"Something is changed". From Jack Nicholson to Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi honorary degree from the University of Catania

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"SOMETHING IS CHANGED". FROM JACK NICHOLSON TO CARDINAL MATTEO MARIA ZUPPI GRADUATION HONORARY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CATANIA

«[…] If different opinions are not also welcomed, and maybe even words of dissent, there will be no real change. Today the CEI assembly is a moratorium because there are no longer any significant figures; you could share the positions of Siri or Martini or not, but their interventions were important points of reference. Today only pimps speak, those who want to be seen […]» (from an interview with the Archbishop emeritus of Pisa Alessandro Plotti, former vice president of the CEI)

 

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Inside the Church today it can happen to feel a bit like on set cinematic of the film, Something is changed, main protagonist Jack Nicholson together with a lovable little dog. For those who haven't seen it, let's summarize briefly: Melvin Udall, played by Jack Nicholson, is a famous writer of romance novels, misanthrope and suffering from obsessive-compulsive neurosis who, through a hilarious tangle of events in which he ends up involved together with the waitress of a restaurant, to a gay painter who is his neighbor and his little Brussels Griffon dog, comes to an unexpected and incredible transformation that leads him to become even a tender and lovable person.

Faced with some facts, say that today Something is changed it's reductive, because we are faced with reversals so radical that they are difficult to interpret. Like when the 12 April the University of Catania awarded the master's degree Honorary in Global Politics and Euro-Mediterranean Relations to His Eminence Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, Metropolitan Archbishop of Bologna and President of the Italian Episcopal Conference.

I think it's irrelevant focus on the relationships that have been going on since before 17 February 1861 - the date that marked the fall of the Bourbon Kingdom - link this university to the historic lodges of the city's Freemasonry, as a figure from the names of many illustrious academics who were members of Freemasonry over two centuries. Unless the numerous funeral posters with their name and the initials A:.G:.(D):.G:.A:.(D):.U:. (acronym indicating: To the Glory of the Great Architect of the Universe) hanging in the city of Etna over the last few decades, they weren't just pranks by the Catania printers or the editorial staff of Sicily it's from The Sicilian newspaper who wanted to play around on the page of their obituaries published for a fee to commemorate the deceased.

Being a Freemason is not unbecoming, nor even a crime, membership of a historical association is lawful and legitimate; unless it is a deviant Lodge like P2, which comes to life from Freemasonry but is not an expression of it at all, but only detour. That affiliation with the Lodges is incompatible with belonging to the Catholic Church, this is yet another matter, linked to that partly Gnostic and partly esoteric system which makes Freemasonry incompatible and irreconcilable with Catholicism.

Without even dwelling on anticlericalism which winds through historical tradition in the University of Catania, our interests being completely different, However, some clarifications are required. Let us therefore start from a truly striking example now fixed in historical chronicles: when in November of 2007 he was invited by the Rector Magnificus to inaugurate the academic year at La Sapienza University of Rome, the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI gave up holding one keynote inaugural following protests by groups of students and teachers who rose up shouting «the university is secular!», while those of many Italian universities supported and supported the protest, including the Catania one.

Before it started today's youth season the bishop of Pecorecci - quite a few of whom would have failed an exam in fundamental theology until a few decades ago -, in Italy we had several bishops who were great scholars and men of profound culture, distributed in all those different areas than in improper journalistic language, because it is foreign in itself to the very structure of the Church, they are referred to as traditionalists, Conservatives, Progressives. Or to put it in the words of the Archbishop of Pisa Alessandro Plotti, who was vice-president of the Italian Episcopal Conference:

«If different opinions are not also welcomed, and maybe even words of dissent, there will be no real change. Today the CEI assembly is a moratorium because there are no longer any significant figures; you could share the positions of Siri or Martini or not, but their interventions were important points of reference. Today only pimps speak, those who want to be seen; the pastoral theme is thrown away with the study groups, which actually last half an hour, and then we only talk about Otto per Mille and money, which could very well be done by correspondence. And to say that, eg, regarding the family there are really big problems to face and everyone is trying to understand what direction the Church will take" (cf.. interview published in Jesus the 10 February 2014, text WHO).

