Lectio Divina (466)
"Lectio divina is an authentic source of Christian spirituality recommended by our Rule. We therefore practice it every day, so that we may develop a deep and genuine love for it, and so that we may grow in the surpassing knowledge of Christ. In this way we shall put into practice the Apostle Paul’s commandment, which is mentioned in our Rule: “Let the sword of the spirit, the Word of God, live abundantly in your mouth and in your hearts; and whatever you must do, do it in the name of the Lord.”
Carmelite Constitutions (No. 82)
Children categories
The concern about riches
keeps us away from God and
prevents us from serving our neighbor
Luke 12, 13-21
1. Let us recollect ourselves in prayer – Statio
We are here before You, O Holy Spirit; we feel the weight of our weakness, but we have all gathered here in Your name; come to us, help us, come to our hearts; teach us what we should do, show us the path that we should follow, fulfill what You ask of us. You alone be the one to suggest and to guide our decisions, because You alone, with God the Father and with the Son, have a holy and glorious name; do not allow justice to be hurt by us, You who love order and peace; may ignorance not cause us to deviate; may human sympathy not render us partial, nor charges or people influence us; keep us close to You so that we may not drift away from truth in anything; help us, we who are meeting in Your name, to know how to contemplate goodness and tenderness together, so as to do everything in harmony with You, in the hope that by the faithful fulfillment of our duty we may be given the eternal reward in the future. Amen.
2. Prayerful reading of the Word – Lectio
Of the Gospel according to Luke:
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”
3. To ponder the Word – Meditatio
3.1. Key to the reading:
The text of the liturgy for the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time forms part of a long discourse from Jesus on trust in God, which drives away every fear (Lk 12:6-7), and on abandonment to God’s providence (Lk 12:22-23). The passage for today, in fact, is precisely between these two texts. Here are some of the teachings given by Jesus, before He was interrupted by “one of the crowd” (Lk 12:13), about trust and abandonment:
Lk 12:4-7: “To you My friends I say: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. I will tell you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has the power to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, he is the one to fear. Can you not buy five sparrows for two pennies? And yet not one is forgotten in God's sight. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. There is no need to be afraid: you are worth more than many sparrows.”
Lk 12:11-12: “When they take you before synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how to defend yourselves or what to say, because when the time comes, the Holy Spirit will teach you what you should say.”
It is precisely at this point that the man interrupts Jesus’ discourse, showing his concern about the question of inheritance (Lk 12:13). Jesus preaches and says not to have “fear of those who kill the body and then can do nothing else” (Lk 12:4) and this man does not perceive the meaning of Jesus’ words addressed to those whom he recognizes as “My friends” (Lk 12:4). From the Gospel of John we know that a friend of Jesus is one who knows Jesus, in other words, one who knows everything that He has heard from the Father (Jn 15:15). The friend of Jesus should know that his Master is deeply rooted in God (Jn 1:1) and that His only concern is to seek to do the will of the one who has sent Him (Jn 4:34). The advice and the example of Jesus given to His friends is not to worry or be troubled for material things because “life is worth more than food and the body worth more than what you will wear” (Mt 6:25). In an eschatological context Jesus admonishes, “be on guard or your hearts will be coarsened by debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life” (Lk 21:34).
This is why the question of the man who asks Jesus to tell “his brother to give me a share of our inheritance (Lk 12:13) is superfluous before the Lord. Jesus refuses to act as judge between the parties (Lk 12:14) like in the case of the adulterous woman (Jn 8:2-11). We can see that, for Jesus, it is not important which of these two is right. He remains neutral before the question between the two brothers because His kingdom is not of this world (Jn 18:36). Jesus’ behavior reflects the image which Luke gives us of the Lord, meek and humble. The accumulation of material goods, the inheritance, fame, power, do not form part of the hierarchy of Jesus’ values. In fact, He uses the question of the two brothers to repeat and confirm that “life does not depend on goods” (Lk 12:15), even if they are abundant.
As usual, here too Jesus teaches by means of a parable in which He presents “a rich man” (Lk 12:16). We would say an insatiable rich man who does not know what to do with his goods which are so abundant. (Lk 12:17). This man reminds us of the rich man who closes himself in self and is not aware of the misery of poor Lazarus (Lk 16:1-31). It is certain that we cannot define this rich man as just. Just is the one who, like Job, shares with the poor the goods received from God’s providence: “because I helped the poor who asked for help, the orphan who had no helper, the dying man’s blessing rested on me and I gave the widow’s heart cause to rejoice” (Job 29:12-13). The rich man of the parable is a foolish man (Lk 12:20) who has his heart full of goods received, forgetting God, the Supreme and only One who is good. He “accumulates treasures for himself, but is not enriched before God” (Lk 12:21). In his foolishness he is not aware that everything is bestowed freely from God’s providence, not only his goods but also his life. The terminology used in the parable makes us notice this:
- The harvest: “The land […] had given a good harvest” (Lk 12:16)
- The life: “This very night the demand will be made for your soul” (Lk 12:20).
It is not wealth in itself which constitutes the foolishness of this man but it is his avarice and greed which reveal his foolishness. In fact, he says, “My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time” (Lk 12:19).
The attitude of the wise man instead is very different. We see this for example embodied in the person of Job who with great detachment, exclaims, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked I shall return again. Yahweh gave, Yahweh has taken back. Blessed be the name of Yahweh!” (Job 1:21). The wisdom tradition has handed down or transmitted to us some teachings on the right attitude to have before riches: Prov 27:1; Sir 11:19; Eccl 2:17-23; 5:17-6:2. The New Testament also admonishes on this point: Mt 6:19-34; I Cor 15:32; Jas 4:13-15; Rev 3:17-18.
4. Question to orientate the meditation and the application:
● What struck you most in this passage and in the reflection?
● What does it mean for you that Jesus remains neutral toward the rich man’s question?
● Do you believe that avarice has something to do with the social condition in which one finds oneself? (the answer may be the opposite of what you might expect)
● Do we believe in God’s providence?
● Are you conscious or aware that what you possess has been given to you by God, or rather do you feel that you are the absolute master of your goods?
● How does fear enter into our greed or our charity? Do you fear not having enough? Do you use fear (of being sued perhaps) as an excuse for not getting involved in helping your neighbor (as Jesus defines it) on a personal level?
● When you share your wealth, is it through an organization which provides return benefits? If you receive a tax deduction, discount, coupons, or other compensation, is it really a “gift” (and with spiritual benefit), or would Jesus say that you have had your repayment? (see Lk 14:13, Lk 6:35, Mt 6:2-4)
5. Oratio
1Chronicles 29:10-19
"May You be blessed, Yahweh, God of Israel our ancestor, for ever and for ever!
Yours, Yahweh, is the greatness, the power, the splendor, length of days and glory, everything in heaven and on earth is Yours. Yours is the sovereignty, Yahweh; You are exalted, supreme over all.
Wealth and riches come from You, You are ruler of all, in Your hand lie strength and power, and You bestow greatness and might on whomsoever You please.
So now, our God, we give thanks to You and praise Your majestic name, for who am I and what is my people, for us to be able to make this freewill offering like this? - since everything has come from You and we have given You only what You bestowed in the first place, and we are guests before You, and passing visitors as were all our ancestors, our days on earth fleeting as a shadow and without hope.
Yahweh our God, all this wealth, which we have provided to build a house for Your holy Name, has come from You and all belongs to You.
Knowing, my God, how You examine our motives and how You delight in integrity, with integrity of motive I have willingly given all this and have been overjoyed to see Your people, now present here, willingly offering their gifts to You.
Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel our ancestors, watch over this for ever, shape the purpose of Your people's heart and direct their hearts to You, and give an undivided heart to Solomon my son to keep Your commandments, Your decrees and Your statutes, to put them all into effect and to build the palace for which I have made provision."
6. Contemplatio
Psalm 119:36-37
Bend my heart to Your instructions,
not to selfish gain.
Avert my eyes from pointless images,
by Your word give me life.
The prayer of the Master
the prayer of the disciples
Luke 11:1-13
1. Opening prayer
Father of all mercies,
in the Name of Christ Your Son, we implore You,
send us the Gift,
pour Your Spirit into us!
Spirit, Paraclete,
teach us to pray in truth
in the new temple
who is the Christ.
Spirit, faithful to the Father and to us,
as the dove has its nest,
plead within us incessantly with the Father,
because we do not know how to pray.
Spirit of Christ,
first gift to us believers,
pray within us tirelessly to the Father,
as the Son taught us. Amen.
2. Reading
a) To help us understand the passage:
The Gospel passage is divided into three sections:
vv. 1-4: the prayer that Jesus taught,
vv. 5-8: the parable of the insistent friend,
vv. 9-13: the teaching on the efficacy of prayer.
b) The text:
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test." And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,' and he says in reply from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.' I tell you, if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence. "And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"
3. A moment of prayerful silence
- Like the disciples, we too come together around Jesus who prays alone. We gather around Him and in Him all our energies, every thought, every commitment and preoccupation, our hopes and pains…
- Today it is we who are those disciples who see the Master praying and allow ourselves to be involved in His prayer, which was and is quite special.
- Today His words are addressed to us, the invitation to trust in the love of the Father is addressed to us. We are so taken up with material things, so much seeking “all and immediately”, so spellbound by a thousand things, that then (and only “then”, after some event that shakes us) we discover that they are all really superfluous…
- Today it is up to us to give voice to the prayer of the Master: Father, hallowed be Your name…
4. Some questions
Let us use this occasion to examine our way of praying:
* What does praying mean for me: An obligation? A pause in the search for myself? Presenting God with a list of requests? A pause in the company of the Father? A simple and trusting dialogue with the One who loves me?
* How much time do I give to prayer: some every day? Once a week or once a month? Occasionally? Systematically? Do I wait until I “feel the need” to pray?
* What is the starting point of my prayer: is it the Word of God? Is it the saint or the liturgical feast of the day? Is it devotion to our Lady? Is it an illustration or icon? Is it the events of my life or those of the history of the world?
* Whom do I meet when I pray: looking deep into myself, when I pray do I speak to one whom I feel to be a judge or to a friend? Do I feel Him to be an “equal” or someone who is “holy”, infinite or unattainable? Is He near to me or far and indifferent? Is He my Father or my master? Does He care for me or “is He busy with His own affairs”?
