly seeks to come to me is through love. In fact, it is noticeable that the use of the pronouns “you” and “anyone” are connected to “me” by the verb “to love” and no other verb.

“I will ask the Father” (v. 16). Jesus is the one who prays, who lives by prayer and for prayer. The whole of his life is summed up by prayer and in prayer. He is the supreme and eternal priest who intercedes for us and offers prayers and supplications together with tears (cfr. Heb 5: 7), for our salvation; “he is able at all times to save those who come to God through him, since he lives always to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25).

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word” (v. 23); “He who does not love me, does not keep my words” (v. 24). Jesus offers me his Word, he gives it to me in trust that I may look after it and guard it, that I may place it in my heart and there keep it warm, watch over it, contemplate it, listen to it and thus make it bear fruit. His word is a seed; it is the most precious pearl of all, for which it is worthwhile selling every other wealth; it is the treasure hidden in the field worth digging for without counting the cost; it is the fire that makes the heart burn within my breast; it is the lamp that illumines our steps even in the darkest night. Love for the Word of Jesus can be identified by my love for Jesus himself, for his whole being, because, after all, He is the Word. That is why, in this passage, Jesus is crying out to my heart that he is the one I must keep.

The face of the Holy Spirit:

“The Father will give you another Consoler” (v. 16). The Father gives us the Holy Spirit; this is “the good gift and every perfect gift from above” (Jm 1:17). He is “the other Consoler” other than Jesus, who goes and comes back so as not to leave us alone, abandoned. While I am in this world, I do not lack consolation, but am comforted by the presence of the Holy Spirit, who is not just consolation, but is much more: he is a living person and living beside me always. This presence, this company is capable of giving me joy, true joy. In fact Paul says: “The fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace…” (Gal 5:22; cfr. also Rm 14:17).

“to be with you forever”. The Spirit is in our midst, he is with me, just as Jesus was with his disciples. His coming is a physical, personal presence; I do not see him, but I know that he is there and that he will never leave me. The spirit is always here and lives with me and in me, with no limitations of time or space; thus he is the Consoler.

“He will teach you all things” (v. 26). The Holy Spirit is the Teacher, he who opens the way for conscience, experience; no one except him can lead me, inform me, give me new form. His is not a school where one acquires human knowledge that creates pride and does not liberate; his teachings, his whisperings, his precise directions come from God and lead back to God. The Spirit teaches true wisdom and true knowledge (Ps 118:66), he teaches the Father’s will (Ps 118:26.64), his ways (Ps 24:4), his commandments (Ps 118:124.135), which are life. He is a Teacher capable of leading me to the whole truth (Jn 16:13), who gives me deep freedom, even to the time of the separation of the soul and the spirit, for He alone, who is God, can bring me to life and resurrection. As God, he is humble, he lowers himself, descends from his throne and enters into me (cfr. Acts 1:8; 10:44), he gives himself to me entirely and absolutely; he is not jealous of his gift, of his light, but gives without limits.

6. A moment of prayer: Psalm 30

A hymn of praise to God,
who has sent us the new life of the Spirit from on high

Ref. You have given me the fullness of life, Lord, alleluia!

I will extol thee, O Lord,
for thou hast drawn me up,
and hast not let my foes rejoice over me.
O Lord my God, I cried to thee for help,
and thou hast healed me.
O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from Sheol,
restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit. Rit.

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favour is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning. Rit.

As for me, I said in my prosperity,
"I shall never be moved."
By thy favour, O Lord,
thou hadst established me as a strong mountain;
thou didst hide thy face, I was dismayed.
To thee, O Lord,
I cried; and to the Lord I made supplication. Rit.

Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me!
O Lord, be thou my helper!"
Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing;
thou hast loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness,
that my soul may praise thee and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to thee for ever. Rit.

7. Closing prayer

Holy Spirit, allow me to speak to you again. It is difficult for me to go away from my meeting with the Word because you are present there. Therefore, live and act in me. I present to you, to your intimacy, your Love, my face of disciple; I mirror myself in you, O Holy Spirit. I offer you, finger of God’s right hand, my features, my eyes, my lips, my ears… work in me your healing, your liberation and salvation that I may be reborn, today, a new person from the womb of your fire, the breath of your wind. Holy Spirit, I was not born to be alone. I beg you, therefore, send me brothers and sisters that I may proclaim to them the life that comes from you. Amen. Alleluia!

1) Opening prayer

Lord,
guide the course of world events
and give your Church the joy and peace
of serving you in freedom.
You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2) Gospel Reading - Mark 10,17-27

Jesus was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, 'Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not give false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.'
And he said to him, 'Master, I have kept all these since my earliest days.' Jesus looked steadily at him and he was filled with love for him, and he said, 'You need to do one thing more. Go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.' But his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.
Jesus looked round and said to his disciples, 'How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!' The disciples were astounded by these words, but Jesus insisted, 'My children,' he said to them, 'how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of God.'
They were more astonished than ever, saying to one another, 'In that case, who can be saved?' Jesus gazed at them and said, 'By human resources it is impossible, but not for God: because for God everything is possible.'

3) Reflection

• The Gospel today narrates two events: (a) it tells the story of a rich man who asks how to obtain eternal life (Mk 10, 17-22), and (b) Jesus warns on the danger of riches (Mk 10, 23-27). The rich man does not accept the proposal of Jesus, because he was very rich. A rich person is protected by the security which is given to him by his riches. He has difficulty to open his hand and detach himself from this security. He seizes strongly the advantage of his goods, lives concerned defending his own interests. A poor person is not accustomed to have this concern. But there may also be some poor people who have the mentality of the rich. And then, the desire for riches creates in them dependence and also makes them become slaves of consumerism. They have no time to dedicate themselves to the service of neighbour. Keeping these problems in mind, problems of persons, of countries, let us read and meditate on the text of the rich man.
• Mark 10, 17-19: The observance of the commandments and eternal life. A person came up to Jesus and asked: “Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” The Gospel of Matthew tells us that it was the case of a young man (Mt 19, 20.22). Jesus responds abruptly: “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone!” Jesus takes away the attention from himself to direct it toward God, because what is important is to do God’s Will, to reveal the Father’s project. Then Jesus affirms: “You know the commandments: You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false witness. You shall not defraud. Honour your father and mother”. It is important to observe always the response of Jesus. The young man had asked something concerning eternal life. He wanted to live together with God. But Jesus does not mention the first three commandments which define our relationship with God! He mentioned only those which indicate respect for the life lived together with others. According to Jesus, we can only be well with God if we know how to be well with our neighbour. It serves nothing to deceive ourselves. The door to reach God is our neighbour.
• Mark 10, 20: What good is it to observe the commandments? The young man answered that he observed the commandments since his earliest days. What is strange is what follows. He wanted to know which was the way to eternal life. Now, the way of life was and continues to be: to do God’s will expressed in the commandments. It means that he observed the commandments without knowing for what purpose. Otherwise, he would not have asked any questions. This is what happens today to many Catholics: they do not know what it means to be a Catholic. “I was born in a Catholic country; this is why I am Catholic!” It is a habit!
• Mark 10, 21-22: To share the goods with the poor and to follow Jesus. Hearing the response of the young man, “Jesus looked at him and was full of love for him and said: You need to do one more thing: go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor and you will have a treasure in heaven, then come, follow me!” The observance of the commandments is only the first step of a stairway that goes higher. Jesus asks more! The observance of the commandments prepares the person for the total gift of self in behalf of neighbour. Jesus asks for very much but he asks it with much love. The rich young man does not accept the proposal of Jesus and goes away, because he was a man of great wealth”.
• Mark 10, 23-27: The camel and the eye of the needle. After the young man left, Jesus commented on his decision: “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were astounded. Jesus repeats the same phrase and adds: “It is easier that a camel passes through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
The expression “enter the kingdom” not only indicates and in first place entrance into heaven after death, but also and above all, the entrance into the community around Jesus. The community is and should be a model of the Kingdom. The reference to the impossibility for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle comes from a popular proverb of the time used by the people to say that a thing was humanly speaking, impossible and unfeasible. The disciples were astounded hearing the affirmation of Jesus and they ask themselves: “Then who can be saved?” This is a sign that they had not understood the response of Jesus to the young rich man: “Go, sell all you all you own and give the money to the poor and then come follow me”. The young man had observed the commandments since his earliest days, but without understanding the reason for this observance. Something similar was happening to the disciples. They had already abandoned all their goods as Jesus had asked the young rich man, but without understanding the reason, the why of this abandonment. If they had understood they would not have been astounded before the demands of Jesus. When riches or the desire for riches occupies the heart and the gaze, the person cannot perceive the sense of the Gospel. Only God can help! Jesus looks at the disciples and says: “Impossible for man but not for God. For God everything is possible.”