Several of these bishops several times, over the past 30 year old, including Alessandro Plotti himself who belonged to the so-called progressive area, they had to give up invitations to academic structures and universities because the inevitable student agitators, instigated behind the scenes by former 1968 professors, they raised hell (cf.. WHO). The then President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, was challenged and booed in Siena on 24 September 2005 (cf.. WHO) because «it is the symbol of conservatism, of the attack on the secularity of the State and the denial of homosexual rights", as the representative of the Young Communist League of Siena reported in the press conference (cf.. WHO).

Yet we are not faced with different people, because those who yesterday barred the doors to the successor of those Roman Pontiffs who founded La Sapienza University, making it a universal center of culture, science and research over the centuries, they are the same ones who award degrees today Honorary to the president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, no longer booed and criticized like his predecessor accused of being a violator of the secularity of the State, but welcomed with pats on the back and called in a friendly way "Don Matteo".

More than wondering Something is changed, we should ask ourselves: who was exploited and why? And it would certainly also be necessary to ask ourselves: who is such a "pimp" - to quote Alessandro Plotti - that he doesn't even understand, due to its own inevitable and invincible limitation, of being exploited?

Let's try to go behind the scenes of the little theater, because doing so isn't that difficult: the trial against the then Minister for Internal Affairs Matteo Salvini was opened in Catania, accused of having prevented at the end of July 2019 the landing of 116 illegal immigrants from the Gregoretti ship, stop in the port of the city of Augusta in the province of Syracuse (cf.. WHO). That under this pontificate, that of migrants, is an element that ranges between obsessive neurosis and ideology, it is a completely incontrovertible fact. As is the imprudent involvement - partly verified and partly yet to be verified - that some bishops had with a communist militant like Luca Casarini, which should be treated with extreme caution and above all with the utmost prudence, certainly not invited to the Synod of Bishops.

Translating from English to Italian graduation Honorary conferred is in Global politics e Euro-Mediterranean relations. Incredible! The doors of the universities were barred to the Pontiffs and Bishops of yesterday, or they shouted at each other when they approached state institutions or foundations, because regardless of their tendencies, whether conservative or progressive, they still said what the world didn't want to hear, by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Genoa Cardinal Giuseppe Siri to the Metropolitan Archbishop of Milan Carlo Maria Martini, otherwise, but both worried about the secularist drift that European society was taking, especially in his at times even hateful and violent rejection of Christianity. Today, who instead decided to whore with the world, through many new bishops who were variously "ruffian" and sheepish, here the Presidents of the Italian Episcopal Conferences are clapping their hands on the shoulders, they are called "Don Matteo" and they are awarded degrees Honorary precisely on political and Euro-Mediterranean issues regarding which the award winners themselves claimed the head of a Minister of the Italian Republic with a more bloodthirsty manner than that of Robespierre.

Even if in fact nothing has changed, in any case we are not idiots nor do we intend to be treated as such by a world that shows it loves us to the extent that we are willing to be ashamed of Christ, you forget that it is written:

"For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels " (MC 8,38).

Embarrassing and dangerous as few as the Blessed Apostle Paul will be today more than ever:

"Indeed, It is perhaps the favor of men that I intend to earn, or rather that of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still pleasing men, do not be a servant of Christ! I therefore declare to you, siblings, that the Gospel announced by me is not modeled on man; for I neither received it nor learned it from men, but by revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal 1,10 e ss.).

From this company which, following the model and example of France, wants to establish the "great universal right to abortion" in the Charter of Europe, We Catholics should not expect applause or honors. If they applaud us or reward us, it is because we are the first to reassure the children of the Prince of this World that ultimately "the Gospel is not a distillation of truth", as the President of the Italian Episcopal Conference recently stated while responding to an interviewer from The Corriere della Sera (cf.. WHO, WHO). If I wanted, I could suggest to His Most Reverend Eminence, for friends Don Matteo, also another effective expression, by pronouncing which he would soon end up being the second Italian appointed academician of France after Maurizio Serra, but I prefer to remain silent and avoid making suggestions.

the Island of Patmos, 14 April 2024

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The Church is the daughter of the first hesitant disciples