* How do I pray: do I pray a little mechanically, using set formulae? Do I pray using passages from the psalms or other biblical texts? Liturgical texts? Do I choose to pray spontaneously? Do I look for texts using beautiful words or do I prefer to repeat a short phrase? How do I use “the Lord’s prayer”? Do I more often find myself invoking God for some need or to praise Him in the liturgy or to contemplate Him in silence? Am I able to pray while I am working or in any place or only when I am in church? Am I able to make liturgical prayer my own? What place does the Mother of God have in my prayer?
5. A key to the reading
This passage presents prayer as one of the fundamental requirements and a key point in the life of a disciple of Jesus and of the community of disciples.
vv. 1-4: Jesus, like other great religious masters of His time, teaches His followers a prayer that will define them: the “Our Father”.
a) Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He had finished one of His disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray”: Jesus goes aside to pray. In Luke’s Gospel He does this often (5:16), above all just before important events: before choosing the Twelve (6:12-13), before soliciting Peter’s confession of faith (9:18-20), before the transfiguration (9:28-29) and, finally, before the passion (22:40-45).
As Jesus prays, He arouses in His disciples the desire to pray like Him. Clearly, it is a prayer that shows itself externally in a very special way and that certainly affects His preaching. The disciples understand that such a prayer is quite different from that taught by other spiritual masters in Israel or even by the precursor of Jesus. That is why they ask Him to teach them to pray. Thus, the prayer that Jesus passes on to His disciples becomes the characteristic expression of their ideal and identity, of their way of relating to God and among themselves.
b) Father: The first thing that Jesus teaches on prayer is to call God “Father”. Luke, unlike Matthew, does not add the adjective “our”, putting less emphasis on the communal aspect of the Christian prayer. However, the fact of invoking the Father constitutes the best adhesive element of the community of disciples.
For a Jew of the first century, relationship with one’s father was one of intimacy, but also a recognition of the father’s authority over every member of the family. This is reflected in the Christian custom of calling God “Father”, whereas there is no certain evidence that the Jews of the time used to call God with the intimate term of “abba”. This term is none other than the emphatic form of the Aramaic “ ’ab”, the familiar and respectful term used for earthly fathers.
The fact that Jesus used to turn to God and called him abba, shows the new kind of relationship that He, and therefore His disciples, establish with God: a relationship of closeness, familiarity and trust.
In the classical scheme of biblical prayer, the first part of the “Our Father” deals directly with God, whereas the second part refers to the needs of humankind in its earthly existence.
c) Father, hallowed be Your name: in the message of the prophets of Israel, it is God who “sanctifies His own Name” (that is, Himself: “the name is the person”) intervening with power in human history, notwithstanding that Israel and the other peoples have dishonored Him. In Ezekiel we read: “But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned My holy Name, in that men said of them, 'These are the people of the Lord, and yet they had to go out of His land.' But I had concern for My holy Name, which the house of Israel caused to be profaned among the nations to which they came. "Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of My holy Name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of My great Name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and the nations will know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when through you I vindicate My holiness before their eyes. For I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land.” (36:20-24). On the same subject we may also read: Deut 32:51; Isa 29:22; Ezek 28:22,25.
The subject of the verb “to hallow”, in Lk 11:2, is God Himself: we are faced with a “theological passive”. This likely means that the first petition of this prayer does not concern human beings and their unquestionable duty to honor and respect God, but God the Father Himself who must make Himself known as such to all. Thus, we petition God to reveal Himself in His sovereign greatness: this is an invocation with eschatological connotations, closely connected with the petition which follows.
d) Your Kingdom come: the great event proclaimed by Jesus is the definitive coming of the Kingdom of God among us: “Be sure of this: the Kingdom of God is very near” (Lk 10:11; cf. also Mt 10: 7). The prayer of Jesus and of the Christian, then, is in close harmony with this proclamation. Asking in this prayer that this Kingdom be ever more visibly present, has, in fact, two effects: the person praying has to come face to face with the eschatological design of God, but also with the obligation of a radical willingness to serve His will of salvation. Thus, if it is true that we may, and must, present our needs to God the Father, it is also true that Christian prayer never has man and woman for its end, it is never a selfish petition, but its ultimate end is to glorify God, implore His full closeness, His complete manifestation: “Set your hearts on His kingdom, and these other things will be given you as well” (Lk 12:31).
e) Give us this day our daily bread: we have come to the second part of the Lord’s prayer. The person praying has now put into place the correct and intimate relationship with God, and now lives in the logic of closeness to God who is Father and his/her petitions flow from this way of life.
In Jesus’ time as in ours (almost!), bread is the most necessary food, the primary nourishment. In this case, however, “bread” stands for food in general, and more, all kinds of material needs of the disciples.
The English term “bread” is a translation of the Greek “epiousion”, found also in Matthew but not in any other Greek biblical or profane text. This makes it difficult to give a really reliable version, so much so that we are constrained to translate it according to the context.
What is clear, however, is that the disciple who is praying in this way, is aware of not having much material security for the future, not even for his/her daily food: he/she has really “left everything behind” to follow Christ (cf. Lk 5:11). Here we are dealing with a situation characteristic of the early generations of Christians. This is not to say that the prayer for “bread” may not be very useful for Christians of today: we are all called to receive all things from Providence, as a free gift from God, even if these things come from the labor of our hands. The Eucharistic offertory reminds us of this all the time: we offer to God that which we know well we have received from Him so that we may receive it back from His hands. This also means that the Christian of every age must not be preoccupied with his/her material situation, because the Father will take care of him: “That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it. For life means more than food, and the body more than clothing” (Lk 12:22-23).
f) Forgive us our sins, as we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us: The Christian, immersed in the salvation given by the Father with the coming of His kingdom, know that all his/her sins are already forgiven when we ask. This places him/her in the condition and obligation of having to forgive others, thus allowing God to render the pardon of the Christian capable of pardoning (cf. Mt18:23-35).
We are always hovering between the kingdom “already” present and kingdom “not yet” attained. A Christian who behaves contrary to the salvation already received from God in Christ, renders useless the forgiveness he/she has already received. That is why Luke says: “for we ourselves forgive”. Luke does not wish to place us humans on the same level as God, but only to make us aware that we can frustrate the saving work of God, within which the Father has willed to include us as an active element, to extend His every free pardon to all. This linking of our forgiveness with our forgiveness of others is also described in the parable of the debtor and the king (Mt 18:21-35).
vv. 5-8: more than a parable, this is a similitude, because it illustrates a typical behavior that arouses in listeners a unequivocal and spontaneous reply. In this case, it would be difficult to find anyone who would spontaneously reply “no one!” to the question “Which of you…?” (v. 5) Thus, this passage wishes to show us how God acts through the filter of human behavior, which is a poor copy of the behavior of the Father.
The scene takes place in a Palestinian situation. Usually, anyone going on a journey would start at sunset in order to avoid the very high temperatures of daytime. In Palestinian houses at that time, there was only one room and the whole family used it for all the activities during the day as well as for sleeping at night by just spreading straw mats on the floor.
The request of the man who suddenly has to receive an unexpected guest in the middle of the night, reflects a typical sense of hospitality in ancient peoples, and the explanation of the request for “three loaves” (v. 5) is that this was the normal meal for an adult.
The man who has recourse to his friend at night is the image of a disciple of Christ, called to pray to God always and everywhere, full of trust that he/she will be heard, not because he/she has worn Him out, but because He is a merciful Father who is faithful to His promises. Thus the parable shows us how a disciple should pray the “Our Father”: with complete trust in God, loving and just Father, a trust that goes even to cheekiness, that is to “disturbing Him” at any time and to insist with Him in every way, certain of being answered.
Prayer, as a basic attitude of every Christian who wishes to really be a disciple of Jesus, is well expressed by the apostle Paul: “Pray always, in all things give thanks; this indeed is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1Thess 5:17-18) ; “Pray all the time, asking for what you need, praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion. Never get tired of staying awake to pray for all the saints” (Eph 6: 18).
vv. 9-13: The last part of our Gospel is properly called didactic. It resumes the theme of the previous verses, emphasizing the trust that must characterize Christian prayer, founded on the solid rock of faith. It is the faith of the praying person that opens wide the doors of the Father’s heart. It is the very identity of the Father who loves to carry in His arms His children and to console them with the tenderness of a mother (cf. Isa 66:12-13) which must nourish the faith of Christians.
God is a Father who loves to receive requests from His children, because this shows that they put their trust in Him. To ask they have to approach Him with open hearts, for asking urges them to look at His kind and loving face, for by asking (even indirectly) they show that they believe that He is really the Lord of history and of the world, and, above all, because their asking allows Him to show openly His delicate, attentive and free love, solely directed for the good of His children. What displeases the Father is not the insistence or indiscretion of His children in asking, but that they do not ask sufficiently, remaining silent and almost indifferent to Him, that they stay away with a thousand respectful excuses, such as “He already knows everything”, etc. God is certainly a Father who provides all things and takes care of the daily life of His children, but, at the same time, He also knows what is best for them, even better than they do. That is why He pours out on Christians so many good things and, above all, the gift par excellence: the Spirit, the only truly indispensable gift for their life, the gift who, if allowed to act, will make them authentic children in the Son.
6. A time of prayer: Psalm 104
To the merciful and provident God, who created the marvelous harmony of the cosmos and who placed in it humankind as His “vicar”, let us sing the psalm:
Bless Yahweh, my soul, Yahweh, my God,
how great You are!
Clothed in majesty and splendor,
wearing the light as a robe!
You stretch out the heavens like a tent,
build Your palace on the waters above,
making the clouds Your chariot,
gliding on the wings of the wind,
appointing the winds Your messengers,
flames of fire Your servants.
You fixed the earth on its foundations,
for ever and ever it shall not be shaken;
You covered it with the deep like a garment,
the waters over-topping the mountains.
At Your reproof the waters fled,
at the voice of Your thunder they sped away,
flowing over mountains, down valleys,
to the place You had fixed for them;
You made a limit they were not to cross,
they were not to return and cover the earth.
In the ravines You opened up springs,
running down between the mountains,
supplying water for all the wild beasts;
the wild asses quench their thirst,
on their banks the birds of the air make their nests,
they sing among the leaves.