4) Personal questions

• A person who lives constantly concerned about her wealth or who lives always wanting to buy all the things about which the television makes propaganda, can she free herself from everything to follow Jesus and live in peace in a Christian community? Is it possible? What do you think? How do you do it and what do you do?
• Do you know somebody who has succeeded to abandon everything for the sake of the Kingdom? What does it mean for us today: “Go, sell all you own, and give the money to the poor”? How can we understand and practice today the counsels that Jesus gives to the young rich man?

5) Concluding Prayer

I give thanks to Yahweh with all my heart,
in the meeting-place of honest people, in the assembly.
Great are the deeds of Yahweh,
to be pondered by all who delight in them. (Ps 111,1-2)

1) Opening prayer

Lord,
guide the course of world events
and give your Church the joy and peace
of serving you in freedom.
You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2) Gospel Reading - Mark 10,28-31

Peter took this up. 'Look,' he said to Jesus, 'we have left everything and followed you.' Jesus said, 'In truth I tell you, there is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children or land for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times as much, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land -- and persecutions too -- now in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life. Many who are first will be last, and the last, first.'

3) Reflection

• In yesterday’s Gospel, Jesus spoke about the conversation among the disciples about material goods: to get away from things, to sell everything, to give it to the poor and to follow Jesus. Or rather, like Jesus, they should live in total gratuity, placing their own life in the hands of God, serving the brothers and sisters (Mk 10, 17-27). In today’s Gospel Jesus explains better how this life of gratuity and service of those who abandon everything for him, for Jesus and for the Gospel, should be (Mk 10, 28-31).
• Mark 10, 28-31: A hundred times as much, and persecutions too, now. Peter observes: “We have left everything and followed you”. It is like saying: “We have done what the Lord asked of the young rich man. We have abandoned everything and we have followed you. Explain to us how should our life be?” Peter wants Jesus to explain more the new way of living in the service and in gratuity. The response of Jesus is beautiful, profound and symbolical: “In truth there is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children or land for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times as much, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land and, persecutions too, now in the present time and in the world to come, eternal life. Many who are first will be last and the last first”. The type of life which springs from the gift of everything is the example of the Kingdom which Jesus wants to establish (a) to extend the family and to create community; it increases a hundred times the number of brothers and sisters. (b) It produces the sharing of goods, because all will have a hundred times more houses and land. Divine Providence incarnates itself and passes through the fraternal organization, where everything belongs to everyone and there are no longer persons who are in need. They put into practice the Law of God which asks “that there be no poor among you” (Dt 15, 4-11). This was what the first Christians did (Ac 2, 42-45). It is the perfect living out of service and gratuity. (c) They should not expect any privilege in return, no security, no type of promotion. Rather, in this life they will have all this, but with persecutions. Because, in this world, organized on egoism and the interests of groups and persons, those who want to live a gratuitous love and the gift of self, they will be crucified as Jesus was. (d) They will be persecuted in this world, but in the future world they will have eternal life of which the rich young man spoke about.
• Jesus is the choice of the poor. A two-fold slavery characterized the situation of the people of the time of Jesus: the slavery of the politics of Herod supported by the Roman Empire and maintained by a whole well organized system of exploitation and repression, and the slavery of the official religion, maintained by the religious authority of the time. This is why the clan, the family, the community, were being disintegrated and a great number of the people were excluded, marginalized, homeless, having no place neither in religion nor in society. This is why several movements arose which were seeking for a new way of living in community: the Esenes, the Pharisees and, later on, the Zelots. In the community of Jesus there was something new which made it different from other groups. It was the attitude toward the poor and the excluded. The communities of the Pharisees lived separated. The word “Pharisee” means “separated”. They lived separated from impure people. Many Pharisees considered people ignorant and cursed (Jn 7, 49), in sin (Jo 9, 34). Jesus and his community, on the contrary, lived together with excluded persons, considered impure: publicans, sinners, prostitutes, lepers (Mk 2, 16; 1, 41; Lk 7, 37). Jesus recognizes the richness and the values which the poor possess (Mt 11, 25-26; Lk 21, 1-4). He proclaims them blessed, because the Kingdom is theirs, it belongs to the poor (Lk 6, 20; Mt 5, 3). He defines his mission: “to proclaim the Good News to the poor” (Lk 4, 18). He himself lives as a poor person. He possesses nothing for himself, not even a rock where to lay his head (Lk 9, 58). And to those who want to follow him to share his life, he tells them to choose: God or money! (Mt 6, 24). He orders that they choose in favour of the poor! (Mk 10, 21). The poverty which characterized the life of Jesus and of the disciples, also characterized the mission. On the contrary of other missionaries (Mt 23,15), the disciples of Jesus could take nothing with them, neither gold, nor money, nor two tunics, nor purse, nor sandals (Mt 10, 9-10). They had to trust in the hospitality offered to them (Lk 9, 4; 10, 5-6). And if they would be accepted by the people, they should work like everybody else and live from what they would receive as wages for their work (Lk 10, 7-8). Besides they should take care of the sick and of those in need (Lk 10, 9; Mt 10, 8). Now they could tell the people: “The Kingdom of God is very near to you!” (Lk 10, 9).

4) Personal questions

• In your life, how do you practice Peter’s proposal: “We have left everything and have followed you”?
• Gratuitous sharing, service, acceptance to the excluded are signs of the Kingdom. How do I live this today?

5) Concluding Prayer

The whole wide world has seen
the saving power of our God.
Acclaim Yahweh, all the earth,
burst into shouts of joy! (Ps 98,3-4)

1) Opening prayer

Lord,
guide the course of world events
and give your Church the joy and peace
of serving you in freedom.
You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2) Gospel Reading - Mark 10,32-45

They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem; Jesus was walking on ahead of them; they were in a daze, and those who followed were apprehensive. Once more taking the Twelve aside he began to tell them what was going to happen to him, 'Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the gentiles, who will mock him and spit at him and scourge him and put him to death; and after three days he will rise again.' James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him. 'Master,' they said to him, 'We want you to do us a favour.' He said to them, 'What is it you want me to do for you?' They said to him, 'Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.' But Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I shall drink, or be baptised with the baptism with which I shall be baptised?' They replied, 'We can.' Jesus said to them, 'The cup that I shall drink you shall drink, and with the baptism with which I shall be baptised you shall be baptised, but as for seats at my right hand or my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted.'
When the other ten heard this they began to feel indignant with James and John, so Jesus called them to him and said to them, 'You know that among the gentiles those they call their rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. Among you this is not to happen. No; anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all. For the Son of man himself came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'

3) Reflection

• Today’s Gospel narrates the third announcement of the Passion and, once again, like in the previous times, it shows us the incoherence of the disciples (cfr. Mk 8, 31-33 and Mk 9, 30-37). Jesus insists on the service and on the gift of one’s own life, and they continue to discuss about the first places in the Kingdom, one at the right and the other on the left of the throne. Therefore, everything indicates, that the disciples continue to be blind. This is a sign that the dominating ideology of the time had profoundly penetrated their mentality. In spite of the fact of having lived several years with Jesus, they had not changed their way of seeing things. They saw Jesus now, as they had seen him at the beginning. They wanted to be rewarded for following Jesus.
• Mark 10, 32-34: The third announcement of the Passion. They were on the way to Jerusalem. Jesus walked in front of them. He was in a hurry. He knew that they would kill him. The Prophet Isaiah had announced it (Is 50, 4-6; 53, 1-10). His death was not the result of a blind destiny or of a pre-established plan, but the consequence of the commitment assumed of the mission which he received from the Father together with those excluded of his time. This is why Jesus warns his disciples concerning the torture and the death which he will suffer in Jerusalem. The disciple has to follow the Master, even if it is a question of suffering with him. The disciples were terrified, and those who were behind were afraid. They did not understand what was happening. Suffering was not in agreement with the idea that they had of the Messiah.
• Mark 10, 35-37: The petition for the first place. The disciples not only do not understand, but they continue with their own personal ambitions. James and John ask for a place in the glory of the Kingdom, one at the right and the other on the left of Jesus. They want to be even before Peter! They do not understand the proposal of Jesus. They are only concerned about their own personal interests. This shows clearly the tensions and the little understanding existing in the communities, at the time of Mark, and these exist even today in our communities. In the Gospel of Matthew it is the mother of James and John who addressed this request for her sons (Mt 20, 20). Probably, before the difficult situation of poverty and growing lack of work at that time, the mother intercedes for her sons and tries to guarantee an employment for them in the coming of the Kingdom of which Jesus spoke about so much.
• Mark 10, 38-40: The response of Jesus. Jesus reacts firmly: “You do not know what you are asking!” And he asks if they are able to drink the cup that he, Jesus, will drink and if they are ready to receive the baptism which he will receive. It is the cup of suffering, the baptism of blood! Jesus wants to know if they, instead of a place of honour, accept to give their life up to the point of death. Both answer: “We can!” It seems to be a spontaneous answer, not having thought about it, because a few days later, they abandoned Jesus and left him alone at the hour of suffering (Mk 14, 50). They do not have a critical conscience; they do not perceive their personal reality. As regards the place of honour in the Kingdom at the side of Jesus, this is granted by the Father. What he, Jesus, can offer, is the chalice and the baptism, suffering and the cross.
• Mark 10, 41-44: “Among you this is not to happen”. At the end of his instruction about the Cross, Jesus once again speaks about the exercise of power (Mk 9, 33-35). At that time, those who held power in the Roman Empire did not bother about the people. They acted only according to their own interests (Mk 6, 17-29). The Roman Empire controlled the world and maintained it submitted by the force of arms and, thus, through the tributes, the taxes, duties, succeeded in concentrating the wealth of the people in the hands of a few in Rome. The society was characterized by the repressive and abusive exercise of power. Jesus had another proposal. He said: “Among you this is not to happen! With you it is not like that; but anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all”. He teaches against privileges and against rivalry. He overturns the system and insists on service, as a remedy against personal ambition. The community has to present an alternative for human living together.
• Mark 10, 45: The summary of the life of Jesus: Jesus defines his mission and his life: “For the Son of man himself came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus is the Messiah Servant, announced by the Prophet Isaiah (cfr. Is 42, 1-9; 49, 1-6; 50, 4-9; 52, 13-53, 12). He learnt from his mother who said to the Angel: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord!” (Lk 1, 38). A totally new proposal for the society of that time. In this phrase in which he defines his life, three more ancient titles appear, used by the first Christians to express and to communicate to others what the following meant for them: Son of Man, Servant of Yahweh, He who redeems the excluded (the one who liberates, who saves). To humanize life, to serve the brothers and sisters, to welcome the excluded.

