Sheep without a shepherd and the gratuitousness of the gift: beaten sheep and caressed wolves – Sheep without a shepherd and the gratuitousness of the gift: beaten sheep and caressed wolves

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Homiletics of the Fathers of the Island of Patmos

Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

(Italian, English, Español)

 

THE SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD AND THE GRATUITY OF THE GIFT: SHEEP BLASTED AND WOLVES CURED

Jesus orders the Twelve to turn first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and not to go among the pagans and the Samaritans. It is perhaps not a contradiction in terms with the universality of Jesus' announcement?

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PDF print format article – article print format – article in printed format

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There are pages of the Gospel that appear difficult to understand and decipher from the first listen, among the various examples it is enough to remember the passage from John in which Christ affirms: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (GV 6,54).

Jesus' gaze towards the prostitute, mosaic, opera by Marko Ivan Rupnik, Basilica San Pio da Pietrelcina

They are words that test our ability to understand. In fact, Jesus connects a material gesture, such as eating and drinking, to a supernatural and eternal reality such as salvation. Nor should we forget that certain evangelical stories take place in specific theatrical scenes of Judea, where the Halakah, Jewish Law, prohibited the consumption of animal blood, for this reason the meat must be bled completely through specific salting and washing procedures before being eaten as kasher, i.e. permitted. Imagine the reference to human blood, or worse, eating human flesh. Hence the accusation leveled against Christians, first by the Jews of Judea and then by the Romans, to practice ritual cannibalism. It is therefore not surprising that many of his own disciples reacted by saying: “This language is harsh; who can understand it?» (GV 6,60). In cases like these the difficulty emerges immediately, because the mystery announced by Christ surpasses what human reason alone is able to fully grasp. Other texts, instead, they seem simple, linear, almost obvious. And this is precisely where the risk lies: that of believing that we have already understood them. This Sunday's Gospel belongs to this second category, Let's read the text:

"During that time, Jesus, seeing the crowds, he felt sorry for it, because they were tired and exhausted like sheep that have no shepherd. Then he said to his disciples: “The harvest is abundant, but there are few workers! Therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest to send workers into his harvest!”. Called his twelve disciples to him, he gave them power over impure spirits to drive them out and heal every disease and every infirmity. The names of the twelve apostles are: first, Simone, called Peter, and Andrea his brother; Giacomo, son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Filippo and Bartolomeo; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; Giacomo, son of Alphaeus, and Taddeo; Simon the Canaanite and Judas the Iscariot, the one who then betrayed him. These are the Twelve that Jesus sent, ordering them: “Do not go among the pagans and do not enter the cities of the Samaritans; turn instead to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Along the way, predicate, saying that the kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, purify the lepers, cast out the demons. You received it for free, give freely”» (Mt 9,36 -10,8).

It all starts with a look: Jesus, seeing the crowds, he felt sorry for it, because they were "tired and exhausted like sheep that have no shepherd". This image is not accidental, recalls a long prophetic tradition, in particular chapter XXXIV of the prophet Ezekiel in which God rebukes the shepherds of Israel, accusing them of having thought of themselves instead of the flock entrusted to them: «The sheep were scattered for lack of a shepherd» (This 34,5). The same accusation also returns in the prophet Jeremiah: "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the flock of my pasture" (Gives 23,1). Therefore, when Jesus scrutinizes the crowds like sheep without a shepherd, he does not simply see a multitude of people tired by the difficulties of life, but rather a people who risk dispersing because they lack authentic guides. For this reason, the Evangelist's image of sheep without a shepherd does not offer a generic description of the human condition, but a very specific reality that runs through the entire biblical history: that of the flock entrusted by God to shepherds called to guard and guide it. Christ's compassion must be understood in this context, not as a simple movement of emotion, but as the manifestation of God's own gaze on his people. He whom the prophets had announced as the true Shepherd of Israel, now he finds himself in front of the scattered flock and is preparing to gather them.

After having contemplated Christ's compassion towards the crowds, the Gospel takes a decisive step: Jesus calls twelve men to him and sends them. This is not a random choice, in the Old and New Testament numbers always have a symbolic and mystagogical meaning: in this case the number of those called refers to the twelve tribes of Israel (cf.. Gen 35,22-26; Is 24,4) and manifests Christ's will to gather the new people of God around himself. Below the Evangelist lists their names, before which it is difficult not to be struck by what we find: Peter will deny the Master during the Passion (cf.. Mt 26,69-75). Matthew comes from the world of publicans, meaning the employees of what is now called the Revenue Agency, a category, that of tax collectors, regarded with little sympathy by many of his contemporaries (cf.. Mt 9,9-13), yesterday as today. Thomas will struggle to believe the testimony of the Resurrection (cf.. GV 20,24-29). Judas Iscariot will even betray him (cf.. Mt 26,14-16; 47-50).