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Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

THE CHURCH IS THE DAUGHTER OF THE FIRST HESITANT DISCIPLES

People can appreciate religion very much, but then they rarely come to faith. On the occasion of Easter we saw, multiply come on social, religious manifestations of the popular tradition that we call “sacred” and which play a lot on the edge of emotion and feeling, but then they really arrive at Jesus Christ and his Word?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Gospel of this Third Sunday of Easter tells the last appearance of the Risen Jesus, according to the narrative plan of the Gospel of Luke. We are between the scene of Emmaus and that of the ascension and Jesus shows himself to the disciples who have just listened to what two travelers told them. Here's the song:

Resurrection, work of Quirino De Ieso, 1996

"During that time, [the two disciples who had returned from Emmaus] narravano [to the Eleven and to those who were with them] what had happened along the way and how they recognized [Jesus] in breaking bread. While they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said: "Peace be with you!”. Shocked and full of fear, they thought they were seeing a ghost. But he told them: “Because you are upset, and why doubts arise in your heart? Look at my hands and my feet: It's really me! Touch me and see; a ghost has no flesh and bones, as you can see that I have". By saying this, he showed them his hands and feet. But because of joy they still did not believe and were filled with amazement, he said: “You have here something to eat?”. They offered him a portion of roasted fish; he took it and ate it in front of them. Then he said: “These are the words that I spoke to you when I was still with you: all things written about me in the law of Moses must be fulfilled, in the Prophets and Psalms". Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and said to them: “So it is written: Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and in his name conversion and forgiveness of sins will be preached to all peoples, starting from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of this "". (LC 24,35-48).

Always on the same day, "the first of the week" (LC 24,1), but this time in the evening, two disciples who have returned to Jerusalem are in the upper house (cf.. LC 22,12; MC 14,15), to tell the Eleven and the others "how they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread" (LC 24,35). And here it is, suddenly, they realize that Jesus is among them and makes his voice heard. He does not address them with words of reproach for how they behaved in the hours of his passion. The fact of mentioning that there are now eleven of them and no longer twelve, as when he had chosen them, It says a lot about their state of mind. Rather, he addresses them like this: «peace to you! (Peace be with you!)»; an apparently usual greeting among Jews, but that evening, aimed at disciples deeply shaken and troubled by the events of the passion and death of Jesus, means first and foremost: "Do not be afraid!».

Things seem to be back to normal, but that's really how it is? The resurrection radically transformed Jesus, he transfigured it, made "other" in appearance, because he has now "entered into his glory" (LC 24,26) and can only be recognized by disciples through an act of faith. This act of faith, however, is difficult, tiring: the Eleven struggle to live it and put it into practice. It is no coincidence that Luke notes that the disciples were «shocked and full of fear, they think they see a spirit" (spirit they consider), in the same way that the disciples of Emmaus thought they saw a pilgrim or Magdalene a gardener. In particular, Jesus' body changed, he has now risen, glorioso. We might ask ourselves, indeed, why with such a great event as a resurrection from the dead the body of the Lord did not emerge from the repaired tomb, but you retain the evident signs of passion. Jesus questions the disciples:

«Because you are upset, and why doubts arise in your heart? Look at my hands and my feet: It's really me! Touch me and see; a spirit has no flesh and bones, as you can see that I have".

In saying this, show them your hands and feet with the signs of crucifixion. The Risen One is none other than the one who was crucified. This display by Jesus of his hands and feet pierced by the crucifixion is a gesture that according to some means that it is now possible to encounter the Lord in the suffering, in the poor and despised who suffer injustices. This is true, but it is also first and foremost a question of faith that is based on evident signs that refer to everything that Jesus was and the meaning of what he underwent: the resurrection of Jesus is not a religious myth, it's a real fact, physical.

Because of this, paradoxically, we must be grateful for the reluctance of the disciples preserved in the Gospels. Despite Jesus' words and gesture, the disciples cannot believe, despite the joyful emotion they do not reach faith. Perhaps this is not the experience that is still perpetuated in our communities? People can appreciate religion very much, but then they rarely come to faith. On the occasion of Easter we saw, multiply come on social, religious manifestations of the popular tradition that we call "sacred" and which play a lot on the edge of emotion and feeling, but then they really arrive at Jesus Christ and his Word? In what happened to the Eleven we can read the story of our communities, in which faith is lived and confessed, but disbelief also manifests itself. Yet the Risen One has great patience, for this reason he offers his community a second word and a second gesture.