4) Personal questions

• James and John ask for the first places in the Kingdom. Today, many persons pray to ask for some money, promotion, healing, and success. What do I seek in my relationship with God and what do I ask God for in my prayer?
• To humanize life, to serve the brothers and sisters. To welcome and accept the excluded. This is the program of Jesus, it is our program. How do I put it into practice?

5) Concluding Prayer

Yahweh has made known his saving power,
revealed his saving justice for the nations to see,
mindful of his faithful love
and his constancy to the House of Israel. (Ps 98,2-3)

1) Opening prayer

Lord,
guide the course of world events
and give your Church the joy and peace
of serving you in freedom.
You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2) Gospel Reading - Mark 10,46-52

As Jesus left Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus -- that is, the son of Timaeus -- a blind beggar, was sitting at the side of the road. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout and cry out, 'Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me.' And many of them scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he only shouted all the louder, 'Son of David, have pity on me.' Jesus stopped and said, 'Call him here.' So they called the blind man over. 'Courage,' they said, 'get up; he is calling you.' So throwing off his cloak, he jumped up and went to Jesus. Then Jesus spoke, 'What do you want me to do for you?' The blind man said to him, 'Rabbuni, let me see again.' Jesus said to him, 'Go; your faith has saved you.' And at once his sight returned and he followed him along the road.

3) Reflection

• The Gospel today describes the cure of the blind man Bartimaeus (Mk 10, 46-52) which closes the long teaching of Jesus about the Cross. At the beginning of this teaching, there was the cure of an anonymous blind man (Mk 8, 22-26). Both cures of blind persons are the symbol of what happened between Jesus and the disciples.
• Mark 10, 46-47: The shouting of the blind man Bartimaeus. Finally, after travelling a long distance, Jesus and the disciples reached Jericho, the last stop before going up toward Jerusalem. Bartimaeus, the blind man was sitting at the side of the road. He could not take part in the procession which accompanies Jesus. But he calls out, asking for the help of Jesus: “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” Throughout the centuries, through the practice of the monks of the desert, this invocation of the poor Bartimaeus became what is usually called: “The prayer of Jesus”. The monks repeated it orally, all the time, and from the mouth it went to the heart. The person, after a short time, no longer prays, in the sense that the person becomes prayer.
• Mark 10, 48-51: Jesus listens to the cry of the blind man. The cry of the poor man bothers people. Those who are in the procession try to stop the poor man from shouting, but “he shouted even louder!” And what does Jesus do? He listens to the call of the poor man, he stops and said: Call him here! Those who wanted to keep him from shouting, to stop the disturbing shout of the poor man, now, at the request of Jesus, are obliged to bring the poor man to Jesus. “Courage, get up because Jesus is calling you”. Bartimaeus leaves everything and directs himself to Jesus. He does not have too much. Only a mantle; what he had to cover his body (cfr. Ex 22, 25-26). This was his security, the only thing he possessed. Jesus asks: “What do you want me to do for you?” It is not enough to shout. It is necessary to know why we shout! “Rabbuni, My Lord, let me see again!” Bartimaeus had called Jesus not with thoughts completely just, because the title “Son of David” was not particularly appropriate. Jesus himself had criticized this (Mk 12, 35-37). But Bartimaeus had greater faith in Jesus than what he could express with his ideas about Jesus. He does not express any demands as Peter did. He knows how to give his life without imposing any conditions, and the miracle takes place.
• Mark 10, 52: “Your faith has saved you”. Jesus tells him: “Go, your faith has saved you.” In that same instant Bartimaeus began to see again and he followed Jesus along the road. His cure is the result of his faith in Jesus. Once cured, he abandons everything, follows Jesus along the road and goes up with him toward Calvary to Jerusalem. Bartimaeus becomes a model disciple for all of us who want to “follow Jesus along the road” in the direction of Jerusalem. In this decision of walking with Jesus is found the source of courage and the seed of the victory on the Cross. Because the cross is not fatal, nor an exigency from God. It is the consequence of the commitment assumed with God, to serve the brothers and sisters and to reject privileges.
• Faith is a force which transforms persons. The cure of the blind man Bartimaeus clarifies a very important aspect of how faith in Jesus should be. Peter had said to Jesus: “You are the Christ!” (Mk 8, 29). His doctrine was right, exact, because Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. But when Jesus says that the Messiah has to suffer, Peter reacts and does not accept. Peter had a right doctrine, but his faith in Jesus was not so just. Bartimaeus, on the contrary, had called Jesus with the title of “Son of David!” (Mk 10, 47. Jesus was not too pleased with this title (Mk 12, 35-37). And this is why, even invoking Jesus with a doctrine which is not correct, Bartimaeus had faith and was cured! It was different from that of Peter (Mk 8, 32-33), he believed more in Jesus than in the ideas that he had of Jesus. He was converted and followed Jesus along the road toward Calvary (Mk 10, 52). The total understanding of the following of Jesus is not obtained through a theoretical teaching, but with practical commitment, walking with him along the road of service and of gratuity, from Galilee to Jerusalem. Anyone who insists in maintaining the idea of Peter, that is, a glorious Messiah without the Cross, will understand nothing of Jesus and will never be able to attain the attitude of a true disciple. Anyone who believes in Jesus and “gives” himself (Mk 8, 35), accepts “to be the last one” (Mk 9, 35), to “drink the cup and to carry the cross” Mc 10, 38), this person, like Bartimaeus, even having a not too correct idea, will succeed to perceive and “to follow Jesus along the road” (Mk 10, 52). In this certainty of walking with Jesus is found the source of courage and the seed of the victory on the cross.

4) Personal questions

• An indiscreet question: “In my way of living faith, am I like Peter or like Bartimaeus?
• Today, in the Church, is the majority of the people like Peter or like Bartimaeus?

5) Concluding Prayer

Yahweh is good,
his faithful love is everlasting,
his constancy from age to age. (Ps 100,5)

1) Opening prayer

Holy God,

we often turn our hearts

into houses of pride and greed

rather than into homes of love and goodness

where you can feel at home.

Destroy the temple of sin in us,

drive out all evil from our hearts

and make us living stones of a community

in which can live and reign

your Son Jesus Christ,

our living Lord for ever and ever.

2) Gospel Reading - Matthew 11:25-30

At that time Jesus exclaimed, 'I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.

Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

'Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.'

3) Reflection

• Today we celebrate the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the Gospel we will listen to the invitation of Jesus: “Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart”. The Gospel shows the tenderness with which Jesus welcomes, accepts the little ones. He wanted the poor to find rest and peace in him.