If none of the Apostles appear as ideal candidates for a mission destined to change history, because Christ chooses them? Certainly not because you ignore their weaknesses, who knows better than anyone. He chooses them precisely knowing who they are and in doing so teaches a fundamental truth: the Kingdom of God is not founded on the perfection of men, but on the power of divine grace. The Apostle will write later: «My grace is enough for you; in fact my power is fully manifested in weakness" (2 Color 12,9). If the apostolic mission had been entrusted to impeccable men, one might have thought that the success of the advert depended on their qualities, while Christ instead chooses fragile men to remember our human frailties, so that it appears more clearly that the work belongs to God and not to man. In this regard Benedict XVI, the 15 June 2008, giving the homily at the Holy Mass celebrated at the Banchina di Sant'Apollinare in Brindisi, he remembered that Christ did not choose the Apostles because they were already saints, but for them to become so. It's a crucial distinction: Holiness is not the prerequisite of the call but the fruit of the response to the call. And this applies not only to the Apostles, but for every Christian.

The Gospel story he then continues with a statement that might surprise us: Jesus orders the Twelve to turn first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and not to go among the pagans and the Samaritans. It is perhaps not a contradiction in terms with the universality of Jesus' announcement? No, if we take into account that God had been preparing his people for centuries for the coming of the Messiah. Israel is the place of promises, of the Covenant and of that long divine pedagogy through which the Lord had progressively educated his people to welcome the Savior. This is why the announcement starts from Israel, not because other peoples are excluded from salvation, but because the promises entrusted to the Patriarchs and Prophets had to be fulfilled precisely in Israel. Only after the Resurrection will the Apostles receive the mandate to go to all people (cf.. MC 16, 15), bringing to the ends of the earth that Gospel which was first announced to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The universality of salvation, so, it is not denied but prepared for, according to that divine plan that leads from the Ancient Covenant to the preaching of the Gospel to all peoples.

Jesus finally concludes with a sentence which is perhaps the most challenging of the whole piece: "You received, freely give ". The Apostles must remember that nothing they possess truly belongs to them, why the call, grace and mission are gifts received that cannot be transformed into possession. These words also apply to us: no one gave themselves faith alone, nor did anyone proclaim the Gospel to himself. We have all received something from others: faith, the witness, prayer, forgiveness, the charity. This is why the Lord asks us not to hold back what we have received. Evangelical generosity does not only concern the proclamation of the faith, but also the concrete exercise of charity. Saint Paul reminds the Christians of Corinth: «What do you have that you have not received?» (1 Color 4,7). It is a question that still retains all its force today: if everything we are and possess is first and foremost a gift from God, then even the good we do towards others cannot become a source of personal pride, but it must remain a grateful response to the grace received.

If we had to summarize this evangelical pericope in a few words, we could say that Jesus sees, feel compassion, call and send. Finally, it teaches that the gift received must become a shared gift. This is the logic of the Gospel through which the Lord continues to take care of his people today, because sheep can get lost, but they are never forgotten by the Shepherd who gave his life for them, even if today, in the visible Church, one often has the perhaps wrong impression that sheep are beaten to pet wolves in a complacent or, as they say with worldly flattery: inclusively.

From the island of Patmos, 14 June 2026

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THE SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD AND THE GRATUITY OF THE GIFT: WHEN SHEEP ARE BEATEN AND WOLVES ARE STROKED

Jesus orders the Twelve to go first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and not to the pagans and the Samaritans. Is this not, at first sight, a contradiction of the universal character of Christ’s proclamation?

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There are passages in the Gospel that appear difficult to understand from the very first hearing. Among the many examples, one may recall the Johannine passage in which Christ declares: «Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life» (Jn 6:54). These are words that challenge our capacity for understanding. Jesus links a material act — eating and drinking — to a supernatural and eternal reality, namely salvation. Nor should we forget that certain Gospel narratives unfold within the very specific religious setting of Judea, where the Halakhah, the Jewish Law, forbade the consumption of animal blood. For this reason, meat had to be completely drained of blood through specific procedures of salting and washing before it could be eaten as kosher, that is, as lawful food. One can therefore imagine the shock provoked by any reference to human blood, let alone to the eating of human flesh. From this arose the accusation, first among some Jews of Judea and later among the Romans, that Christians practised ritual cannibalism. It is therefore hardly surprising that many of Christ’s own disciples reacted by saying: «This saying is hard; who can accept it?» (Jn 6:60). In cases such as this, the difficulty is immediately apparent, because the mystery proclaimed by Christ surpasses what human reason alone can fully grasp.