He does not answer doubts – «because doubts arise in your heart?», LC 24,38 – in the way we would expect, but it is rather placed on another level, that of the meeting, e, what is even more significant, in the form of conviviality. Jesus eats with his, as he had usually done in his earthly life. On the contrary, this time he says it himself: «You have something to eat?» (LC 24,41). Such a simple gesture surprises us, everyday and normal, which Jesus accomplished many times. On the contrary, it really seems like the gesture of a beggar who asks for food and humbly searches for it when entering the house, just as the others are already at the table. With the same discretion that we saw in the Emmaus episode. Jesus, it will be said in the book of Revelation, he is the one who stands at the door and knocks: «If someone hears my voice and opens the door for me, I will come, I sup with him and he with me " (AP 3,20).

But evidently there is more. Jesus eats in front of them not because there is a cause to continue and the meal becomes, like at funerals, a way to ease the pain of separation and strengthen the memory of those who are no longer here. Jesus offers signs and makes gestures so that people believe that he is truly Risen and that his crucified body is now a living body, "a spiritual body" (1Color 15,44), that is, living in the Spirit, the Apostle Paul will say. This is why even today the Church encounters the Risen One in the Sacraments and in particular in the Eucharistic celebration.

The disciples, narrates the Gospel, they remain silent, muti, overwhelmed by the emotions of joy and fear, who together are unable to turn on the light of Easter faith. Luca will write later, at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, that Jesus "presented himself alive to his disciples... with many proofs" (At 1,3). Then Jesus, to finally make them believers he asks them to remember the words spoken while he was with them and above all how everything that had been written about him had to find fulfillment, the Messiah, in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and Psalms, that is, in the holy Scriptures of the Ancient Covenant. This hermeneutic action carried out by the Risen One that we relive every Sunday in the Eucharist is described by the words: «He opened their minds (dienoixen autôn ton noûn) to understand the Scriptures".

The verb used here (dianoígo) in the Gospels it has the meaning of "opening and communicating". Thus the ears of the deaf are opened, the mouth of the dumb (cf.. MC 7,34) and the blind eyes of the disciples of Emmaus (LC 24,31). In this circumstance he indicates the operation carried out by the Risen One who, like an exegete, helps the disciples to understand that the Scriptures spoke about him. Hadn't he perhaps conversed with Moses and Elijah about that Paschal Exodus which was to take place in Jerusalem? (LC 9,30-31)?

The Church is the daughter of those first hesitant disciples to whom Jesus immediately makes this promise: "And here, I send upon you the one whom my Father promised; but you stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high" (LC 24,49). Thanks to the gift and strength of the Spirit of the Risen One, the disciples still listen to the Scripture today, supremely in the Liturgy, which speaks of Him, they feed on Him in the Eucharist and He bears witness by inviting conversion and forgiveness which began in Jerusalem. Since that first day, Christians have not ceased to profess and then bear witness to their faith condensed in the Symbol: «He died and was buried. On the third day he was resurrected, according to the Scriptures (He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures)» (cf.. 1Color 15,3-4).

Happy Sunday everyone!

From the Hermitage, 14 April 2024

 

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Sant'Angelo Cave in Ripe (Civitella del Tronto)

 

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The Devil among crime news, itching and reality in the 2024

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THE DEVIL AMONG CRIME, ITCH AND REALITY IN 2024

«Human beings are amphibians – half spirit, half animal […]. As spirits they belong to the world of eternity, but like animals they are inhabitants of time"

 

Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.

 

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In February this year the mass media announced the terrible news of a religiously motivated family homicide. It all wore out, with particular and brutal cruelty, in Altavilla Milicia, in the province of Palermo. With the now consolidated spirit of pure itching i talk show national-popular groups have been talking about it for a few weeks, by putting people completely devoid of basic knowledge on certain issues to discuss in television lounges.