• The context of chapters 11 and 12 of Matthew. In this context is stressed and made evident the fact that the poor are the only ones to understand and to accept the wisdom of the Kingdom. Many people did not understand this preference of Jesus for the poor and the excluded.

a) John the Baptist, who looked at Jesus with the eyes of the past, had doubts (Mt 11, 1-15)

b) The people, who looked at Jesus with a purpose of their own interests, were not capable to understand him (Mt 11, 16-19).

c) The great cities around the lake, which listened to Jesus’ preaching and saw the miracles, did not want to open themselves to his message (Mt 11, 20-24).

d) The wise and the Doctors, who judged everything according to their own science, were not capable to understand the preaching of Jesus (Mt 11, 25).

e) Not even his relatives understood him (Mt 12, 46-50).

f) Only the little ones understood him and accepted the Good News of the Kingdom (Mt 11, 25-30).

g) The others want sacrifice, but Jesus wants mercy (Mt 12, 1-8).

h) The reaction against Jesus impels the Pharisees to want to kill him (Mt 12, 9-14).

i) They said that Jesus was Beelzebul (Mt 12, 22-32).

j) But Jesus did not draw back. He continues to assume the mission of Servant, as described in the prophecies (Mt 12, 15-21). This is why he was persecuted and condemned to death.

• Matthew 11, 25-26: Only the little ones understand and accept the Good News of the Kingdom. Jesus addresses a prayer to the Father: “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do!” The wise, the doctors of that time, had created a series of laws which they imposed upon the people in the name of God. They thought that God demanded this observance from the people. But the Law of love, brought by Jesus, said the contrary. What is important is not what we do for God, but rather what God, in his great love, does for us! People understood the words of Jesus and were filled with joy. The wise thought that Jesus was not right. They could not understand this teaching which modified the relationship of the people of God.

• Matthew 11, 27: The origin of the New Law: The Son knows the Father. Jesus, the Son, knows the Father. He knows what the Father wanted when, centuries before, he gave the Law to Moses. What the Father wants to tell us, he handed it to Jesus, and Jesus revealed it to the little ones, because they opened themselves to his message. Today, also, Jesus continues to teach many things to the poor and to the little ones. The wise and the intelligent do well if they become pupils of the little ones!

• Matthew 11, 28-30: “Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest”. Jesus invites all those who are tired to find rest in him. These are the people who are tired under the weight of the impositions and the observances which the law of purity demanded. And he says: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart”. Many times this phrase has been manipulated to ask people to submit themselves, to be passive. What Jesus wants to say is the contrary. He asks people to leave aside the professors of religion of that time, to rest and to begin to learn from him, from Jesus, who is “gentle and humble of heart”. Jesus does not do like the Scribes who pride themselves of their own science, but he is like the people who live humiliated and exploited. Jesus, the new teacher, knows from experience what happens in the heart of the people and how much the people suffer.

• The invitation of divine wisdom to all those who seek it. Jesus invites all those who are oppressed under the weight of the observance of the law to find rest in him, because he is gentle and humble of heart, capable of relieving and consoling the people who suffer, who feel tired and depressed (Mt 11, 25-30). In this invitation resound the beautiful words of Isaiah who consoled the people who lived in exile (Is 55, 1-3). This invitation is bound to divine wisdom, which invites persons to the encounter with her (Ws 24, 19), saying: “her ways are filled with delight; her paths all lead to contentment” (Pr 3, 17). And he adds: “Wisdom brings up her own children and cares for those who seek her. Whoever loves her, loves life, those who seek her early will be filled with joy” (Si 4, 11-12). This invitation reveals a very important characteristic of the feminine face of God: tenderness and acceptance which consoles, which gives life to persons and leads them to feel well. Jesus is defence, the protection and the maternal womb which the Father offers to people who are tired (cfr. Is 66, 10-13).

4) Personal questions

• What produces tension in you and what gives you peace? For you, to live in community, is it a source of tension or of peace?

• How can these words of Jesus help our community to be a place of rest for our life?

5) Concluding Prayer

Yahweh is tenderness and pity,

slow to anger and rich in faithful love;

his indignation does not last for ever,

nor his resentment remain for all time. (Ps 103,8-9)

1) Opening prayer

Lord our God, loving Father,
Mary went with haste to visit
her cousin Elizabeth in her hour of need.
May we too rejoice in the Lord
when we can hurry to see people
to bring them the Lord
as we to share in their needs and their joys.
With Mary, may we become
a blessing to them.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

2) Gospel Reading - Luke 1,39-56

Mary set out at that time and went as quickly as she could into the hill country to a town in Judah. She went into Zechariah's house and greeted Elizabeth.
Now it happened that as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, 'Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? Look, the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.'
And Mary said: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour;
because he has looked upon the humiliation of his servant. Yes, from now onwards all generations will call me blessed,
for the Almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name,
and his faithful love extends age after age to those who fear him.
He has used the power of his arm, he has routed the arrogant of heart.
He has pulled down princes from their thrones and raised high the lowly.
He has filled the starving with good things, sent the rich away empty.
He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his faithful love
-according to the promise he made to our ancestors -- of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.
Mary stayed with her some three months and then went home.

3) Reflection

• Today is the Feast of the Visitation of the Virgin, and the Gospel narrates the visit of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth. When Luke speaks of Mary, he thinks of the communities of his time which lived dispersed in the cities of the Roman Empire and offers to them, Mary as a model of how they should relate to the Word of God. Once, hearing Jesus speak about God, a woman in the crowd exclaimed: “Blessed the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you”, praising the mother of Jesus. Immediately Jesus answered: “More blessed still are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Lk 11, 27-28). Mary is the model of the faithful community which knows how to live and practice the Word of God. In describing the visit of Mary to Elizabeth, he teaches how the communities should act in order to transform the visit of God into service of the brother and sisters.
• The episode of the visit of Mary to Elizabeth also shows another typical aspect of Luke. All the words and the attitudes, especially the Canticle of Mary, form a great celebration of praise. It seems to be a description of a solemn Liturgy. Thus, Luke evokes the liturgical and celebrative environment, in which Jesus was formed and in which the communities should live their own faith.
• Luke 1, 39-40: Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Luke stresses the haste with which Mary responds to the demands of the Word of God. The Angel spoke to her about the pregnancy of Elizabeth and Mary, immediately, rises in order to verify what the Angel had announced, she goes out of the house to help a person in need. From Nazareth to the mountain of Judah there are about 100 kilometres! There were no buses or trains!
• Luke 1, 41-44: The greeting of Elizabeth. Elizabeth represents the Old Testament which ends. Mary, the New One which is beginning. The Old Testament welcomes, accepts the New One with gratitude and trust, recognizing in it the gratuitous gift of God which comes to realize and to complete whatever expectation people had. In the encounter of the two women, is manifested the gift of the Spirit which makes the child jump with joy in Elizabeth’s womb. The Good News of God reveals his presence in one of the most common things of human life: two housewives who exchange the visit to help one another. A visit, joy, pregnancy, children, reciprocal help, house, family: Luke wants to make the communities (and all of us) understand and discover the presence of the Kingdom. The words of Elizabeth, up until now, form part of the best known and most recited Psalm in the world, which is the Hail Mary.
• Luke 1, 45: The praise which Elizabeth makes of Mary. “Blessed is she who believed that the promise made by the Lord would be fulfilled”. This is Luke’s advice to the communities: to believe in the Word of God, because it has the force to realize what it says. It is a creative Word. It generates a new life in the womb of a virgin, in the womb of the poor and abandoned people who accept it with faith.
• Luke 1, 46-56: The canticle of Mary. Most probably, this canticle was already known and sung in the Communities. It teaches how it should be prayed and sung. Luke 1, 46-56: Mary begins proclaiming the change which has come about in her life under the loving look of God, full of mercy. This is why she sings joyfully: “My spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour”. Luke 1, 51-53: she sings the fidelity of God toward his people and proclaims the change which the arm of Yahweh is bringing about in behalf of the poor and the hungry. The expression “arm of God” recalls the liberation of the Exodus. It is this saving force of God which gives life to the change: he has routed the arrogant of heart (1, 51), he has pulled down princes from their thrones and raised high the lowly (1, 52), he has sent the rich away empty, and has filled the starving with good things (1, 53). Luke 1, 54-55: at the end, she recalls that all that is the expression of God’s mercy toward his people and an expression of his fidelity to the promises made to Abraham. The Good News is not a response to the observance of the Law, but the expression of the goodness and the fidelity of God to the promises made. That is what Paul taught in the letters to the Galatians and to the Romans.
The second Book of Samuel tells the story of the Ark of the Covenant. David wants to put in his own house, but he is frightened and says: “How can the Ark of Yahweh come to be with me?” (2 S 6, 9). Then David ordered that the Ark be placed in the house of Obed-Edom. And the Ark of Yahweh remained three months in the house of Obed-Edom, and the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and his whole family” (2 S 6, 11). Mary, waiting for Jesus, is like the Ark of the Covenant which, in the Old Testament, visited the houses of the persons granting benefits. She goes to Elizabeth’s house and remained there three months. And while she is in Elizabeth’s house, the whole family is blessed by God. The community should be like the New Ark of the Covenant. Visiting the house of the persons, it should take benefits and the grace of God to the people.

4) Personal questions

• What prevents us from discovering and living the joy of God’s presence in our life?
• Where and how does the joy of the presence of God take place today in my life and in that of the community?