From Your high halls You water the mountains,
satisfying the earth with the fruit of Your works:
for cattle You make the grass grow,
and for people the plants they need,
to bring forth food from the earth,
and wine to cheer people's hearts,
oil to make their faces glow,
food to make them sturdy of heart.
The trees of Yahweh drink their fill,
the cedars of Lebanon which He sowed;
there the birds build their nests,
on the highest branches the stork makes its home;
for the wild goats there are the mountains,
in the crags the coneys find refuge.
He made the moon to mark the seasons,
the sun knows when to set.
You bring on darkness, and night falls,
when all the forest beasts roam around;
young lions roar for their prey,
asking God for their food.
The sun rises and away they steal,
back to their lairs to lie down,
and man goes out to work,
to labor till evening falls.
How countless are Your works, Yahweh,
all of them made so wisely!
The earth is full of Your creatures.
Then there is the sea,
with its vast expanses teeming with countless creatures,
creatures both great and small.
There ships pass to and fro,
and Leviathan whom You made to sport with.
They all depend upon You,
to feed them when they need it.
You provide the food they gather,
Your open hand gives them their fill.
Turn away Your face and they panic;
take back their breath and they die and revert to dust.
Send out Your breath and life begins;
you renew the face of the earth.
Glory to Yahweh for ever!
May Yahweh find joy in His creatures!
At His glance the earth trembles,
at His touch the mountains pour forth smoke.
I shall sing to Yahweh all my life,
make music for my God as long as I live.
May my musings be pleasing to Him,
for Yahweh gives me joy.
May sinners vanish from the earth,
and the wicked exist no more!
Bless Yahweh, my soul.
7. Closing prayer
Good and holy Father, Your love makes us brothers and sisters and urges us to come together in Your holy Church to celebrate with life the mystery of communion. You call us to share the one bread, living and eternal, given to us from heaven. Help us also to know how to break, in the love of Christ, our earthly bread, so that our bodily and spiritual hunger may be satisfied. Amen.
Ordinary Time
1) Opening prayer
Father,
through the obedience of Jesus,
Your servant and Your Son,
You raised a fallen world.
Free us from sin
and bring us the joy that lasts for ever.
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 - Matthew 9:32-38
A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus, and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke. The crowds were amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees said, “He drives out demons by the prince of demons.” Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness. At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”
3) Reflection
• Today’s Gospel presents two facts: (1) the cure of a possessed mute person (Mt 9:32-34) and (2) a summary of the activity of Jesus (Mt 9:35-38). These two episodes end the narrative part of chapters 8 and 9 of the Gospel of Matthew, in which the Evangelist seeks to indicate how Jesus put into practice the teachings given in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5 and 7). In chapter 10, the meditation which begins in the Gospel of tomorrow, we see the second great discourse of Jesus: The Discourse of the Mission (Mt 10:1-42).
• Matthew 9:32-33a: The cure of a mute person. In just one verse Matthew describes the arrival of the possessed person before Jesus, the expulsion of the demon and the attitude of Jesus. The illnesses were many and social security non-existent. The illnesses were not only deficiencies of the body: deafness, blindness, paralysis, leprosy and so many other sicknesses. In fact, these illnesses were nothing else than a manifestation of a much deeper and vast evil which undermined the health of people, and that is the total abandonment and the depressing and inhumane state in which they were obliged to live. The activity and the cures of Jesus were directed not only against physical sickness, but also and above all against this greater evil of material and spiritual abandonment, in which people were obliged to live the few years of life. Then, in addition to the economic exploitation which stole half of the family stipend, the official religion of that time, instead of helping people to find strength in God, to resist and have hope, taught that sickness was a punishment from God for sin. This increased in them the sentiment of exclusion and condemnation. Jesus did quite the contrary. The acceptance of Jesus, full of tenderness, and the cure of the sick, form part of the effort to knit together human relationships among people and to re-establish community and fraternal living in the villages of Galilee, His land.
Matthew 9:33b-34: The twofold interpretation of the cure of the mute man. Before the cure of the possessed mute man, the reaction of the people is one of admiration and of gratitude: “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel!” The reaction of the Pharisee is one of mistrust and malice: “It is through the prince of devils that He drives out devils!” They were not able to deny the facts which cause admiration in the people, the only way which the Pharisees find to neutralize the influence of Jesus before the people is to attribute the expulsion to the power of the evil one. Mark presents an extensive argument of Jesus to demonstrate the lack of coherence and the malice of the interpretation given by the Pharisees (Mk 3:22-27). Matthew does not present any response by Jesus to the interpretation of the Pharisees, because when malice is evident, truth shines by itself.
• Matthew 9:35: Tireless, Jesus goes through the villages. The description of the tireless activity of Jesus is beautiful in which emerges the double concern to which we referred: the acceptance full of tenderness and the cure of the sick: “Jesus went through all the towns, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and curing all kinds of diseases and all kinds of illness.” In the previous chapters, Matthew had already referred several times to this itinerant activity of Jesus in the villages and towns of Galilee (Mt 4:23-24; 8:16).
• Matthew 9:36: The compassion of Jesus. “Seeing the crowds He felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.” Those who should be shepherds were not shepherds; they did not take care of the flock. Jesus tries to be the shepherd (Jn 10:11-14). In this, Matthew sees the realization of the prophecy of the Servant of Yahweh, who took upon Himself our sickness, and bore our infirmities” (Mt 8:17 and Isa 53:4). As it was for Jesus, the great concern of the Servant was “to find a word of comfort for those who were discouraged.” (Isa 50:4). Jesus shows the same compassion toward the abandoned crowd on the occasion of the multiplication of the loaves: they are like sheep without a shepherd (Mt 15:32). The Gospel of Matthew has a constant concern in revealing to the converted Jews of the communities of Galilee and of Syria that Jesus is the Messiah announced by the prophets. For this reason, frequently, he shows that in Jesus’ activity the prophecies are fulfilled (cf. Mt 1:23; 2:5,15,17, 23; 3:3; 4:14-16, etc.).
• Matthew 9:37-38: The harvest is rich, but the laborers are few. Jesus transmits to the disciples the concern and the compassion which are within Him, and in paraphrase: “The harvest is rich, but the laborers are few! Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers for His harvest!”
4) Personal questions
• Compassion for the tired and hungry crowds. In the history of humanity, there have never been so many tired and hungry people as today. Television transmits the facts, but does not offer any response. Do we, Christians, have the same compassion of Jesus and communicate it to others?
• The goodness of Jesus toward the poor disturbed the Pharisees. They have recourse to malice to neutralize the discomfort caused by Jesus. Are there many good attitudes in the people who disturb me? How do I interpret them: with pleasant admiration as the crowds or with malice as the Pharisees?
5) Concluding Prayer
Sing to Him, make music for Him,
recount all His wonders!
Glory in His holy name,
let the hearts that seek Yahweh rejoice! (Ps 105:2-3)
Ordinary Time
1) Opening prayer
Father,
You call your children
to walk in the light of Christ.
Free us from darkness
and keep us in the radiance of Your truth.
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 - John 20:24-29
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." But Thomas said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe." Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."
3) Reflection
• Today is the Feast of Saint Thomas, and the Gospel speaks to us about the encounter of Jesus with Thomas, the apostle who wanted to see in order to believe. For this reason many call him “Doubting Thomas.”
The message of the Gospel today is much more profound and timely than it might initially appear. Let us look deeper into it:
• John 20:24-25: The doubt of Thomas. Thomas, one of the twelve, was not present when Jesus appeared to the disciples the week before. He did not believe in the witness of the others who said, “We have seen the Lord.” He gives some conditions: “Unless I can see the holes that the nails made in His hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into His side, I refuse to believe.” Thomas is very demanding. In order to believe he wants to see! He does not want a miracle in order to believe. No! He wants to see the signs on the hands, on the feet and on the side! He does not believe in the glorious Jesus, separated from the human Jesus who suffered on the Cross. When John writes, at the end of the first century, there were some people who did not accept the coming of the Son of God in the flesh (2Jn 7; 1 Jn 4:2-3). They were the Gnostics, who despised matter and the body. John presents this concern of Thomas to criticize the Gnostics: “To see in order to believe.” Thomas’ doubt also makes us see the difficulty of believing in the Resurrection!
• John 20:26-27: Do not be unbelieving but believe. The text says “six days later.” That means that Thomas was capable of maintaining his opinion for a whole week against the witness of the other apostles. Stubborn! Thank God, for us! Thus, six days later, during the community meeting, they once again had the profound experience of the presence of the risen Lord in their midst. The closed doors could not prevent the presence of Jesus in the midst of those who believe in him. Today, it is also like this. When we are meeting, even when we are meeting with the doors closed, Jesus is in our midst. The first word of Jesus is, and will always be, “Peace be with you!” What impresses us is the kindness of Jesus. He does not criticize, nor does He judge the disbelief of Thomas, but He accepts the challenge and says, “Thomas, put your finger in the hole of My hands!” Jesus confirms the conviction of Thomas and of the communities, that the glorious Risen One is the tortured crucified One! The Jesus who is in the community is not a glorious Jesus who has nothing in common with our life. He is the same Jesus who lived on this earth and on His body He bears the signs of His Passion. The signs of the Passion are found today in the sufferings of people, in hunger, in the signs of torture and injustice. Jesus becomes present in our midst in the people who react, who struggle for life and who do not allow themselves to be disheartened. Thomas believes in this Christ and so do we!
• John 20:28-29: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. Together with Thomas we say: “My Lord and my God!” This gift of Thomas is the ideal attitude of faith. And Jesus concludes with a final message: “You believe because you can see Me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe!” With this phrase, Jesus declares blessed all of us who find ourselves in the same condition: without having seen, we believe that Jesus, who is in our midst, is the same One who died crucified!