Other texts, however, appear simple, straightforward and almost self-evident. And it is precisely here that the danger lies: that of believing we have already understood them. The Gospel of this Sunday belongs to this second category. Let us therefore read the text:

“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.’ Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus: ‘Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give’” (Mt 9:36–10:8).

Everything begins with a gaze. Seeing the crowds, Jesus was moved with compassion for them because they were «troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd». This image is not incidental. It evokes a long prophetic tradition, particularly Chapter 34 of the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, in which God rebukes the shepherds of Israel for having cared for themselves rather than for the flock entrusted to them: «The sheep were scattered for lack of a shepherd» (This 34:5). The same accusation reappears in the Prophet Jeremiah: «Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture» (Because 23:1). Therefore, when Jesus looks upon the crowds as sheep without a shepherd, He does not merely see a multitude of people wearied by the hardships of life. He sees a people in danger of being scattered because they lack authentic guides. For this reason, the Evangelist’s image of sheep without a shepherd does not offer a generic description of the human condition, but points to a very specific reality that runs throughout biblical history: the flock entrusted by God to shepherds called to guard and guide it. It is within this context that Christ’s compassion must be understood, not as a simple movement of emotion, but as the manifestation of God’s own gaze upon His people. The One whom the prophets had foretold as the true Shepherd of Israel now stands before the scattered flock and prepares to gather it together.

After contemplating Christ’s compassion for the crowds, the Gospel takes a decisive step forward: Jesus calls twelve men to Himself and sends them out. This is no arbitrary choice. In both the Old and the New Testament, numbers always carry a symbolic and mystical significance. In this case, the number of those called recalls the twelve tribes of Israel (cf. Gen 35:22–26; Ex 24:4) and manifests Christ’s desire to gather around Himself the new People of God. The Evangelist then lists their names, and it is difficult not to be struck by what we find. Peter will deny his Master during the Passion (cf. Mt 26:69–75). Matthew comes from the world of tax collectors, those responsible for collecting taxes, a profession regarded with little sympathy in his own day (cf. Mt 9:9–13), no less than in ours. Thomas will struggle to believe the testimony of the Resurrection (cf. Jn 20:24–29). Judas Iscariot will go so far as to betray Him (cf. Mt 26:14–16; 47–50).

If none of the Apostles appears to be the ideal candidate for a mission destined to change history, why does Christ choose them? Certainly not because He is unaware of their weaknesses, which He knows better than anyone else. He chooses them precisely knowing who they are, and in doing so He teaches a fundamental truth: the Kingdom of God is not founded upon the perfection of men, but upon the power of divine grace. As the Apostle would later write: «My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness» (2 Color 12:9). Had the apostolic mission been entrusted to flawless men, one might have been led to think that the success of the Gospel proclamation depended upon their personal qualities. Instead, Christ chooses frail men in order to remind us of our own human frailty, so that it may appear all the more clearly that the work belongs to God and not to man. In this regard, Benedict XVI, in the homily delivered on 15 June 2008 during the Holy Mass celebrated at the Sant’Apollinare Quay in Brindisi, recalled that Christ did not choose the Apostles because they were already saints, but so that they might become saints. It is a decisive distinction: holiness is not the prerequisite for the call, but the fruit of one’s response to that call. And this applies not only to the Apostles, but to every Christian.

The Gospel narrative then continues with a statement that may surprise us. Jesus instructs the Twelve to go first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and not to the pagans or the Samaritans. Is this not, at first sight, a contradiction of the universal character of Christ’s proclamation? No, provided we bear in mind that God had prepared His people for centuries for the coming of the Messiah. Israel is the land of the promises, of the Covenant, and of that long divine pedagogy through which the Lord gradually educated His people to welcome the Saviour. For this reason, the proclamation begins with Israel, not because the other nations are excluded from salvation, but because it was precisely in Israel that the promises entrusted to the Patriarchs and the Prophets were to find their fulfilment. Only after the Resurrection would the Apostles receive the mandate to go forth to all nations (cf. Mk 16:15), carrying to the ends of the earth that Gospel which had first been proclaimed to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The universality of salvation, therefore, is not denied but prepared, according to that divine plan which leads from the Old Covenant to the proclamation of the Gospel to all peoples.