5) Concluding Prayer

Bless Yahweh, my soul, from the depths of my being,
his holy name;
bless Yahweh, my soul,
never forget all his acts of kindness. (Ps 103,1-2)

Ordinary Time

1) Opening prayer

Father,
Your love never fails.
Hear our call.
Keep us from danger
and provide for all our needs.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2) Gospel Reading - Mark 12:1-12

Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders in parables. "A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey. At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another servant. And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully. He sent yet another whom they killed. So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed. He had one other to send, a beloved son. He sent him to them last of all, thinking, 'They will respect my son.' But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' So they seized him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come, put the tenants to death, and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture passage: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes?" They were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowd, for they realized that he had addressed the parable to them. So they left him and went away.

3) Reflection

• Jesus is in Jerusalem. It is the last week of His life. He has returned to the portico of the Temple (Mk 11:27) where He now begins the direct confrontation with the authorities. Chapters 11 and 12 describe the diverse aspects of this confrontation: (a) with the men buying and selling in the Temple (Mk 12:11-26), (b) with the priests, elders and the scribes (Mk 11:27 and 12:12), (c) with the Pharisees and the Herodians (Mk 12:13-17), (d) with the Sadducees (Mk 12:18-27), and (e) once again with the scribes (Mk 12:28-40). Finally at the end the confrontation with all of them, Jesus comments on the widow’s mite (Mk 12:41-44). Today’s Gospel describes part of the conflict with the priests, elders and the scribes (Mk 12:1-12). All of these confrontations make the disciples, and us, understand more clearly what is Jesus’ plan and what is the intention of those who have power.
• Mark 12:1-9: The parable of the vineyard: the direct response of Jesus to men of power. The parable of the vineyard is a summary of the history of Israel. A beautiful summary taken from the prophet Isaiah (Is 5:1-7). Through this story, Jesus gives an indirect response to the priests, scribes and elders who had asked Him, “What authority have You for acting like this? Who gave You authority to act like this?" (Mk 11:28). In this parable Jesus (a) reveals the origin of His authority: He is the Son, the heir (Mk 12:6); (b) He denounces the abuse of the authority of the tenants, that is, of the priests and of the elders who were not concerned about the people of God (Mk 12:3-8); (c) He defends the authority of the prophets, sent by God, but massacred by the tenants of the vineyard! (Mk 12:2-5); (d) He unmasks the authority which manipulates religion and kills the son because they do not want to lose the source of income which they have succeeded in accumulating for themselves throughout the centuries (Mk 12:7).
• Mark 12:10-12: The decision of men of power confirms the denunciation made by God. The priests, the scribes and the elders understood very well the meaning of the parable, but they were not converted. Rather, they maintained their own plan to arrest Jesus (Mk 12:12). They rejected “the cornerstone” (Mk 12:10), but they do not have the courage to do it openly, because they fear the people. Thus, the disciples know what awaits them if they follow Jesus!
• The men of power at the time of Jesus: In chapters 11 and 12 of the Gospel of Mark we see those in power: priests, elders and scribes (Mk 11:27); Pharisees and Herodians (Mk 12:13); and Sadducees (Mk 12:18).
-Priests: They were the ones in charge of the worship in the Temple, where one tenth of the income was collected. The High priest occupied a central place in the life of the people, especially after the exile. He was chosen among the families who had more power and who were richer.
-Elders or Chiefs of the people: They were the local chiefs, in the villages and in the cities. Their origin was the heads of the ancient tribes.
-scribes or Doctors of the Law: they were those in charge of teaching. They dedicated their life to the study of the Law of God and taught the people how to observe the Law of God in all things. Not all the scribes followed the same line. Some of them were with the Pharisees, others with the Sadducees.
- Pharisees: Pharisee means “separated.” They fought in order that by means of the perfect observance of the Law of purity, people would succeed in becoming pure, separated, and holy as the Law and Tradition demanded! By means of the exemplary witness of their life within the norms of the time, they governed in almost all the villages of Galilee.
-Herodians: this was a group bound to Herod Antipas of Galilee who governed from 4 BC until 39 AD. The Herodians formed part of an elite class who did not expect the Kingdom of God in the future, but who considered it already present in Herod’s kingdom.
- Sadducees: They were an elite class, willing to incorporate Hellenism into their lives. They did not believe in oral law, only a literal interpretation of the written law, and thus, they did not accept the changes defended by the Pharisees, for example, faith in a resurrection and the existence of angels.
- Sanhedrin: This was the Supreme Tribunal of the Jews with 71 members among high priests, elders, Pharisees and scribes. It had the role of great power before the people and represented the nation before the Roman authority.

4) Personal questions

• What is your reaction to Church authority? What is the difference between “just authority” and “unjust authority”?
• How do you exercise authority within your community, your family, and among peers?

• A position of authority is often at odds with humility. How do you, or would you, balance authority and humility in action?

5) Concluding Prayer

Integrity and generosity are marks of Yahweh
for He brings sinners back to the path.
Judiciously He guides the humble,
instructing the poor in His way. (Ps 25:8-9)

The sending of the 72 disciples
Rebuilding Community Life 
Luke 10:1-12.17-20 

1. Opening prayer

Lord Jesus, send your Spirit to help us to read the Scriptures with the same mind that you read them to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. In the light of the Word, written in the Bible, you helped them to discover the presence of God in the disturbing events of your sentence and death. Thus, the cross that seemed to be the end of all hope became for them the source of life and of resurrection. Create in us silence so that we may listen to your voice in Creation and in the Scriptures, in events and in people, above all in the poor and suffering. May your word guide us so that we too, like the two disciples from Emmaus, may experience the force of your resurrection and witness to others that you are alive in our midst as source of fraternity, justice and peace. We ask this of you, Jesus, son of Mary, who revealed to us the Father and sent us your Spirit. Amen.

2. Reading

a) A key to the reading:

Jesus’ preaching draws many people (Mk 3:7-8). A small community begins to form around him. At first, two persons (Mk 1:16-18); then another two (Mk 1:19-20); then twelve (Mk 3:13-19); and now in our text, more than seventy-two persons (Lk 10:1). The community continues to grow. One thing Jesus insists on is community life. He set the example. He never wished to work alone. The first thing he did at the beginning of his preaching in Galilee was to call people to live with him and share in his mission (Mk 1:16-20; 3,14). The ambience of fraternity that grows around Jesus is a foretaste of the Kingdom, a proof of the new experience of God with the Father. Thus, if God is Father and Mother, then we are all one family of brothers and sisters. Thus is the community born, the new family (cf. Mk 3:34-35).

This Sunday’s Gospel tells us of practical things to direct the seventy-two disciples in their proclamation of the Good News of the Kingdom and in rebuilding community life. Proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom and rebuilding community life are two sides of the same coin. One does not exist and cannot make sense without the other. While reading the text, try to look for this connection between community life and the proclamation of the Kingdom of God.

b) A division of the text to help with the reading:

Luke 10:1: The Mission 
Luke 10:2-3: Co-responsibility 
Luke 10:4-6: Hospitality
Luke 10:7: Sharing
Luke 10:8: Communion around the table
Luke 10:9^a: Welcoming those excluded 
Luke 10:9^b: The coming of the Kingdom 
Luke 10:10-12: Wiping the dust from their feet 
Luke 10:17-20: The names written in heaven

c) Text:

 1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself would be visiting. 2 And he said to them, 'The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to do his harvesting. 3 Start off now, but look, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Take no purse with you, no haversack, no sandals. Salute no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, let your first words be, "Peace to this house!" 6 And if a man of peace lives there, your peace will go and rest on him; if not, it will come back to you. 7 Stay in the same house, taking what food and drink they have to offer, for the labourer deserves his wages; do not move from house to house. 8 Whenever you go into a town where they make you welcome, eat what is put before you. 9 Cure those in it who are sick, and say, "The kingdom of God is very near to you." 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not make you welcome, go out into its streets and say, 11 "We wipe off the very dust of your town that clings to our feet, and leave it with you. Yet be sure of this: the kingdom of God is very near." 12 I tell you, on the great Day it will be more bearable for Sodom than for that town.
17 The seventy-two came back rejoicing. 'Lord,' they said, 'even the devils submit to us when we use your name.' 18 He said to them, 'I watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Look, I have given you power to tread down serpents and scorpions and the whole strength of the enemy; nothing shall ever hurt you. 20 Yet do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you; rejoice instead that your names are written in heaven.'

3. A moment of prayerful silence

so that the Word of God may penetrate and enlighten our life.