The mandate: “As the Father sent Me so I am sending you!” From this Jesus, who was crucified and rose from the dead, we receive the mission, the same one which He has received from the Father (Jn 20:21). Here, in the second appearance, Jesus repeats, “Peace be with you!” This repetition stresses the importance of peace. Making peace is part of the mission. Peace means much more than the absence of war. It means to build a harmonious human life together in which people can be themselves, having everything necessary to live, living happily together in peace. This was the mission of Jesus and is also our own mission. Jesus breathed and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:22), and with the help of the Holy Spirit we will be able to fulfill the mission which He has entrusted to us. Then Jesus communicates the power to forgive sins: “If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained!” The central point of the mission of peace is reconciliation, the effort of trying to overcome barriers which separate us. This power of reconciling and of forgiving is given to the community (Jn 20:23; Mt 18:18). In the Gospel of Matthew, this power is also given to Peter (Mt 16:19). Here we can see that a community without forgiveness and without reconciliation is not a Christian community. In one word, our mission is that of “forming community” according to the example of the community of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
4) Personal questions
• In society today, the divergence and the tensions of race, social class, religion, gender and culture are enormous and they continue to grow every day. How can the mission of reconciliation be carried out today?
• In your community and in your family is there some mustard seed, the sign of a reconciled society?
For further study
Saint Thomas traveled east to India and converted many in the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu to Christianity in the first century. The history of the Church in India is very diverse, with many rifts. However, one of these communities of “Saint Thomas Christians” (Nasrani) is the Syro-Malabar Church, one of several Eastern Churches which are in full communion with Rome.
Take some time to look at the history of some of these Eastern Churches this week. In addition to the various Roman Rites, there are several other Rites used throughout these Churches. These historical traditions are preserved within the Vatican through the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.
5) Concluding Prayer
Praise Yahweh, all nations,
extol Him, all peoples,
for His faithful love is strong
and His constancy never-ending. (Ps 117)
Ordinary Time
1) Opening prayer
Father,
through the obedience of Jesus,
Your servant and Your Son,
You raised a fallen world.
Free us from sin
and bring us the joy that lasts for ever.
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 - Matthew 9:18-26
While Jesus was speaking, an official came forward, knelt down before him, and said, “My daughter has just died. But come, lay your hand on her, and she will live.” Jesus rose and followed him, and so did his disciples. A woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the tassel on his cloak. She said to herself, “If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured.” Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, “Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you.” And from that hour the woman was cured. When Jesus arrived at the official’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd who were making a commotion, he said, “Go away! The girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they ridiculed him. When the crowd was put out, he came and took her by the hand, and the little girl arose. And news of this spread throughout all that land.
3) Reflection
• Today’s Gospel leads us to meditate on two miracles of Jesus. The first one was in favor of a woman considered unclean because of an irregular hemorrhage which had lasted for more than twelve years; the second one in favor of a girl who had just died. According to the mentality of that time, the person who touched blood or a corpse or dead body was considered unclean and whoever touched that person became unclean. Blood and death were factors of exclusion! This is why those two women were marginalized people, excluded from participation in the community. Whoever touched them became unclean, and therefore, would not be able to participate in the community and could not relate with God. In order to be admitted to participate fully in the community, it was necessary to go through the rite of purification prescribed by the norms of the law. Now, curing the impurity of the woman through faith, Jesus opens a new path toward God which does not depend anymore on the rites of purification, controlled by the priests. In resurrecting the girl, Jesus conquers the power of death and opens a new horizon on life.
• Matthew 9:18-19: The death of the little girl. When Jesus was still speaking, an official of the place came to intercede for his daughter who has just died. He asks Jesus to go to impose His hands on her so that “she will live.” The official thinks that Jesus has the power to make his daughter rise from the dead. This is a sign of much faith in Jesus on the part of the little girl’s father. Jesus rises and goes with him, taking only His disciples. This is the starting point of both episodes which follow: the cure of the woman who had been suffering for the past twelve years from a hemorrhage, and the resurrection of the little girl. The Gospel of Mark presents both of these episodes, but with many details: the official was called Jairus, and he was the president of the Synagogue. The little girl was not dead as yet, and she was twelve years old, etc. (Mk 5:21-43). Matthew gives a briefer version of Mark’s lively narration.
• Matthew 9:20-21: The situation of the woman. While they were on the way to the official’s house, a woman who had been suffering for twelve years because of an irregular hemorrhage got close to Jesus seeking to be cured. Twelve years with a hemorrhage! This is why she was marginalized, excluded, because as we have said, at that time blood rendered the person impure. Mark says that the woman had spent all she had with doctors, but instead of improving her situation had become worse (Mk 5:25-26) But she had heard some speak about Jesus (Mk 5:27). This is why a new hope sprang up in her. She told herself, “If I can just touch His clothes, I shall be saved.” The catechism of that time said: “If I touch His clothes I will remain impure.” The woman thinks exactly the contrary! This was a sign of great courage! It was a sign also that women were not in agreement with everything that the religious authority taught. The teaching of the Pharisees and of the scribes did not succeed in controlling the thinking of the people. Thank God! The woman got close to Jesus from behind. She touched the end of His cloak and she was cured.
• Matthew 9:22. The word of Jesus which enlightens. Jesus turns and seeing the woman declares: “Courage, My daughter, your faith has saved you.” A brief utterance, but which makes us see three very important points: (1) In saying “My daughter”, Jesus accepts the woman in the new community which has formed around Him. She was no longer excluded. (2) What she expected and believed takes place in fact: she was cured. This proves that the catechism of the religious authority was not correct and that in Jesus was opened a new path which gave people the possibility of obtaining the purity which the law demanded and also to enter into contact with God. (3) Jesus recognizes that without the faith of this woman, He would not have been able to work the miracle. The cure was not a magic rite, but an act of faith.
• Matthew 9:23-24: In the house of the official. After that Jesus goes to the house of the official. Seeing the agitation of those who were mourning because of the death of the little girl, He asks everybody to get out of the room. And He says: “The little girl is not dead, she is sleeping!” People laugh, because they know how to distinguish when a person sleeps or when she is dead. Death was for them a barrier that nobody could go beyond. It is the laughter of Abraham and of Sarah, that is, of those who do not believe that nothing is impossible for God (Gen 17:17; 18:12-14; Lk 1:27). The words of Jesus still have a very deep significance. The situation of the communities at the time of Matthew seemed to be in a situation of death, even though they heard said, “It is not death, you are asleep! Wake up!”
• Matthew 9:25-26: The resurrection of the little girl. Jesus does not attach any importance to the people’s laughter . He waits for everyone to get out of the house. Then He enters, takes the little girl by the hand, and she gets up. Mark keeps the words of Jesus, “Talita kúmi!” which mean, “Little girl, I tell you to get up!” (Mk 5:41). The news spread throughout that region. The people believed that Jesus is the Lord of life who overcomes death.
4) Personal questions
• Today, what are the categories of people who feel excluded from participating in the Christian community? What are the factors which cause the exclusion of so many people and render life difficult for them in the family and in society?
• “The little girl is not dead. She sleeps!” She is not dead! You are sleeping! Wake up! This is the message of today’s Gospel. What does it tell me? Am I one of those who laugh?
• Have I suffered ridicule from others in society for having Faith? If not, why not? Trusting in God goes against many modern beliefs. Should I expect this reaction?
5) Concluding Prayer
I shall praise You to the heights, God my King,
I shall bless Your name for ever and ever.
Day after day I shall bless You,
I shall praise Your name for ever and ever. (Ps 145:1-2)
Ordinary Time
1) Opening prayer
Father,
You call Your children
to walk in the light of Christ.
Free us from darkness
and keep us in the radiance of Your truth.
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 - Matthew 9:9-13
As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" He heard this and said, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."
3) Reflection
• The Sermon on the Mount takes chapters 5, 6 and 7 of the Gospel of Matthew. The purpose of the narrative part of chapters 8 and 9 is to show how Jesus put into practice what He had just taught. In the Sermon on the Mount, He teaches acceptance (Mt 5:23-25, 38-42,43). Now He puts it into practice by accepting the lepers (Mt 8:1-4), the foreigners (Mt 8:5-13), the women (Mt 8:14-15), the sick (Mt 8:16-17), the possessed (Mt 8:28-34), the paralytics (Mt 9:1-8), the tax collectors (Mt 9:9-13), unclean people (Mt 9:20-22), etc. Jesus breaks the norms and customs which excluded and divided people: fear and lack of faith (Mt 8:23-27) and the laws on purity (9:14-17) and He clearly states the requirements for those who want to follow Him. They should have the courage to give up many things (Mt 8:18-22). In the same way in the attitudes and in the practice of Jesus we see in what the Kingdom and the perfect observance of the Law of God consists.
• Matthew 9:9: The call to follow Jesus. The first people called to follow Jesus are four fishermen, all Jewish (Mt 4:18-22). Now Jesus calls a tax collector, considered a sinner and treated as an unclean person by the community of the most observant of the Pharisees. In the other Gospels, this tax collector is called Levi. Here, his name is Matthew, which means gift of God or given by God. The communities, instead of excluding the tax collector and considering him unclean, should consider him a Gift of God for the community, because his presence makes the community become a sign of salvation for all! Like the first four who were called, Matthew, the tax collector, leaves everything that he has and follows Jesus. The following of Jesus requires breaking away from many things. Matthew leaves the tax office, his source of revenue, and follows Jesus!
• Matthew 9:10: Jesus sits at table with sinners and tax collectors. At that time, the Jews lived apart from tax collectors and sinners and they did not eat with them at the same table. The Christian Jews should break from this isolation and sit at table with tax collectors and with the unclean according to the teaching given by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, the expression of the universal love of God the Father (Mt 5:44-48). The mission of the communities was that of offering a place to those who did not have one. But this new law was not accepted by all. In some communities people coming from paganism, even if they were Christians, were not accepted around the same table (cf. Acts 10:28; 11:3; Gal 2:12). The text of today’s Gospel shows us Jesus, who sits at table with tax collectors and sinners in the same house, around the same table.
• Matthew 9:11: The question of the Pharisees. Jews were forbidden to sit at table with the tax collectors and with sinners, but Jesus does not follow this prohibition. Rather, He becomes a friend to them. The Pharisees, seeing the attitude of Jesus, ask the disciples, “Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?” This question may be interpreted as an expression of their desire to know why Jesus acts in that way. Others interpret the question as a criticism of Jesus’ behavior, because for over five hundred years, from the time of the exile in Babylon until the time of Jesus, the Jews had observed the laws of purity. This secular observance became a strong sign of identity. At the same time it was a factor in their separation in the midst of other peoples. Thus, because of the purity laws, they could not sit around the same table to eat with tax collectors. To eat with tax collectors meant to get contaminated, to become unclean. The precepts of legal purity were rigorously observed in Palestine as well as in the Jewish communities of the Diaspora. At the time of Jesus there were more than five hundred precepts to keep purity. In the years of the 70’s, at the time when Matthew wrote, this conflict was very timely.