Finally, Jesus concludes with what is perhaps the most demanding statement in the entire passage: «Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give». The Apostles must remember that nothing they possess truly belongs to them, for their calling, their grace and their mission are gifts they have received and which cannot be turned into personal possessions. These words apply equally to us. No one has given himself the faith, nor has anyone proclaimed the Gospel to himself. All of us have received something from others: faith, witness, prayer, forgiveness and charity. For this reason, the Lord asks us not to hold on to what we have received. Evangelical gratuity concerns not only the proclamation of the faith but also the concrete practice of charity. Saint Paul reminds the Christians of Corinth: «What do you possess that you have not received?» (1 Color 4:7). It is a question that retains all its force even today. If everything we are and possess is first and foremost a gift from God, then even the good we do for our neighbour cannot become a source of personal pride, but must remain a grateful response to the grace we have received.

If we were to summarise this Gospel passage in a few words, we could say that Jesus sees, feels compassion, calls and sends. Finally, He teaches that a gift received must become a gift shared. This is the logic of the Gospel through which the Lord continues, even today, to care for His people, for sheep may stray, but they are never forgotten by the Shepherd who gave His life for them, even though in the visible Church one sometimes has the perhaps mistaken impression that it is preferable to lose the sheep in order to welcome and caress the wolves.

From the Island of Patmos, 14 June 2026

 

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SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD AND THE FREENESS OF THE GIFT: BEATEN SHEEP AND PETTED WOLVES

(J)Jesus commands the Twelve apostles address first of all the lost sheep of the house of Israel and not from go among the pagans nor between the samaritans. Is it not this a contradiction with the universality of the announcement of Christ?

.

.

There are pages of the Gospel that seem difficult to understand and decipher at the first listen. Among the many examples, It is enough to remember the Johannine passage in which Christ affirms: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life" (Jn 6,54). They are words that test our ability to understand.. Indeed, Jesus links a material act, how to eat and drink, with a supernatural and eternal reality such as salvation. Nor should we forget that certain evangelical stories take place in the precise religious context of Judea., where the Halaya, Jewish Law, it was forbidden to consume animal blood. For this reason, The meat had to be completely bled through specific salting and washing procedures before it could be consumed as kosher food., that is to say, lawful. Imagine then the impact that any reference to human blood could have., or even worse, to eat human flesh. From there arose the accusation against Christians, first by some Jews of Judea and then by part of the romans: practice ritual cannibalism. It's not surprising, therefore, that many of his disciples reacted by saying: «This way of speaking is harsh, who can accept it?» (Jn 6,60). In cases like this, the difficulty appears immediately, because the mystery announced by Christ surpasses what human reason alone is capable of fully encompassing.

Other texts, instead, they seem simple, linear, almost obvious. And that is precisely where the risk lies.: that of believing that we have already understood them. This Sunday's Gospel belongs to this second category; let's read the text:

«Seeing the crowd, he felt sorry for her, because I was tired and dejected, like sheep that have no shepherd. Then he said to his disciples: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Rogad, well, to the owner of the harvest to send workers to his harvest.”. Calling his twelve disciples, He gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to cure every disease and illness.. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, called Peter, and Andrew, his brother; Santiago, son of Zebedee, and John, his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the publican; Santiago, son of Alpheus, and Thaddeus; Simon the Canaanite and Judas Iscariot, the same one who delivered it. Jesus sent these Twelve, after giving these instructions: “Do not go to the land of the pagans or enter the cities of the Samaritans.”; rather turn to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Go and proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, purify lepers, cast out demons. Freely you have received; give for free” (Mt 9,36–10,8).

It all starts with a look: Jesus, seeing the crowd, He felt sorry for her because she was "tired and dejected", "like sheep that have no shepherd". This image is not coincidental. It refers to a long prophetic tradition, in particular to chapter XXXIV of the prophet Ezekiel, in which God reproaches the shepherds of Israel for having thought of themselves instead of caring for the flock that had been entrusted to them: "The sheep were scattered for want of a shepherd" (This 34,5). The same accusation reappears in the prophet Jeremiah: «Woe to the shepherds who let the sheep get lost and scatter from my pastures!» (Because 23,1). When, therefore, Jesus sees the crowds as sheep without a shepherd, he does not simply see a crowd of people tired by the difficulties of life, but a people that runs the risk of dispersing due to a lack of authentic guides. That's why, The evangelical image of sheep without a shepherd does not offer a generic description of the human condition, but a very concrete reality that runs through all of biblical history: that of the flock entrusted by God to shepherds called to guard and guide it. In this context the compassion of Christ must be understood, not as a simple feeling of shock, but as the manifestation of the same gaze of God on his people. He whom the prophets had announced as the true Shepherd of Israel now stands before the scattered flock and prepares to gather them together..