4. Some questions

to help us in our personal reflection.

a) What pleased or struck you most in this text? Why? 
b) Name each of the things that Jesus tells the disciples to do and the things to avoid.
c) What does Jesus wish to clarify through each of these suggestions so different from those common in everyday life? 
d) How can we put into practice what the Lord asks: “take no purse with you”, “do not move from house to house”, “salute no one on the road”, “wipe off the very dust from your feet”?
e) Why are these suggestions of Jesus a sign of the coming of the Kingdom of God?
f) Jesus tells us to be attentive to the most important thing when he says: “your names are written in heaven!” What does this mean for us?

5. For those who wish to go deeper into the theme

a) The literary and historical context:

A little before our text, in Luke 9:51, is the beginning of the second phase of Jesus’ apostolic activities, that is, a long journey to Jerusalem (Lk 9:51 to 19:29). The first phase took place in Galilee and began with the presentation of Jesus’ programme in the synagogue of Nazareth (Lk 4:14-21). In the second phase, he goes to Samaria, sends messengers ahead of him (Lk 9:52) and draws new disciples (Lk 9:57-62). The second phase begins with the appointment of the other 72 disciples and with the presentation of the programme that will guide them in their missionary activities (Lk 10:1-16). Thus Luke suggests that these new disciples are not Jews from Galilee but Samaritans, and that the place where Jesus proclaims the Good News is no longer Galilee but Samaria, the territory of the excluded. The aim of the mission given to the disciples is the rebuilding of community life. In Jesus days, many movements tried new ways of life and of sharing life: the Pharisees, the Essenes, the Zealots, John the Baptist and others. Many formed communities of disciples (Jn 1:35; Lk 11:1; Acts 19:3) and had their missionaries (Mt 23:15). But there was one great difference. The communities of Pharisees, for instance, lived apart from people. The community around Jesus lives among the people. Jesus’ proposal to the 72 disciples is to recover the old community values that were being lost, like hospitality, welcoming, sharing, communion around the table, accepting the excluded. Jesus tries to renew and reorganise communities in such a way that they may become an expression of the Covenant, an expression of the Kingdom of God.

b) A commentary on the text:

Luke 10:1: The Mission
Jesus sends the disciples to the places he would be visiting. The disciple is Jesus’ spokesperson. He is not the master of the Good News. Jesus sends them in pairs. This allows for mutual help and thus the mission is not that of an individual but of the community. Two persons represent the community better.

Luke 10:2-3: Co-responsibility 
Their first task is to ask God to send labourers. All of Jesus’ disciples must feel responsible for the mission. Thus they have to pray to the Father for the continuance of the mission. Jesus sends his disciples like lambs among wolves. The mission is a difficult and dangerous task. The system within which they lived and within which we still live continues to resist the reorganisation of people living in community. Anyone who, like Jesus, proclaims love in a society organised on individual and collective selfishness, will be a lamb among wolves and will be crucified.

Luke 10:4-6: Hospitality 
Jesus’ disciples may not take anything with them, no purse, no sandals. All they can take with them is peace. This means that they had to rely on the hospitality of the people. Thus the disciple who goes carrying nothing but peace, shows he trusts people. He thinks that he will be accepted and that thus people will feel respected and confirmed. In this way the disciples were criticising the laws concerning exclusion and brought out the old values of community sharing of the people of God. Salute no one on the road means that they must not waste time with matters not pertaining to the mission. This may be a reference to the episode of the death the Sunamite’s son, where Elisha says to his employee, “Go! If anyone salutes you, do not answer” (2Kings 4:29), because this was a matter of life and death. Proclaiming God’s Good News is a matter of life and death!

Luke 10:7: Sharing 
The disciples must not move from house to house, but must stay in the same house. They must live together with and share in the life and work of the local people, and live on what they receive in exchange, the labourer deserves his wages. This means that they must trust in sharing. Through this new practice, they recovered one of the old traditions of the people of God, criticising a culture of accumulation that was characteristic of the Roman Empire and so proclaimed a new model for people to live together.

Luke 10:8: Communion around the table
The disciples must take what food and drink they offer. When the Pharisees went on a mission, they went prepared. They took with them purse and money so that they could provide for their own food. They maintained that they could not trust the food of the people because it was not always ritually “pure”. Thus the observance of the Law of legal purity, instead of helping to overcome divisions, weakened the life of communitarian values. Jesus’ disciples must not be separate from the people but rather accept communion around the table. When coming into contact with people they were not to be afraid of losing legal purity. The community value of fraternal living together is greater than the observance of ritual norms. By acting thus, they criticised the current laws on purity, and proclaimed a new way to purity, to intimacy with God.

Luke 10:9^a: Welcoming those excluded 
The disciples must look after the sick, cure lepers and drive out evil spirits (cf Mt 10:8). This means that they must welcome into the community those who had been excluded from it. The practice of solidarity is a criticism of a society that excluded a person from the rest of the community. And thus is recovered the ancient prophetic tradition of goêl. From earliest times, the strength of the clan or the community was revealed in its defence of the value of a person, a family and the possession of land, and was concretely practised every “seven times seven years” in the celebration of the jubilee year (Lv 25,8-55; Dt 15,1-18).

Luke 10:9^b: The coming of the Kingdom 
Hospitality, sharing, communion around the table, welcoming the excluded (goêl) were four pillars for sustaining community life. But because of the difficult situation of poverty, unemployment, persecution and oppression from the Romans, these pillars were broken. Jesus wants to rebuild them and affirms that, if they go back to these four values, the disciples can proclaim to the four winds: The Kingdom of God is very near to you! Proclaiming the Kingdom does not mean teaching truth and doctrine, but bringing people to a new way of living and sharing, a new way of acting and thinking, based on the Good News that Jesus proclaims: God is Father and therefore we are all together brothers and sisters.

Luke 10:10-12: Wiping the dust from their feet 
How can we understand such a hard threat? Jesus came to bring an entirely new thing. He came to recover the communitarian values of the past: hospitality, sharing, communion around the table and welcoming the excluded. This explains the severity of the words used against those who refuse to accept the message. They are not refusing something new, but their own past, their own culture and wisdom! Jesus’ plan for the 72 disciples was aimed at digging up the memory, recovering the communitarian values of the oldest tradition, to rebuild the community and renew the Covenant, to renew life and thus to make God the new great Good News in the life of people.

Luke 10:17-20: The names written in heaven
The disciples come back from the mission and get together with Jesus to evaluate what they had done. They begin by telling their stories. With great joy, they inform him that, in the name of Jesus, they were able to drive out evil spirits! Jesus helps them in their discernment. If they were able to drive out evil spirits, it was because Jesus had given them that power. While they stay with Jesus, no evil can come to them. And Jesus says that the most important thing was not driving out evil spirits, but that their names are written in heaven. To have one’s name written in heaven means to be certain of being known and loved by the Father. Some time before this, James and John had asked to bring down fire from heaven to destroy the Samaritans (Lk 9:54). Now, through the proclamation of the Good News, Satan falls from heaven (Lk 10:18) and the names of the Samaritan disciples are entered in heaven! In those days, many thought that whatever was Samaritan was of the devil, of Satan (Jn 8:48). Jesus changes everything!

c) Further information:

The small communities being formed in Galilee and in Samaria are above all “a foretaste of the Kingdom”. The community around Jesus is like the face of God transformed into New News for the people, above all for the poor. Is our community like this?

Here are some characteristics of the community that grew around Jesus. These are characteristics of the face of God revealed in them. They may act as a mirror for the revision of our community:
i) “You have only one master, and you are all brothers" (Mt 23:8). The foundation of the community is not knowledge or power, but equality among the brothers and sisters. It is fraternity. 
ii) Jesus insists on equality between men and women (Mt 19:7-12) and gives orders to men and women (Mt 28:10; Mk 16:9-10; Jn 20:17). They all “follow” Jesus from Galilee (Mk 15:41; Lk 8:2-3). 
iii) They had a common house shared with the poor (Jn 13:29). Thissharing must reach the soul and heart of all (Acts 1:14; 4:32). It must reach the point that there are no secrets among them (Jn 15:15).
iv) The power of service. “Any one who wants to be first among you, must be slave to all!” (Mk 10:44). Jesus sets the example (Jn 13:15). "The Son of man came not be served, but to serve" (Mt 20:28). "Here am I among as one who serves" (Lk 22:27). "We are useless servants!" (Lk 17:10)
v) Because of many conflicts and divisions, Jesus insists that the community be a place of forgiveness and reconciliation, not of mutual condemnation (Mt 18:21-22; Lk 17:3-4). The power to forgive was given to Peter (Mt 16:19), the apostles (Jn 20:23) and the communities (Mt 18:18). God’s pardon is passed on to the community. 
vi) They prayed together in the Temple (Jn 2:13; 7:14; 10:22-23). Sometimes Jesus forms smaller groups (Lk 9:28; Mt 26:36-37). They pray before meals (Mk 6:41; Lk 24:30) and frequent the synagogues (Lk 4:16). 
vii) Joy that no one can take away (Jn 16:20-22) "Blessed are you!" Your name is written in heaven (Lk 10:20), their eyes will see what has been promised (Lk 10:23-24), the Kingdom is yours! (Lk 6:20).