• Matthew 9:12-13: “Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice.” Jesus hears the question of the Pharisees to the disciples and He answers with two clarifications: the first one is taken from common sense: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” The second one is taken from the Bible: “Go and learn the meaning of the words: ‘Mercy is what pleases Me, not sacrifice’.” Through these clarifications, Jesus makes explicit His mission among the people: “I have not come to call the upright but sinners.” Jesus rejects the criticism of the Pharisees; He does not accept their arguments, because they came from a false idea of the Law of God. He Himself invokes the Bible: “Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice.” For Jesus, mercy is more important than legal purity. He refers to the prophetic tradition to say that mercy has greater value for God than all sacrifices (Hos 6:6; Isa 1:10-17). God has profound mercy, and is moved before the failures of His people (Hos 11:8-9).
4) Personal questions
• Today, in our society, who is marginalized and excluded? Why? In our community, do we have preconceptions or prejudices? What is the challenge which the words of Jesus present to our community?
• Jesus asks the people to read and to understand the Old Testament which says, “Mercy is what pleases Me and not sacrifice.” What does Jesus want to say to us about this today?
5) Concluding Prayer
Blessed are those who observe His instructions,
who seek Him with all their hearts,
and, doing no evil, who walk in His ways. (Ps 119:2-3)
Ordinary Time
1) Opening prayer
Father,
You call your children
to walk in the light of Christ.
Free us from darkness
and keep us in the radiance of Your truth.
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 - Matthew 9:1-8
After entering a boat, Jesus made the crossing, and came into his own town. And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Courage, child, your sins are forgiven." At that, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming." Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, "Why do you harbor evil thoughts? Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"– he then said to the paralytic, "Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home." He rose and went home. When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe and glorified God who had given such authority to men.
3) Reflection
• The extraordinary authority of Jesus. To the reader, Jesus appears as a person invested with extraordinary authority by means of words and actions (Mt 9:6-8). The authoritative word of Jesus strikes evil at its root: in the case of the paralytic man, on sin that affects the man in his liberty and obstructs his living: “Your sins are forgiven” (v. 5); “Rise, pick up your bed and go home” (v. 6). Truly all the forms of paralysis of the heart and mind to which we are subject are canceled by the authority of Jesus (9:6), because during His life on earth He met all these forms. The authoritative and effective word of Jesus awakens paralyzed humanity (9:5-7) and gives it the gift of walking (9:6) in a renewed faith
• The encounter with the paralytic. After the storm and a visit to the country of the Gadarenes, Jesus returns to Capernaum, His city. And as He was on His way, He met the paralytic. The healing did not take place in a house, but along the road. Therefore, along the road that leads to Capernaum they brought Him a paralytic man. Jesus addresses him, calling him “My son,” a gesture of attention that soon becomes a gesture of salvation: “your sins are forgiven you” (v. 2) The forgiveness of sins which Jesus pronounces on the part of God to the paralytic refers to the bond between sickness, failure and sin. This is the first time that the evangelist attributes this particular divine power to Jesus in an explicit way. For the Jews, a person’s illness was considered a punishment because of sins committed. The physical illness was always considered a consequence of one’s own or one’s parents’ moral evil (Jn 9:2). Jesus restores to man the condition of salvation freeing him from illness as well as from sin.
• For some of those who were present, for the scribes, the words of Jesus which announced forgiveness of sins was a true and proper blasphemy. According to them, Jesus was arrogant because God alone can forgive sins. They did not manifest openly such a judgment of Jesus but expressed it by murmuring among themselves. Jesus, who penetrates their hearts, sees their considerations and reproves them because of their unbelief. The expression of Jesus “To prove to you that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins...” (v. 6) He is going to indicate that not only God can forgive sins, but with Jesus, also man.
• The crowd, in contrast to the scribes, is seized by fear before the cure of the paralytic and glorifies God. The crowd is struck by the power to forgive sins manifested in the healing. People exult because God has granted such power to the Son of Man. Is it possible to attribute this to the ecclesial community where forgiveness of sins was granted by order of Jesus? Matthew has presented this episode on forgiveness of sins with the intention of applying it to fraternal relationships within the ecclesial community. In it the practice to forgive sins, by delegation of Jesus, was already in force; a practice which was not shared in the Synagogue. The theme of forgiveness of sins is repeated also in Mt 18 and, at the end of Matthew’s Gospel it is affirmed that this is rooted in the death of Jesus on the Cross (26:28). But in our context the forgiveness of sins is linked with the demand of mercy present in the episode which follows, the call of Matthew: “…mercy is what pleases Me, not sacrifice. And indeed, I came to call not the righteous but sinners” (Mt 9:13). Such words of Jesus mean to say that He has made visible the forgiveness of God, above all, in His relationships with the Publicans or tax collectors, and sinners, in sitting at table with them.
• This account takes up again the problem of sin and the forgiveness which should be given. It is a story that should occupy a privileged place in the preaching of our ecclesial communities.
4) Personal questions
• Are you convinced that Jesus, called the friend of sinners, does not despise your weaknesses and your resistance, but He understands and offers you the necessary help to live a life in harmony with God and with the brothers and sisters?
• When you have the experience of betraying or refusing friendship with God do you have recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation that reconciles you with the Father and with the Church and makes you a new creature by the force of the Holy Spirit?
5) Concluding Prayer
The precepts of Yahweh are honest,
joy for the heart;
the commandment of Yahweh is pure,
light for the eyes. (Ps 19:8)
The promise of the Spirit:
Jesus will send the Spirit in the Father’s name
John 16:12-15
1. LECTIO
a) Opening prayer:
O God, who in sending Your Son Jesus have revealed abundantly Your love for the salvation of all people, stay always with us and continue to reveal Your attributes of compassion, mercy, clemency and fidelity. Spirit of Love, help us to grow in the knowledge of the Son so that we may have life.
Grant that, by meditating Your Word on this feast day, we may become more aware that Your mystery is a hymn to shared love. You are our God and not a solitary God. You are Father, fruitful source. You are Son, Word made flesh, close and fraternal love. You are Spirit, all-embracing love.
b) Reading of the Gospel:
Jesus said to his disciples: "I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you."
c) A time of prayerful silence:
With St. Augustine we say, “Grant me time to meditate on the secrets of your law, do not shut the door to those who knock. Lord, fulfill your plan in me and unveil those pages. Grant that I may find grace before you and that the deep secrets of your Word may be revealed to me when I knock.”
2. MEDITATIO
a) Preamble:
Before we start the Lectio, it is important to pause briefly on the context of our liturgical passage. Jesus’ words in Jn 16:12-15 are part of a section of the Gospel known by exegetes as the Book of Glory (13:1-17:26). In His farewell discourse, Jesus reveals His intimate self, calls the disciples friends and promises them the Holy Spirit who will accompany them as they accept the mystery of His person. The disciples, then, are invited to grow in love towards the Master who gives Himself to them completely.
In this section, we can distinguish three well-defined sequences or parts. The first includes chapters 13-14 and treats of the following theme: the new community is founded on the new commandment of love. Through His instructions, Jesus explains that the practice of love is the way that the community must walk in its journey to the Father. In the second part, Jesus describes the position of the community in midst of the world. He reminds them that the community He founded carries out its mission in the midst of a hostile world and can only acquire new members if it practices love. This is the meaning of “bearing fruit” on the part of the community. The condition for a fruitful love in the world is: remain united to Jesus. It is from Him that life flows – the Spirit (Jn 15:1-6); union with Jesus with a love like His so as to establish a relationship of friendship between Jesus and His disciples (Jn 15:7-17).
The community’s mission, like that of Jesus, will be carried out in the midst of the hatred of the world, but the disciples will be strengthened by the Spirit (Jn 15:26-16:15). Jesus tells them that the mission in the world implies pain and joy and that He will be absent-present (Jn 16:16-23a). He simply assures them of the support of the Father’s love and His victory over the world (Jn 16:23b-33). The third part of this section includes Jesus’ prayer: He prays for His present community (Jn 17:6-19); for the community of the future (Jn 17:20-23); and expresses His desire that the Father glorify those who have known Him and, finally, that His mission in the world may be fulfilled (Jn 17:24-26).
b) Meditation:
- The voice of the Spirit is Jesus’ voice
Previously, in Jn 15:15, Jesus had told His disciples what He had heard from the Father. This message was not nor could it have been grasped by the disciples in all its force. The reason is that the disciples, for the present, ignored the meaning of Jesus’ death on the cross and the substitution of the new way of salvation for the old. With His death, a new and definitive saving power comes into the life of humanity. The disciples will understand Jesus’ words and actions after the resurrection (Jn 2:22) or after His death (Jn 12:16).
In Jesus’ teaching there are many matters and messages to be understood by the community as it gradually faces new events and circumstances; it is in daily life and in the light of the resurrection that it will understand the meaning of His death-exaltation.
It will be the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ prophet, who will communicate to the disciples what they have heard from Him. In the mission that Jesus’ community will carry out it will be the Holy Spirit who will communicate to them the truth in that He will explain and help them to apply that which Jesus is and means as the manifestation of the Father’s love. Through His prophetic messages, the community does not transmit a new doctrine but constantly proposes the reality of the person of Jesus, in the witness to and orientation of its mission in the world. The voice of the Holy Spirit, which the community will hear, is the voice of Jesus Himself. In the wake of the Old Testament prophets who interpreted history in the light of the covenant, the Holy Spirit becomes the determining factor in making Jesus known, giving the community of believers the key to an understanding of history as a continual confrontation between what the “world” stands for and God’s plan. The starting point for reading one’s presence in the world is Jesus’ death-exaltation, and as Christians grow in this understanding they will discover in daily life “the sin of the world” and its harmful effects.
The role of the Holy Spirit is a determining factor for the interpretation of the mystery of Jesus’ life in the life of the disciples: He is their guide in undertaking a just commitment on behalf of humanity. To succeed in their activities for humankind, the disciples have to listen to the problems of life and history, and be attentive to the voice of the Holy Spirit, the only reliable source for getting a real sense of the historical events in the world.