According to journalistic sources a man would kill his family, with the exception of his seventeen-year-old daughter. He later called the police to turn himself in. The motive for the murder, always according to the sources, it would be the demonic presence in the house.

Faced with such a tragedy, which initially shocked me a lot, I thought it was a better choice to remain silent and pray. If in the face of this gruesome episode we strongly condemn this murder and the calling into question of the Devil by exalted people, at the same time it makes no sense to judge them for their religious status and their faith, that only God knows. As a priest, Dominican friar and theologian, however, I think it is necessary to clarify what the true nature of the Devil is, and distinguish between the responsibility of the fallen Angel and that of man.

Although a text about the devil always attracts, It is important for me to write it to also awaken conscience and personal responsibility in the exercise of virtue. How many battles there have been in the history of Italy? Think of the Punic Wars and Scipio, without which we would not have had Roman civilization but the Carthaginian one. Think about World War II, when the Allies arrived to liberate our nation from the Nazis. But this battle involves us as children of God: we are all responsible for ourselves, as people, both of our Common Good and that of others. One of the examples of application of the Common Good was when during the Lockdown we promised to stay at home, allowing the practice of that Common Good which according to the teaching of the Church is «the set of those conditions of social life that allow both communities and individual members, to reach one's perfection more fully and more quickly » (Social Doctrine of the Church, 346). Now, one of the conditions that we all achieved with our virtuous effort at that moment was to end the pandemic phase as soon as possible so that all Italians can perfect themselves. But we who are called to the life of faith, we too face a special battle. St. Paul tells us about this:

«Our battle, indeed, it is not against creatures made of blood and flesh, but against the Principalities and Powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the evil spirits that dwell in the celestial regions" (Ef 6, 12).

This battle against these spiritual realities, demons calling them by their name, it's not a sword-fighting battle, magic wand or witchcraft. It's an internal battle, spiritual indeed, in which the devil tries to divert us from the path described by God for us. Let's try to make a small description of the devil, which we first see acting against Adam and Eve, first in Genesis 3.

«The serpent was the most cunning of all the wild beasts made by the Lord God. He said to the woman: “It is true that God said: You must not eat from any tree in the garden?”. The woman answered the serpent: “We may eat of the fruits of the trees of the garden, but God spoke of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden: You must not eat it and you must not touch it, otherwise you will die". But the serpent said to the woman: “You will not die at all! On the contrary, God knows when you ate it, your eyes would be opened and you would become like God, knowing good and evil". Then the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, pleasing to the eyes and desirable for gaining wisdom; he took of its fruit and ate, then she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he also ate it.".

The biblical text tells us something very important. What we know by tying it together with the New Testament - and what Catholic Doctrine has assumed - is that Satan and the rebel angels disobeyed God. St. Peter explains it to us:

«In fact, God did not spare the angels who had sinned, but he plunged them into dark abysses, holding them captive for judgment" (2PT 2,4).

Angelic and demonic theology offers an in-depth study of the biblical text. The devil is first and foremost an angel, an angel who disobeyed God and fell. So, He has the same natural characteristics as angels, but with some differences that we will see now. First of all, the devil, spiritual being without body, like all creatures he was created by God. In technical jargon it is said that it is pure substantial form without matter.

How then to explain apparitions of angels and demons? A question that is normal to ask, Theologians asked themselves the question and then offered various answers. According to Saint Thomas Aquinas the Devil, when it appears a certain way, It is because it combines the natural and material elements: so we will say for example that it creates plays of light, terrible voices and disturbing images (QUESTION, I, q. 41, a2, ad3). Not because he has them in his nature, but because it is able to interact with the outside world and with humans.

According to Father Serge Thomas Bonino the Devil is guilty of the sin of pride: indeed, being a spiritual entity he wanted a spiritual good. The greatest spiritual good is obviously to be like God. But the Devil did not want to be like God for a gift of grace, explains Saint Thomas: he really wanted to become God. In short, before God he claimed the right to be called to divine participation (S. Bonino, Angels and demons, Word and Silence, 2007, 246 – 264). This is never a right, It is a gift of grace, which is offered by the Lord to those who entrust themselves to Him. The devil, according to St. Thomas he was proud and did not want to entrust himself to God, and he then claimed to make himself God. For these reasons he was hurled into Gehenna, and from there he tries to pull himself further and further into it and into Hell. The Devil acts on men precisely to pull them all away from God and lead them towards hell, dimension and “place” that are anything but metaphorical, but real and above all eternal.