The community around Jesus is the model for the early Christians after the resurrection (Acts 2:42-47)! The community is like the face of God transformed into Good News for the people.

6. Praying the Psalm 146 (145) 

The face of God, confirmed by Jesus 

Alleluia! Praise Yahweh, my soul!
I will praise Yahweh all my life, 
I will make music to my God as long as I live.

Do not put your trust in princes, 
in any child of Adam, 
who has no power to save.
When his spirit goes forth he returns to the earth, 
on that very day all his plans come to nothing.

How blessed is he who has Jacob's God to help him, 
his hope is in Yahweh his God,
who made heaven and earth, 
the sea and all that is in them. 
He keeps faith for ever,
gives justice to the oppressed, 
gives food to the hungry; 
Yahweh sets prisoners free.

Yahweh gives sight to the blind, 
lifts up those who are bowed down.
Yahweh protects the stranger, 
he sustains the orphan and the widow. 
Yahweh loves the upright,
but he frustrates the wicked.

Yahweh reigns for ever, your God, Zion, 
from age to age.

7. Closing prayer

Lord Jesus, we thank you for your Word that has clarified for us the will of the Father. Grant that your Spirit may enlighten our actions and give us the strength to put into practice that which your Word has revealed to us. Grant that we, like Mary, your Mother, may not only listen to your Word but also put it into practice. Who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

The parable of the Good Samaritan
Who is my neighbour?
Luke 10:25-37

1. LECTIO

a) Opening prayer:

Prayers of Blessed Giorgio Preca in Il Sacrario dello spirito di Cristo

Lord God, you are present and I am in you: 
          Give me wisdom to know your spirit.
Lord God, you are present and I am in you: 
          Grant me the gift of the spirit of the Master, my Christ Jesus.
Lord God, you are present and I am in you: 
          Guide my every way with your light.
Lord God, you are present and I am in you:
          Teach me to do your will at all times.
Lord God, you are present and I am in you: 
          Do not let me stray from your Spirit, the Spirit of love.
Lord God, you are present and I am in you: 
          Do not abandon me when my strength fails.

b) Gospel reading:

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" (Picture) 26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read?" 27 And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself." 28 And he said to him, "You have answered right; do this, and you will live."
29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbour?" 30 Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, 34 and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers?" 37 He said, "The one who showed mercy on him." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

c) Prayerful silent time:

that the Word of God may enter into our hearts and enlighten our life.

2. MEDITATIO

a) A key to the reading:

This is chapter 10 of Luke’s Gospel. It is the central part of Luke’s Gospel and it follows Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem: «Now as the time drew near for him to be taken up to heaven, he resolutely took the road for Jerusalem» (Lk 9: 51). We know that for Luke, Jerusalem is the city where salvation will take place, and Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem forms a central theme. Luke’s story begins in the holy city (Lk 1: 5) and ends in the same city (Lk 24: 52). In this middle section, Luke will repeatedly insist on the fact that Jesus is going towards Jerusalem (for instance in Lk 13: 22; 17: 11). In this text, which tells the parable of the good Samaritan in the context of a discussion with a doctor of the law concerning the greatest commandment, we again find the theme of a journey, this time from Jerusalem to Jericho (Lk 10: 30). The parable is part of this middle section of the Gospel that begins with Jesus, a pilgrim together with his disciples on their way to Jerusalem. He sends them ahead to prepare for him to stop at a Samaritan village and there they only find hostility precisely because they were on their way to Jerusalem (Lk 9: 51-53). The Samaritans avoided pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem and were hostile to them. “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him, in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself was to visit” (Lk 10: 1). Seventy-two is the traditional number of pagan nations.

The Fathers of the Church (Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome and others), keeping in mind all the symbolism associated with Jerusalem, the holy city of salvation, interpret this parable in a particular way. In the man who goes from Jerusalem to Jericho they see Adam who represents the whole human race expelled from Eden, the celestial paradise, because of sin. The Fathers of the Church see the thieves as the tempter who takes us away from God’s friendship with his wiles and who holds us slaves in our humanity wounded by sin. In the priest and the Levite they see the insufficiency of the old law for our salvation that will be accomplished by our Good Samaritan, Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, who, leaving the celestial Jerusalem, comes to the aid of our sinful condition and heals us with the oil of grace and the wine of the Spirit. In the inn, the Fathers see and image of the Church and in the inn-keeper they see the pastors into whose hands Jesus entrusts the care of his people, The departure of the Samaritan from the inn is seen by the Fathers as the resurrection and ascension of Jesus to sit at the right hand of the Father, but who promises to come back to reward each person according to his or her merit. Jesus then leaves the two denarii to the Church for our salvation, the two denarii that are the Sacred Scriptures and the Sacraments that help us on our way to holiness.

This allegorical and mystical interpretation of the text helps us to accept well the message of this parable. The text of the parable begins with a dialogue between a doctor of the law who stands to put the Lord to the test by asking: «Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?» (Lk 10: 25). Jesus replies with another question: «What is written in the law? What do you read there?» (Lk 10: 26). We must see this dialogue as a confrontation between two masters, a thing quite common in those days as a system of clarifying and deepening points of law. The polemical tone prevailing here is different from that in Mark where the question is asked by a Scribe who «had listened to them debating (Jesus and the Sadducees), and had observed how well Jesus had answered them» (Mk 12: 28) then puts the question to Jesus. This Scribe is well disposed to listen to Jesus, so much so that Jesus ends the dialogue with: «You are not far from the kingdom of God» (Mk 12: 34). Matthew, however, places this question in the context of a debate between Jesus and the Sadducees with the Pharisees present who when they “heard that he had silenced the Sadducees they got together and, to disconcert him, one of them put a question…” (Mt 22:34-35). Jesus gives an immediate reply quoting the commandment of love as found in Deuteronomy and Leviticus.

Only in Luke’s text is the question not about which is the greatest commandment but about how to inherit eternal life, a question dealt with again in the Synoptic Gospels on the lips of the rich young man (Mt 19: 16; Mk 10: 17; Lk 18: 18). As in Mark, so also here, Jesus praises the doctor of the law: «You have answered right… do this and life is yours» (Lk 1:, 28). But the doctor of the law was not yet satisfied with Jesus’ answer and wanting «to justify himself» (Lk 10: 28) for having asked the question asks again “and who is my neighbour”! This second question introduces and connects the following parable with the dialogue between Jesus and the doctor of the law. We also notice an inclusion between verse 26 that ends the debate and leads us to the tale of the parable in verse 37, which ends definitively the dialogue and the parable. In this verse, Jesus repeats to the doctor of the law that he had defined the neighbour as one who was compassionate: «Go and do the same yourself». This phrase of Jesus reminds us of the words at the last supper as recorded in John, when, after the washing of the feet, Jesus invites his disciples to follow his example (Jn 13: 12-15). At the last supper, Jesus bequeaths to his disciples the commandment of love understood as willingness “to give one’s life” in love for each other as the Lord has loved us (Jn 15: 12-14).

This commandment goes beyond the observance of the law. The priest and the Levite have kept the law by not approaching the poor wounded man who is left half dead, so as not to defile themselves (Lev 21: 1). Jesus goes beyond the law and desires his disciples to do as he does. «By this love you have for one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples» (Jn 13: 35). For the disciple of Jesus mere philanthropy is not enough. The Christian is called to something more, which he or she accomplishes in imitation of the Master, as the Apostle Paul said: «We are those who have the mind of Christ» (1 Cor 2: 16) «Because the love of Christ overwhelms us when we reflect that one man has died for all» (2 Cor 5, 14).

b) Some questions to direct our meditation and practice:

* What touched you most in the parable?
* With whom in the story do you identify?
* Have you ever thought of Jesus as the Good Samaritan?
* Do you feel the need for salvation in your life?
* Can you say with the apostle Paul that you have the mind of Christ?
* What urges you to love your neighbour? Is it the need to love and be loved, or is it compassion and the love of Christ?
* Who is your neighbour?

3. ORATIO

Canticle - 1Pt 2, 21-24

21 Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he trusted to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

4. CONTEMPLATIO

Contemplation is knowing how to adhere with one’s mind and heart to the Lord who by his Word transforms us into new beings who always do his will. “Knowing these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (Jn 13: 17)

Mary and Martha, friends of Jesus
Which is the better part chosen by Mary?
Luke 10, 34 – 42

1. Opening prayer

Lord Jesus, send your Spirit to help us to read the Scriptures with the same mind that you read them to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. In the light of the Word, written in the Bible, you helped them to discover the presence of God in the disturbing events of your sentence and death. Thus, the cross that seemed to be the end of all hope became for them the source of life and of resurrection. 
Create in us silence so that we may listen to your voice in Creation and in the Scriptures, in events and in people, above all in the poor and suffering. May your word guide us so that we too, like the two disciples from Emmaus, may experience the force of your resurrection and witness to others that you are alive in our midst as source of fraternity, justice and peace. We ask this of you, Jesus, son of Mary, who revealed to us the Father and sent us your Spirit. Amen.