- The Holy Spirit’s voice: true interpreter of history
Then Jesus explains how the Holy Spirit interprets human life and history. First, by manifesting His “glory”, that He will take “what is Mine”. More specifically, “what is Mine” means that the Holy Spirit draws His message from Jesus, whatever Jesus said. To manifest the glory means manifesting the love that He has shown by His death. These words of Jesus are very important because they avoid reducing the role of the Holy Spirit to an illumination. The Spirit’s role is to communicate Jesus’ love and places Jesus’ words in harmony with His message and also with the deeper sense of His life: Love expressed in giving His life on the cross. This is the Holy Spirit’s role, the Spirit of truth. Two aspects of the role of the Holy Spirit that enable the community of believers to interpret history are: listening to the message and understanding it, and being in harmony with love. Better still, Jesus’ words mean to communicate that only through the communication of the love of the Holy Spirit is it possible to know who a person is, to understand the purpose of life, and to create a new world. The model is always Jesus’ love.
- Jesus, the Father, the Holy Spirit and the community of believers (v.15)
What does Jesus mean when He says “everything the Father has is Mine”? First that what Jesus has is shared with the Father. The first gift of the Father to Jesus was His glory (Jn 1:14), or more precisely, faithful love, the Spirit (Jn 1:32; 17:10). This communication is not to be understood as static but rather as dynamic, that is, on- going and mutual. In this sense the Father and Jesus are one. Such mutual and constant communication permeates Jesus activity so that He is able to realize the designs of the Father and His plan for the whole of creation. So that believers may be able to understand and interpret history, they are called to live in harmony with Jesus, accepting the reality of His love and making this love concrete for others. This is the Father’s plan that the love of Jesus for His disciples may be realized in all. God’s plan as realized in Jesus’ life must be realized in the community of believers and guide the believer’s commitment in their endeavor to improve everyone’s life. Who carries out the Father’s plan in Jesus’ life? It is the Holy Spirit who unites Jesus and the Father and carries out and fulfills the Father’s plan and makes the community of believers partakers in this dynamic activity of Jesus: “will be taken from what is Mine”. Thanks to the action of truth of the Holy Spirit, the community listens to Him and communicates Him concretely as love.
The Holy Spirit communicates to the disciples all the truth and wealth of Jesus; He dwells in Jesus; “comes” into the community and when He is received renders the community partakers in Jesus’ love.
b) A few questions:
- A serious danger threatens the Christian community today. Are we not tempted to divide Jesus, following either a human Jesus who through His actions has changed history, or a glorious Jesus detached from His earthly existence and thus also from ours?
- Are we aware that Jesus is not just a historical example but also and above all the present Savior? That Jesus is not just an object of contemplation and joy, but the Messiah whom we must follow and with whom we must collaborate?
- God is not an abstraction, but the Father made visible in Jesus. Are you committed to “seeing Him” and recognizing Him in Jesus’ humanity?
- Do you listen to the voice of the Spirit of truth who communicates to you Jesus’ whole truth?
3. ORATIO
a) Psalm 103: Send your Spirit, Lord, to renew the earth
This is a joyful hymn of thanksgiving that invites us to meditate on humanity’s fall and God’s eternal mercy. After sin, sickness and death, comes the kind and loving action of God: He fills us with good things all our lives.
Bless Yahweh, my soul,
from the depths of my being,
His holy name;
bless Yahweh, my soul,
never forget all His acts of kindness.
He forgives all your offenses,
cures all your diseases,
He redeems your life from the abyss,
crowns you with faithful love and tenderness;
He contents you with good things all your life,
renews your youth like an eagle's.
Yahweh acts with uprightness,
with justice to all who are oppressed;
He revealed to Moses His ways,
His great deeds to the children of Israel.
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;
He does not treat us as our sins deserve,
nor repay us as befits our offenses.
As tenderly as a father treats his children,
so Yahweh treats those who fear Him;
But Yahweh's faithful love for those who fear Him
is from eternity and for ever;
Bless Yahweh, all His angels,
mighty warriors who fulfill His commands,
attentive to the sound of His words.
Bless Yahweh, all His armies,
servants who fulfill His wishes.
Bless Yahweh, all His works,
in every place where He rules.
Bless Yahweh, my soul.
b) Closing prayer:
Spirit of truth
You make us children of God,
so that we can approach the Father in trust.
Father, we turn to You
with one heart and one soul
and we ask You:
Father, send Your Holy Spirit!
Send Your Spirit upon the Church.
May every Christian grow in harmony with Christ’s love,
with the love of God and of neighbor.
Father, renew our trust
in the Kingdom that Jesus came to proclaim
and to incarnate on earth.
Let us not be dominated by delusion
or be conquered by weariness.
May our communities be a leaven
that produces justice and peace
in our society.
1) Opening prayer
Lord our God,
like Mary, the women and the apostles
on the day before the first Pentecost,
we are gathered in prayer.
Let the Holy Spirit descend also upon us,
that we may become enthusiastic believers
and faithful witnesses to the Person
and the good news of Jesus.
May our way of living bear witness
that Jesus is our light and life,
now and forever.
2) Gospel Reading - John 21:20-25
Peter turned and saw the disciple following whom Jesus loved, the one who had also reclined upon his chest during the supper and had said, "Master, who is the one who will betray you?" When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about him?" Jesus said to him, "What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me." So the word spread among the brothers that that disciple would not die. But Jesus had not told him that he would not die, just "What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours?" It is this disciple who testifies to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.
3) Reflection
Today’s Gospel begins with Peter’s question: “Lord, what about him?” Jesus begins to speak with Peter.
• John 21:20-21: Peter’s question concerning John’s destiny. At this moment, Peter turned back and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved and asked, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus had just indicated Peter’s destiny, and now Peter wants to know from Jesus what is this other disciple’s destiny. It is a matter of curiosity which does not deserve a proper response from Jesus.
• John 21:22: The mysterious response of Jesus. Jesus says, “If I want him to stay behind until I come, what does it matter to you? You are to follow Me.” A mysterious utterance which ends again with the same affirmation as before: Follow me! Jesus seems to want to bridle Peter’s curiosity. Just as each one of us has his/her own history, in the same way each one of us has his/her own way of following Jesus. Nobody is the exact copy of another person. Each one of us should be creative in following Jesus. This also recalls the laborers in the vineyard (Mt 20:1-15). Each of us also has our own history and relationship with Jesus which is personal and directed by Him if we accept it.
• John 21:23: The Evangelist clarifies the meaning of Jesus’ response. Ancient tradition identifies the Beloved Disciple with the Apostle John and says that he died when he was almost one hundred years old. Putting together John’s old age with Jesus’ mysterious response, the Evangelist clarifies things saying, “The rumor then went out among the brothers that this disciple would not die. Yet, Jesus had not said to Peter, ‘He will not die,’ but, ‘ If I want him to stay behind until I come; what does that matter to you?’” Perhaps, it is a warning to be attentive to the interpretation of the words of Jesus and not base one’s beliefs on any rumor.
Peter’s questions, and the assumptions of the other disciples, could be an example of the sins of pride (hyperēphania), sadness or envy (lypē), and dejection or acedia (akēdia) in terms of the concepts of the fourth century monk Evagrius Ponticus, among others. Rather than rejoicing at the favorable treatment they thought John had, Peter wanted to know the details. Then the rumors and the gossip went out.
• John 21:24: Witness of the value of the Gospel. Chapter 21 is an added appendix when the final redaction of the Gospel was made. Chapter 20 ends with this statement: “There were many other signs that Jesus worked in the sight of His disciples, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through His name.” (Jn 20:30-31). The Book was ready but there were many other facts about Jesus. This is why, on the occasion of the definitive edition of the Gospel, some of these “many facts” about Jesus were chosen and added, very probably to clarify better the new problems at the end of the first century. We do not know who wrote the definitive redaction with the appendix, but we know it was someone in the community who could be trusted, because he writes, “This is the disciple who vouches for these things and has written them down and we know that his testimony is true.”
• John 21:25: The mystery of Jesus is inexhaustible. A beautiful thought to conclude the Gospel of John: “There was much more that Jesus did; if it were written down in detail, I do not suppose the world itself would hold all the books that would be written.” It seems an exaggeration, but it is the truth. Never will anyone be capable of writing all the things that Jesus has done and continues to do in the life of people who follow Jesus!
4) For Personal Consideration
• Is there something in your life which Jesus has done and which could be added to this book which will never be written?
• Peter is very concerned about the other disciple rather than live his own “Follow Me” at that moment. Does this also happen to you?
• Several Church Doctors and Fathers talk about overcoming vices such as envy and pride with virtues. Many of their ways of life are an answer to “Follow Me”. How well informed are you about these and how might they be put to use personally in answering His call?
• One’s whole life is a relationship with Jesus. This is true for others as well. When there is gossip about another person, do you think Jesus says “What concern is it of yours?” at those moments too?
5) Concluding Prayer
Yahweh in His holy temple!
Yahweh, His throne is in heaven;
His eyes watch over the world,
His gaze scrutinizes the children of Adam. (Ps 11:4)
1) Opening prayer
Lord our God,
You have appointed shepherds in Your Church
to speak Your word to us
and to build community in Your name.
We pray You today:
May they be shepherds like Your Son
who look for those who have lost the way,
bring back the stray, bandage the wounded
and make the weak strong.
May they all be ministers
of Your tender love and service,
as Jesus was, Your Son and our Lord.
2) Gospel Reading - John 21:15-19
After Jesus had revealed himself to his disciples and eaten breakfast with them, he said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" Simon Peter answered him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." He then said to Simon Peter a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Simon Peter answered him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him, "Follow me."
3) Reflection
• We are in the last days before Pentecost. During the time of Lent, the selection of the Gospels of the day continues the ancient tradition of the Church. Between Easter and Pentecost, the Gospel of John is preferred. And thus, during these last days before Pentecost, the Gospels of the day narrate the last verses of the Gospel of John. When we return to Ordinary Time, we will go back to the Gospel of Mark. In the weeks of Ordinary Time, the Liturgy proceeds to a continuous reading of the Gospel of Mark (from the 1st to the 9th week of Ordinary Time), of Matthew (from the 10th to 21st week of Ordinary Time) and of Luke (from the 22nd to the 34th week of Ordinary Time).