Despite being champions of pride and selfishness, all the demons have coalesced, in a pact of subjection to Satan, leader of demons, with the aim of taking away believers from God. United, in their being proud, they know they are strong. But we are not alone. God is with us and we just need to know how they act: temptation. The ordinary action with which the Devil hinders and fights us is traditionally called temptation. However, this does not imply that the Devil carries out actions for us or forces us to carry them out.

The temptation it is the dimension of solicitation and incitement to sin, even more terrible. All we have to do is fight and resist this invitation to evil by making use of our freedom and our free will, through which one can both fall into diabolical temptations and resist and reject them. It's an unequal battle but we are not alone. The grace of the Lord helps us. The devil knows this well and for this reason he tries to distance us from him.

Clive Staples Lewis he was able to give voice to this certainty of the Devil in an excellent way, when in his splendid work Screwtape Letters makes the devil say Screwtape:

«Human beings are amphibians – half spirit, half animal […]. As spirits they belong to the world of eternity, but like animals they are inhabitants of time" (Screwtape's letters, chapter 8).

Let us always remain strong in his grace, which we draw upon especially in the sacraments and in the intimacy of prayer. With these tools we need not fear anything and become increasingly men and women of virtue.

We conclude with the appearance: Demon and itch. Our editors Ariel Levi di Gualdo and Ivano Liguori, who at the time trained for exorcists, they always repeated: «Of the Devil, in television contexts and in the press, the less we talk about it, better '. Let's clarify what they mean: when they hear the delicate aspects of demonology being addressed in an itchy way talk show televisions, where, if anything, some imprudent priest or religious person agrees to speak in a parterre populated with soubrette elderly people put in the role of unlikely commentators and more or less aggressive and mocking secularists, both end up being attacked by hives, and it's completely understandable. None of us should lend ourselves to fomenting, even and only involuntarily, certain itching games. Except to be silenced, if not attacked after less than half a minute trying in vain to explain what is of no interest in those television contexts, because the one and only thing you are aiming for is itching, the show, not infrequently the trash. For this reason, certain priests should avoid accepting invitations to those television salons where explaining certain delicate topics and offering clarifications on them is really prevented.. It is in this sense that our two brothers affirm: «Of the Devil, the less we talk about it, better '. Which is to say,: avoid, certain priests, to lend themselves to making the Devil laugh while some of his faithful acolytes never miss an opportunity to put the priest or the exorcist in difficulty and then expose him to ridicule. For which reason this, the Italian Association of Exorcists, he has repeatedly urged priests and exorcists not to accept invitations to television programs and to avoid speaking on certain topics where it is impossible to discuss them. But not everyone listens, as Al Pacino says at the end of the splendid film The Devil's advocate: «Vanity... of all the sins is always my favorite».

Florence, 10 April 2024

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“Blessed are we” that despite not having seen we believed in Christ, true God and true man

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Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

“BLESSED ARE WE” WHO HAVE NOT SEEN WE HAVE BELIEVED IN CHRIST, TRUE GOD AND TRUE MAN

What Thomas is reproached for is not having seen Jesus. The reproach falls rather on the fact that at the beginning Thomas closed himself off and did not give credence to the testimony of those who told him they had seen the Lord alive. It would have been better for him to give some initial credit to his friends, waiting to redo in person the experience they had already had. Instead, Thomas almost claimed to dictate the conditions of faith.

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The song for this Second Sunday of Easter, or also called Divine Mercy, it is the last of the narrative compositions that end with the final "first" of the Gospel of John (vv. 30-31) and are divisible into four small squares: Mary Magdalene going to the tomb; after which it is Peter and the other disciple who go to the tomb; then Mary Magdalene meets the Lord and believes he is the gardener; at last, the last painting, sees the disciples and Thomas as protagonists.