2. Reading

Ordinary Time

1) Opening prayer

Lord,

be merciful to Your people.

Fill us with Your gifts

and make us always eager to serve You

in faith, hope and love.

You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2) Gospel Reading -   Matthew 12:46-50

While Jesus was speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. Someone told him, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you." But he said in reply to the one who told him, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?" And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother."

3) Reflection

• The family of Jesus. The relatives reached the house where Jesus was. They have probably come from Nazareth. From there up to Capernaum there is a distance of forty kilometers. His mother also comes  with them. They do not enter, but they send a messenger: "Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with You." Jesus’ reaction is clear: "Who is My mother? Who are My brothers?" And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, "Here are My mother and My brothers. For whoever does the will of My heavenly Father is My brother, and sister, and mother." To understand the meaning of this response it is helpful to look at the situation of the family in the time of Jesus.

• In the old Israel, the clan, that is, the large family (the community), was the basis for social living together. It was the protection of families and of the people, the guarantee of possession of the land, the principal vehicle of the tradition, and the defense of identity. It was the concrete way on the part of the people of that time to incarnate the love of God and love toward neighbor. To defend the clan was the same as to defend the Covenant.

• In Galilee at the time of Jesus, because of the system established during the long periods of government of Herod the Great (37 BC to 4 BC) and of his son Herod Antipas (4 BC to 39 AD), the clan (the community) was becoming weaker. The taxes to be paid, both to the government and to the Temple, the debts which were increasing, the individualistic mentality of the Hellenistic ideology, the frequent threats of violent repression on the part of the Romans and the obligation to accept the soldiers and give them hospitality, the ever growing problem of survival, all this impelled the families to block things out and to think only of their own needs. This closing up was strengthened by the religion of the time. For example: one who gave his inheritance to the Temple could leave his parents without any help. This weakened the fourth commandment which was the backbone of the clan (Mk 7:8-13). Besides this, the observance of the norms of purity was a factor of marginalization for many people: women, children, Samaritans, foreigners, lepers, possessed people, tax collectors or publicans, the sick, the mutilated and paraplegics.

• Thus, concern with the problems of one’s own family prevented the people from meeting in community. Now, in order that the Kingdom of God manifest itself in community living , the people had to overcome the narrow limits of the small family and open themselves again to the large family, to the community. Jesus gave the example. When His own family tried to take possession of Him, He reacted and extended the family: "Who is My mother? Who are My brothers?" And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, "Here are My mother and My brothers. For whoever does the will of My heavenly Father is My brother, and sister, and mother." He created a community.

• Jesus asked the same thing of those who wanted to follow Him. Families could not close themselves off from the larger community. The excluded and the marginalized had to be accepted in life with others, and in this way feel accepted by God (Lk 14:12-14). This was the way to attain the objective of the Law, which said “There must, then, be no poor among you” (Dt 15:4). Like the great Prophets of the past, Jesus tried to consolidate community life in the villages of Galilee. He restored the profound meaning of the clan, of the family, of the community, as an expression of the incarnation of the love toward God and toward neighbor.

4) Personal questions

• To live faith in the community. What place and what influence does family and community have in my way of living my faith?

• Today, in large cities, overcrowding promotes individualism which is contrary to life in community. What am I doing to counteract this evil?

• There are many forms of community today, and some of these are dysfunctional. We have online communities, gangs (which are a form of community), lobbies, clubs, social and business societies, and so on. How do I bring the attitude of Jesus to these other communities I might be a member of?

• How broadly do I define what is my community? Why?

5) Concluding prayer

I waited, I waited for Yahweh,

then He stooped to me

and heard my cry for help.

He put a fresh song in my mouth,

praise of our God. (Ps 40:1.3)

Ordinary Time

1) Opening prayer

Lord,

be merciful to Your people.

Fill us with Your gifts

and make us always eager to serve You

in faith, hope and love.

You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2) Gospel Reading - Matthew 13:18-23

Jesus said to his disciples: "Hear the parable of the sower. The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the Kingdom without understanding it, and the Evil One comes and steals away what was sown in his heart. The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away. The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit. But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirty fold."

3) Reflection

• Context. Beginning with chapter 12, on the one side we see there is opposition among the religious leaders of Israel, the scribes and the Pharisees; on the other side, within the crowds who listen to Jesus and are amazed because of His marvelous actions, gradually, little by little, a group of disciples is being formed, with uncertain features, but who follow Jesus with perseverance. To twelve of these disciples Jesus has given the gift of His authority and His power. He has sent them as messengers of the Kingdom, giving them demanding and radical instructions (10:5-39). Now at the moment when controversy breaks out with His opponents, Jesus recognizes His true kinship, not in the lines of the flesh (mother, brothers), but in those who follow Him, listen to Him, and fulfill the will of the Father (12:46-50). This last account offers us the possibility to imagine that the audience to whom Jesus addressed His words is two-fold: on the one side, the disciples to whom He has given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom (13:11) and who have the ability to understand them (13:50) and, on the other side, the crowds who seem to be deprived of this deep understanding (13:11, 34-36). To the large crowds who gather to listen to Jesus is presented, above all, the parable of the sower. Jesus speaks about a seed that falls (or not!) on the earth. Its growth depends on the place where it falls; it is possible for it to be hindered so that it cannot bear fruit. This is what happens in the first three types of earth “along the road side” (the ground hardened by the passing of men and animals), “the rocky earth” (formed by rocks), “on the thorns” (it is the earth covered with thorns). Instead, the seed that falls on “good ground” bears excellent fruit, even if at different levels. The reader is directed to be more attentive to the yield of the grain than to the action of the sower. Besides, Matthew focuses the attention of the listener on the good earth and the fruit that this earth is capable of producing in an exceptional manner.

The first part of the parable ends with an admonition: “Anyone who has ears should listen” (v. 9); it is an appeal to the freedom of the listener. The word of Jesus may remain a “parable” for a crowd incapable of understanding, or it can reveal “the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven” for those who allow themselves to be upset or affected by its force. It is the acceptance of the Word of Jesus that distinguishes the disciples from the indeterminate crowds; the faith of the first ones reveals the blindness of the others and obliges them to look “beyond” the parable.

• To listen and to understand. It is always Jesus who leads the disciples on the right path for the understanding of the parable. In the future through the disciples, it is the Church to be guided in the understanding of the Word of Jesus. In the explanation of the parable the pair of verbs “to listen” and “to understand” appears in 13:33: That which has been sown in the good ground is the one who listens to the Word and understands it...” It is in the understanding that the true disciple is distinguished from the crowds, who listen to Jesus’ words only occasionally.

• Hindrances to understanding. Jesus recalls, above all, the negative response to His preaching on the Kingdom of Heaven given by His contemporaries. Such a negative response is connected to the various impediments among them. The earth on the edge of the road is that transformed by pedestrians into a trodden road; it is totally negative: “Throw the seeds on the pavement of the street, everybody knows that it serves nothing: the necessary conditions for growth do not exist. And, then people go by, step over it, and ruin the seed. The seed should not be thrown just any place” (Carlos Mesters). Above all, there is the personal responsibility of the individual: to accept God’s Word in one’s own heart. If it falls on a “trodden” heart, which is obstinate because of its own convictions and indifferent, he sides with the evil one. Then the rocky earth: If the first impediment was constituted by an insensitive, indifferent heart, now the image of the seed that falls on the rocks, on stones, and among bushes indicates a heart immersed in a superficial and worldly life. Such life styles are energies that prevent the Word of God from bearing fruit. They begin to listen, but immediately it is blocked, not only by tribulations and trials that are unavoidable, but also because of the involvement of the heart in concerns and riches. It is a life that is not deep but superficial, worldly. It is similar to instability. The good earth is the heart that listens and understands the Word; this one bears fruit. Such fruit is the work of the Word in the heart that accepts it. It is a question of an active understanding that allows one to get involved by God’s action present in the Word of Jesus. The understanding of His Word will continue to be inaccessible if we neglect the encounter with Him and, therefore, we do not allow it to overflow in us.

4) Personal questions

• Does listening lead to the deep understanding of God’s Word or does it remain only an intellectual exercise?

• Are you a heart that accepts, that is available, docile to attain a full understanding of the Word?

• The crowds traveled far to hear Jesus. They invested time and effort, yet they are identified as having hard or rocky hearts. At some level, they came to say yes, but don’t. Do we also come to say yes but don’t really?

5) Concluding Prayer

The Law of Yahweh is perfect, refreshment to the soul;

The precepts of Yahweh are honest,

light for the eyes. (Ps 19:7-8)