• The Gospel readings for today and tomorrow speak about Jesus’ last encounter with His disciples. It was an encounter of celebration, marked by tenderness and affection. At the end Jesus calls Peter and asks him three times, “Do you love Me?” Only after having received three times the same affirmative response, Jesus entrusts to Peter the mission of taking care of the sheep. In order to be able to work in the community, Jesus does not ask many things of us. What He asks of us is to have much love!
• John 21:15-17: Love at the center of the mission. After a whole night of fishing in the lake catching not even one fish, they go to the shore. The disciples discover that Jesus has prepared bread and roasted fish for them. When they finish eating, Jesus calls Peter and asks him three times, “Do you love Me?” Three times, because Peter denied Jesus three times (Jn 18:17,25-27). After the three affirmative responses, Peter also becomes a “Beloved Disciple” and receives the order to take care of the sheep. Jesus does not ask Peter if he has studied exegesis, theology, morals, or canon law. He only asks, “Do you love Me?” Love in the first place. For the communities of the Beloved Disciple the force which supports and maintains unity is love.
• John 21:18-19: The foreshadowing of death. Jesus tells Peter, “Truly I tell you: when you were young, you put on your own belt and walked where you liked; but when you grow old you will stretch out your hands, and somebody else will put a belt around you and take you where you do not want to go!” Throughout life, Peter, and we too, gain maturity. The practice of love will take root in life and people will no longer be the bosses of their own life. Service to the brothers and sisters out of love will prevail and will lead us. How we dress is often a reflection or necessity of the work we do. If we choose to accept it, God can “dress” us in new clothing for a new destination according to His wants, and send us where we may not want to go. Somebody else will put a belt around you and take you where you would rather not go. Fro Peter there is a the meaning, as the Evangelist comments: “He tells him this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would give glory to God.” Then Jesus adds: “Follow Me.”
• Love in John – Peter, do you love Me? – The Beloved Disciple. The word love is one of the words which we use most nowadays. Precisely because of this, it is a word that has been greatly worn out. But the communities of the Beloved Disciple manifested their identity and their own intentions by this word. To love, is above all, a profound experience of relationship among people in which similar sentiments and values prevail - a care and concern for the other over oneself, as well as joy, sadness, suffering, growth, renunciation, dedication, fulfillment, gift, commitment, life, death. All these together are summarized in the Bible in one single word in the Hebrew language. This word is hesed. It is hard to translate into our language. Generally, in our Bibles it is translated by charity, mercy, fidelity or loving kindness. The communities of the Beloved Disciple sought to live this practice of love in a very radical way. Jesus revealed this in His encounters with people with sentiments of friendship and tenderness, as for example, in His relationship with the family of Martha and Mary of Bethany: “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” He weeps before the tomb of Lazarus (Jn 11:5,33-36). Jesus always embodies His mission in a manifestation of love: “having loved His own, He loved them to the end” (Jn 13:1). In this love, Jesus manifests His profound identity with the Father (Jn 15:9). For His communities there was no other commandment except this one: “to act as Jesus acted” (1 Jn 2:6). This presupposes “love of the brethren” (1 Jn 2:7-11; 3:11-24; 2 Jn 4-6). Being such a central commandment in the life of the community, love is defined by John as follows: “This is the proof of love that He laid down His life for us and we too ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” Our love should not be just words or mere talk but something active and genuine.” (1 Jn 3:16-17). Anyone who lives this love and manifests it in words and attitudes becomes a Beloved Disciple.
4) For Personal Consideration
• Look within yourself and say, “What is the most profound reason that motivates me to work in the community – love, or a concern for ideas?”
• Jesus asks Peter three times. Each time he answers you can feel a rising tension, one that says “what can I do to show you if you don’t believe me?” It isn’t a casual conversation. Do I have this forcefulness in responding to Jesus in my life, or just a casualness?
• Do I allow myself to be dressed by someone else for service to others? Do I go where He leads me? Is my attitude my answer to Jesus’ question: “Follow Me.”?
• What is “my life”? It is not only biological. It is also lifestyle, actions, and identity that come from ego, pride, and self-will. There is something in common though: To “lay down one’s life” has a totality to it. Do I “lay down” my pride, ego, will, wants, and lifestyle for others in my community, or for the “little ones”, the poor or rejected? Is it in totality, or just when it is convenient?
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)
More...
1) Opening prayer
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
and Father of all people,
we believe in You
and we know that You loved Jesus
with a deep and trusting, lasting love.
Let Your Holy Spirit pour out this love
into the hearts of all those
who believe in Jesus, our Savior and shepherd.
Let this love unite us in one common bond
of understanding and respect for one another
and let that love lead us
to live for one another and to serve one another
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.
2) Gospel Reading - John 17:20-26
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: "I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them."
3) Reflection
• Today’s Gospel gives us the third and last part of the Priestly Prayer, in which Jesus looks toward the future and manifests His great desire for unity among us, His disciples, and that all may remain in the love which unifies, because without love and without unity we do not deserve credibility.
• John 17:20-23: So that the world may believe it was You who sent Me. Jesus expands the horizon and prays to the Father: “I pray not only for these but also for those who through their teaching will come to believe in Me. May they all be one, just as, Father, You are in Me and I am in You, so that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe it was You who sent Me.” Behold, here emerges Jesus’ great concern for unity which should exist in the communities. Unity does not mean uniformity, but rather to remain in love, in spite of tensions and conflicts. A love which unifies to the point of creating, among all, a profound unity like the unity which exists between Jesus and the Father. The unity in love revealed in the Trinity is the model for the communities. For this, through love among people, the communities reveal to the world the most profound message of Jesus. People said of the first Christians, “See how they love one another!” The present day division among the three religions which came from Abraham is really tragic: the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims. And even more tragic is the division among us Christians who say that we believe in Jesus. If we are divided we do not deserve credibility. Ecumenism is at the center of the last prayer of Jesus to the Father. It is His testament. To be a Christian and not be ecumenical is a contradiction. It means to contradict the last Will of Jesus.
• John 17:24-26: “So that the love with which You loved Me may be in them.” Jesus does not want to remain alone. He says, “Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am so that they may always see My glory, which You have given Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” Jesus is happy when we are all together with Him. He wants His disciples to have the same experience of the Father which He had. He wants us to know the Father and that He knows us. In the Bible, the word to know is not limited to a rational theoretical knowledge, but presupposes the experience of the presence of God living in love with the people of the community.
• That they may be one as We are one. (Unity and Trinity in the Gospel of John) The Gospel of John helps us to understand the mystery of the Trinity, the communion among the three Divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Spirit. Of the four Gospels, John is the one which puts more stress on the profound unity among the Father, the Son and the Spirit. From the text of John (Jn 17:6-8) we see that the mission of the Son is the supreme manifestation of the love of the Father. And this unity between the Father and the Son makes Jesus exclaim, “The Father and I are one” (Jn 10:30). Between the Son and the Father there is such an intense unity that one who sees the face of one also sees the face of the other. And fulfilling this mission of unity received from the Father, Jesus reveals the Spirit. The spirit of Truth comes from the Father (Jn 15:26). At the bidding of the Son (Jn 14:16), the Father sends the Spirit to each one of us in such a way that He will remain with us, encouraging us and giving us strength. The Spirit also comes to us from the Son (Jn 16:7-8). Thus, the Spirit of Truth, who journeys with us, is the communication of the profound unity which exists between the Father and the Son (Jn 15:26-27). The Spirit cannot communicate a truth which is different from the truth of the Son. Everything which is in relationship with the mystery of the Son, the Spirit makes known to us (Jn 16:13-14). This experience of unity in God was very strong in the communities of the Beloved Disciple. The love which unites the Divine Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - allows us to experience God through union with the people in a community of love. This was also the experience of the community, where love should be the sign of God’s presence in the midst of the community (Jn 13:34-35). This love builds unity in the community (Jn 17:21). They looked at the unity in God in order to understand the unity among themselves.
4) For Personal Consideration
• Bishop Don Pedro Casaldáliga said, “The Trinity is truly the best community.” In the community of which you are a part, can you see any human sign of the Divine Trinity?
• Ecumenism: Am I interested in ecumenism? How do I approach it with others?
• Do I know the doctrine and beliefs of the Church well enough to enter into ecumenical discussion with others without misleading myself or others?
• What limits do I put on ecumenical activity in my life? Should there be limits?
5) Concluding Prayer
Lord, You will teach me the path of life,
unbounded joy in Your presence,
at Your right hand delight for ever. (Ps 16:11)
1) Opening prayer
Lord our God,
Your Son Jesus gave himself totally
to those He loved - that is, to all.
Give us a share of His unselfish love
that we too may learn from experience
that there is more joy in giving ourselves
than in receiving honors or favors.
May the Spirit make us also so much one
that we graciously share with one another
our God-given riches and gifts as people.
We ask You this through Christ our Lord.
2) Gospel Reading - John 17:11b-19
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: "Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth."
3) Reflection
• We are now in the Novena of Pentecost, waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that the gift of the Holy Spirit is given only to those who ask for it in prayer (Lk 11:13). In the Cenacle, for nine days, from the Ascension to Pentecost, the Apostles persevered in prayer together with Mary, the Mother of Jesus (Acts 1:14), and they obtained the abundance of the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4). Today’s Gospel continues to place before us the Priestly Prayer of Jesus. It is a very opportune text to prepare ourselves during these days for the coming of the Holy Spirit in our life.
• John 17:11b-12: Keep them in Your name! Jesus channels His concern into prayer: “Keep those You have given Me true to Your name, so that they may be one like Us!” Everything which Jesus does in His life, He does in the Name of God. Jesus is the manifestation of the Name of God. The Name of God is Yahweh, JHWH. In the time of Jesus, this name was pronounced saying, “Adonai,” “Kyrios,” “Lord.” In the discourse of Pentecost, Peter says that Jesus, because of His Resurrection, was constituted Lord: “For this reason the whole House of Israel can be certain that the Lord and Christ whom God has made is this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36). And Paul says that this has been done so that “every tongue should acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God, the Father” (Phil 2:11). It is the Name which is above all other names” (Phil 2:9). JHWH or Yahweh, the Name of God, took on a concrete face in Jesus of Nazareth! Unity has to form around this name: keep those you have given Me true to Your name so that they may be one like We are. Jesus wants the unity of the communities in such a way that they can resist the world which hates them and persecutes them. The people united around the name of Jesus will never be conquered!