Disbelief of St. Thomas, work by Michelangelo Merisi known as Caravaggio, Picture gallery

The evangelical text is as follows:

«The evening of that day, the first of the week, while the doors of the place where the disciples were were closed for fear of the Jews, Jesus came, stood in the middle and told them: "Peace be with you!”. Said this, he showed them his hands and his side. And the disciples rejoiced at seeing the Lord. Jesus said to them again: "Peace be with you! As the Father sent me, I send you too ". Said this, he blew and said to them: “Receive the Holy Spirit. To those to whom you will forgive sins, will be forgiven; to those you won't forgive, they will not be forgiven". Tommaso, one of the Twelve, called Didymus, he was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples told him: “We have seen the Lord!”. But he told them: “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I don't believe". Eight days later the disciples were back in the house and Thomas was also with them. Jesus came, behind closed doors, he stood in the middle and said: "Peace be with you!”. Then he said to Thomas: “Put your finger here and look at my hands; reach out your hand and place it in my side; and do not be incredulous, but a believer!”. Tommaso answered him: “My Lord and my God!”. Jesus told him: “Because you saw me, you believed; Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed!”. Jesus, in the presence of his disciples, he did many other signs which have not been written in this book. But these were written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and why, believing, have life in his name" (GV 20,19-31).

Even an inattentive reader realizes that so many themes are brought together in this text that it would be truly pretentious to collect them in a single short comment. Think about the time indication, that first day of the week which will forever mark the liturgical memory of the Resurrection of Jesus for Christians. Then there are the three gifts of peace, of the mission and forgiveness that flow from the Risen One who is "among" the disciples and who feel joy in it. Think of the theme of "seeing" which becomes synonymous with believing, in the sequence featuring Tommaso as protagonist.

There is also the gift of the Spirit from Jesus. The way the Fourth Gospel speaks of this is unique in the entire New Testament. Only Giovanni, indeed, and only here in the verse 22, it says that Jesus "breathed" on the disciples. A verb is used, emphysao, «inflate, alliteration», first used in the book of Genesis, during the story of the creation of man. All created reality, it is told there, it comes from the word of God, but to make a man this is not enough: God must breathe inside his nostrils. Looking carefully, But, Jesus' action is not just that of "blowing on", but it also indicates the "breathing" of Jesus: because He is alive again! It is proof that he is not a ghost and in fact it is not enough for him to show his hands and side: Jesus breathes. This verb emphysao it is found still other times in the Bible, for example in 1Re 17,21 and in This 37,9. In the text of Ezekiel the people can only be resurrected if the Spirit from the four winds comes to "breath" life into the dead.

It emerges from Old Testament usage of our verb a constant that can be linked to John's story. These «symbolically proclaim that, just as in the first creation God breathed a spirit of life into man, so now, at the moment of the new creation, Jesus breathes his own Holy Spirit into the disciples, giving them eternal life. In the baptismal symbolism of Giovanni 3,5, Gospel readers are told that from water and the Spirit they are born as children of God; the present scene serves as a baptism for Jesus' immediate disciples and as a pledge of divine birth for all believers of the future, represented by the disciples. It is little wonder that the custom of breathing on people to be baptized has entered the rite of baptism.. Now they are truly brothers of Jesus and can call his Father their Father (20,17). The gift of the Spirit is the final culmination of the personal relationships between Jesus and his disciples." (R. Brown).

Then there is the episode of Thomas which is very important and it is no coincidence that it marked not only a way of translating the Gospel, but above all the way of understanding Jesus' words to Thomas, in particular in the comparison between Catholics and Reformed people. We immediately notice that in the original Greek the verb is in the aorist (believers) and even in the Latin version it was put in the past tense (they believed): «You believed because you saw» – Jesus says to Thomas – «blessed are those who without having seen [that is, without having seen me, directly] they believed". And the allusion is not to the faithful who come later, that they should "believe without seeing", but to the apostles and disciples who first recognized that Jesus had risen, despite the paucity of visible signs that testified to it. In particular the reference is to John, the other disciple who with Peter had run to the tomb first (Gospel of Easter Day). Giovanni, entered after Peter, he had seen clues, the empty tomb and the bandages that remained empty of Jesus' body without being untied and, despite the paucity of such evidence, he had begun to believe. Jesus' phrase «blessed are those who have not seen [me] they believed" refers precisely to "he saw and believed» referring to John at the moment of his entry into the empty tomb. Proposing the example of John to Thomas again, Jesus means that it is reasonable to believe the testimony of those who saw signs, signs of his living presence. It is therefore not a request for blind faith, but the blessedness promised to those who humbly recognize his presence starting from even small signs and give credit to the word of credible witnesses. What Thomas is reproached for is not having seen Jesus. The reproach falls rather on the fact that at the beginning Thomas closed himself off and did not give credence to the testimony of those who told him they had seen the Lord alive. It would have been better for him to give some initial credit to his friends, waiting to redo in person the experience they had already had. Instead, Thomas almost claimed to dictate the conditions of faith. There is a translation error in the CEI version. When Jesus subjects his wounds to the empirical test requested by Thomas, accompanies this offer with an exhortation: «And don't become incredulous, but it becomes (become) believer". It means that Thomas is still neither one nor the other. He is not yet incredulous, but he's not even a believer yet. The CEI version, like many others, translates instead: «And don't be incredulous, but a believer". Now, in the original text, the verb "to become" suggests the idea of ​​dynamism and a change brought about by the encounter with the living Lord. Without the encounter with a living reality one cannot begin to believe. Only after seeing Jesus alive can Thomas begin to become a "believer". Instead the incorrect version, which is the most popular, replacing the verb to be with the verb to become, it eliminates the perception of this movement and almost seems to imply that faith consists of a decision to be made a priori, an original movement of the human spirit. It's a total reversal. Thomas sees Jesus and on the basis of this experience is invited to break free and become a believer. If becoming is replaced by being, it almost seems as if preliminary faith is required of Thomas, which alone would allow him to "see" the Lord and approach his wounds. As idealism would have it, therefore it is faith that creates the reality to be believed, but this is in contradiction with everything the Scriptures and the Tradition of the Church teach. The apparitions to Mary Magdalene, to the disciples and to Thomas are the normative image of an experience that every believer is called to have in the Church; like the apostle John, for us too, "seeing" can be a gateway to "believing". Precisely for this reason we continue to read the Gospel stories; to redo the experience of those who have moved from "seeing" to "believing": think of the contemplation of the evangelical scenes and the application of the senses to them, according to a long spiritual tradition. The Gospel of Mark ends by testifying that the preaching of the apostles was not just a simple story, but it was accompanied by miracles, that they might confirm their words with these signs: «Then they left and announced the Gospel everywhere, while the Lord acted together with them and confirmed the word with the signs that accompanied it" (MC 16,20). Many Fathers of the Church, from the western Augustine to the eastern Athanasius, they insisted on this permanence of the external visible signs that accompany preaching, which are not a concession to human weakness, but they are connected with the very reality of the incarnation. If God became man, resurrected with his true body, he remains a man forever and continues to act. Now we do not see the glorious body of the Risen One, but we can see the works and signs he does. «Codes in our hands, done in the eyes», says Augustine: «in our hands the codes of the Gospels, the facts in our eyes" (WHO). As we read the Gospels, let's see the facts that happen again. And Athanasius writes in the Incarnation of the Word:

«Come, being invisible, it is known based on the works of creation, like this, once he became a man, even if it is not seen in the body, from the works it can be recognized that the one who carries out these works is not a man but the Word of God. If once dead you are no longer capable of doing anything but gratitude for the deceased reaches to the grave and then ceases - only the living, indeed, they act and operate towards other men - let whoever wants to see and judge by confessing the truth based on what is seen". All Tradition firmly preserves the fact that faith is not based only on listening, but also on the experience of external trials, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church recalls, citing the dogmatic definitions of the First Vatican Ecumenical Council: «Nevertheless, so that the observance of our faith was in conformity with reason, God wanted the internal help of the Holy Spirit to be accompanied by external evidence of his revelation." (CCC, no 156).

 

From the Hermitage, 07 March 2024

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Sant'Angelo Cave in Ripe (Civitella del Tronto)

 

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