• John 17:13-16: That they may share My joy to the full. Jesus is bidding farewell. In a short time He will go away. The disciples continue in the world. They will be persecuted and be afflicted. Because of this, they are sad. Jesus prays that their joy may be full. They want to continue to be in the world without being of, or belonging to, the world. This means to live in the system of the Empire, whether liberal or Roman, without allowing themselves to be contaminated. Like Jesus, and with Jesus, they should live in the opposite direction of the world.
• John 17:17-19: As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world. Jesus asks that they be consecrated in truth. That is, that they may be capable of dedicating their whole life to giving witness of their convictions concerning Jesus and God the Father. Jesus sanctified Himself in the measure in which, during His life, He revealed the Father. He asks that the disciples enter into the same process of sanctification. Their mission is the same as Jesus’ mission. They sanctify themselves in the measure in which, living in love, they reveal Jesus and the Father. To sanctify oneself means to become human like Jesus. Pope Leo the Great said, “Jesus was so human, but so human, as only God can be human.” For this reason we should live in opposition to the world, because the system of the world dehumanizes human life and renders it contrary to the intentions of the Creator.
4) For Personal consideration:
• Jesus lived in the world, but was not of the world. He lived contrary to the system, and because of this, He was persecuted and was condemned to death. Do I live contrary to today’s system, or do I adapt my faith to the system?
What words and actions do I show that I belong to the world or don’t belong to the world? Am I showing a little of both?
• Preparation for Pentecost. To invoke the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who gave courage to Jesus. In this Novena of preparation for Pentecost, it is good to dedicate some time to asking for the gift of the Spirit of Jesus.
5) Concluding Prayer
I bless Yahweh who is my counselor,
even at night my heart instructs me.
I keep Yahweh before me always,
for with Him at my right hand, nothing can shake me.
(Ps 16:7-8)
1) Opening prayer
Lord our God,
Your Son Jesus Christ
carried out the mission You had given Him,
without fear and in all faithfulness to You.
God, give us a taste
of His sense of mission.
Give us the strength of the Spirit
to speak Your word as it is,
bold and demanding,
without compromising or giving in
to the changing moods and fashions of the day.
And may our lives be like an open book
in which people can read Your word.
We ask You this through Christ our Lord.
2) Gospel Reading - John 17:1-11a
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him. Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began. "I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you."
3) Reflection
• In today’s Gospel, in tomorrow’s, and the day after tomorrow’s, we will meditate on the words that Jesus addressed to the Father at the moment of His farewell. John keeps these words and puts them in Jesus’ mouth during His last encounter with the disciples. It is the Testament of Jesus in the form of a prayer, also called the Priestly Prayer (Jn 17:1-26).
• Chapter 17 of the Gospel of John is the end of a long reflection by Jesus, begun in chapter 15, on the mission in the world. The communities preserved these reflections in order to be able to better understand the difficult moment that they were going through: tribulations, abandonment, doubts, and persecution. The long reflection ends with the prayer of Jesus for the communities. In it are expressed the sentiments and concerns, according to the Evangelist, Jesus had at that moment in which He was going out, leaving this world, and going toward the Father. With these sentiments and with this concern, Jesus now finds Himself before His Father, interceding for us. Because of this the Priestly Prayer is also the Testament of Jesus. Many people, in the moment when they leave forever, leave some message. Everyone keeps the important words of a father and mother, especially when they are the last moments of life. Keeping these words is like keeping the person. It is a form of respect and of affection.
• Chapter 17 is a diverse text. It is a friendlier one rather than one of reasoning. In order to grasp the whole meaning, it is not sufficient to reflect with the head, with reason. This text has to be meditated upon and accepted in the heart as well. It is a text not so much to be discussed, but to meditate reflect upon. Therefore, do not be worried if you do not understand it immediately. This text demands a whole life of pondering and deepening. Such a text should be read, meditated on, thought, read again, repeated, savored, as one does with a good sweet in the mouth. One turns it over and over in the mouth until it is finished. For this, close your eyes, keep silence within you and listen to Jesus who speaks to you, transmitting in His Testament His greatest concern, His last will. Try to discover which point Jesus insists on the most and which points He considers the most important.
• John 17:1-3: “Father, the hour has come!” It is the long awaited hour (Jn 2:4; 7:30; 8:20; 12:23,27; 13:1; 16:32). It is the moment of the glorification which will take place through the Passion, death and Resurrection. In reaching the end of His mission, Jesus looks back and proceeds to a review. In this prayer, He expresses the most intimate sentiment of His heart and the profound discovery of His soul: the presence of the Father in His life.
• John 17:4-8: Father, they will recognize that I come from You! In reviewing His own life Jesus sees Himself as a manifestation of the Father for the friends whom the Father has given Him. Jesus does not live for Himself. He lives in order that all may have a flash of goodness and love which are enclosed in the name of God which is Abba, Father.
• John 17:9-11a: All I have is Yours and all You have is Mine! At the moment of leaving the world, Jesus expresses His concern to the Father and prays for the friends whom He leaves behind; that they will continue in the world, but they are not of the world. They are of Jesus, they are God’s, and they are signs of God and of Jesus in this world. Jesus is concerned about the people who remain, and He prays for them.
4) For Personal Confrontation
• If you were about to die, what would be the message that you would like to leave to your family and to your community?
• Notice that He is addressing the One He is going to, not those He is leaving. Would this be your way too? Why or why not?
• Many fear death, even though it is just a passing to new life. A large part of the “message” we leave is in how we leave – accepting and at peace or clinging on to this life. Imagine yourself at those moments. What message do you present in those last days or hours? How do you feel while putting yourself in these last moments?
5) Concluding Prayer
Blessed be the Lord day after day,
He carries us along, God our Savior.
This God of ours is a God who saves;
from Lord Yahweh comes escape from death. (Ps 68:19-20)
1) Opening prayer
Lord our God,
when Your Son Jesus had to pass through trials,
He knew that you were with Him
and He committed Himself into Your hands.
In this way He brought peace to people.
As people baptized into His name,
let Your Spirit help us to be brave
when suffering and difficulties come our way,
that, like Your Son and with Him,
we may overcome evil in ourselves
and in the world.
May our pains give birth
to love and peace and hope for others.
We ask You this through Christ our Lord.
2) Gospel Reading - John 16:29-33
The disciples said to Jesus, "Now you are talking plainly, and not in any figure of speech. Now we realize that you know everything and that you do not need to have anyone question you. Because of this we believe that you came from God." Jesus answered them, "Do you believe now? Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone. But I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world."
3) Reflection
• The context of today’s Gospel continues to be the environment of the Last Supper, an environment of fraternity and of farewell, of sadness and expectation, which mirrors the situation in the communities of Asia Minor at the end of the first century. In order to be able to understand the Gospels well, we can never forget that they give the words of Jesus not as if they had been recorded on a CD to transmit them literally. The Gospels are pastoral writings which seek to embody and update the words of Jesus in the new situations in which the communities find themselves in the second half of the first century in Galilee (Matthew), in Greece (Luke), in Italy (Mark) and in Asia Minor (John). In the Gospel of John, the words and the questions of the disciples are not only those of the disciples. In fact, they reveal the questions and problems of the communities. They are the mirror in which the communities of that time, as well as those of today, are recognized with their sadness and their anguish, with their joys and their hopes. They find light and strength in the answers of Jesus.
• John 16:29-30: ‘Now, you are speaking plainly." Jesus had told His disciples, ‘The Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and you have believed that I come from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I am leaving the world to go to the Father (Jn 16:29-30)." Listening to this affirmation of Jesus, the disciples answered, "Now You are speaking plainly and not using veiled language. Now we see that You know everything and need not wait for questions to be put into words. Because of this we believe that You came from God". The disciples think that they have understood everything. Yes, truly they got a true light to clarify their problems,but it was still a very dim light. They got the seed, but at that moment, still did not know the tree. The light or the seed was the fundamental intuition of faith according to which Jesus is for us the revelation of God, who is Father: "Now we believe that you came from God." This was only the beginning, the seed. Jesus Himself was and continues to be the great parable, the revelation of God for us. God reaches us and reveals Himself to us,, but God does not enter into any representations. He exceeds all, goes beyond our representations and gives us the unexpected surprise, which sometimes is very painful.
• John 16:31-32: You are leaving Me alone and yet I am not alone because the Father is with Me. Jesus asks, "Do you believe at last?" He knows His disciples. He knows that there is still much lacking in their understanding of the mystery of God and of the Good News of God. He knows that in spite of their good will and in spite of the light that they have just received in that moment, they still have to face the unexpected and painful surprise of the passion and death of Jesus. The small light that they got is not sufficient to overcome the darkness of this crisis: "Behold, the time will come, indeed it has come already, when you are going to be scattered, each one going his own way and leaving Me alone; and yet I am not alone because the Father is with Me." This is the source of certitude of Jesus and through Jesus, this is and will be the source of certitude for all of us: The Father is with me! When Moses was sent to liberate the people from the oppression of the Egyptians, this being his mission, he received this certainty: “”Go! I am with you” Ex 3:12). The certainty of the liberating presence of God is expressed in the name that God assumes at the moment of the beginning of the Exodus and of the liberation of his people: JHWH, God with us: This is the name for all time (Ex 3:15).
• John 16:33: "Courage, I have conquered the world!" And now we have the last sentence pronounced by Jesus who anticipates victory and which will be a source of peace and of strength for the disciples of that time, as well as for all of us, up until now: "I have told you all this so that you may find peace in Me. In the world you will have hardship, but be courageous, I have conquered the world." With His sacrifice made out of love, Jesus conquers the world and Satan. His disciples are called to participate in the struggle and the victory. "To feel the courage which He gives is already to overcome the battle’. (L.A. Schokel)
4) For Personal Examination
• A small light helped the disciples to take a step farther, but it did not light the whole journey. Have you had a similar experience in your life?
• Courage, I have conquered the world! Has this saying of Jesus helped you some times in your life?
5) Concluding Prayer
Protect me, O God, in You is my refuge.
To Yahweh I say, "You are my Lord, I have no good apart from You.
My birthright, my cup is Yahweh;
You, You alone, hold my lot secure." (Ps 16:1-2,5)