After contemplating Christ's compassion toward the multitudes, the Gospel takes a decisive step: Jesus calls twelve men and sends them. This is not a casual choice. In the Old and New Testaments, numbers always have a symbolic and mystagogical meaning.. In this case, The number of those called refers to the twelve tribes of Israel (cf. GN 35,22-26; Ex 24,4) and manifests the will of Christ to gather around himself the new People of God. Next, the Evangelist lists their names, and it's hard not to be impressed by what we find. Peter will deny the Master during the Passion (cf. Mt 26,69-75). Matthew comes from the world of publicans, that is to say, of tax collectors, a category viewed with little sympathy yesterday (cf. Mt 9,9-13) like still today. Thomas will have difficulty believing in the testimony of the Resurrection (cf. Jn 20,24-29). Judas Iscariot will even go so far as to betray (cf. Mt 26,14-16; 47-50).

If none of the Apostles seem like the ideal candidate for a mission destined to change history, why does Christ choose them? Certainly not because he ignores his weaknesses, who knows better than anyone. He chooses them precisely knowing who they are, and in doing so teaches a fundamental truth: The Kingdom of God is not based on the perfection of men, but in the power of divine grace. The Apostle will write later: «My grace is enough for you, because my strength is fully manifested in weakness." (2 Color 12,9). If the apostolic mission had been entrusted to impeccable men, one might have thought that the success of the advertisement depended on its qualities. Christ, instead, choose fragile men to remind us of our own human frailties, so that it appears with greater evidence that the work belongs to God and not to man. In this regard, Benedict XVI, In the homily delivered on 15 June 2008 during the Holy Mass celebrated at the San Apolinar Pier in Brindisi, He remembered that Christ did not choose the Apostles because they were already saints, but so that they could become. This is a decisive distinction: holiness is not the presupposition of the call, but the fruit of the response to the call. And this applies not only to the Apostles., but for every Christian.

The gospel story continues then with a statement that might surprise us: Jesus orders the Twelve apostles to go first and foremost to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and not to go among the pagans or among the Samaritans.. Is it not this a contradiction with the universality of the announcement of Christ? No, if we take into account that God had prepared his people for centuries for the coming of the Messiah. Israel is the land of promises, of the Covenant and of that long divine pedagogy through which the Lord had progressively educated his people to welcome the Savior. That's why the announcement begins in Israel, not because other peoples are excluded from salvation, but because precisely in Israel the promises entrusted to the Patriarchs and Prophets were to find fulfillment.. Only after the Resurrection will the Apostles receive the mandate to go to all nations (cf. MC 16,15), taking to the ends of the earth that Gospel that had been announced first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The universality of salvation, therefore, is not denied, but prepared, according to that divine plan that leads from the Old Alliance to the preaching of the Gospel to all peoples.

Jesus finally concludes with a phrase which may be the most demanding of the entire passage: "Freely you have received; give free». The Apostles must remember that nothing they own truly belongs to them, because the call, grace and mission are gifts received that cannot be transformed into possession. These words are also valid for us: no one has given himself faith, nor has anyone announced the Gospel to himself. We have all received something from others: faith, the testimony, the prayer, forgiveness and charity. That is why the Lord asks us not to retain what we have received. Evangelical gratuitousness does not refer only to the announcement of the faith, but also to the concrete exercise of charity. Saint Paul remembers the Christians of Corinth: «What do you have that you have not received?» (1 Color 4,7). It is a question that still retains all its force today.: if everything we are and possess is above all a gift from God, then also the good we do for our neighbor cannot become a source of personal pride, but must remain a grateful response to the grace received.

If we had to summarize this evangelical pericope in a few words, we could say that Jesus sees, sympathize, call and send. Finally, it teaches that the gift received must become a gift shared. This is the logic of the Gospel through which the Lord continues today to care for his people., because sheep can go astray, but they are never forgotten by the Shepherd who gave his life for them, although today, in the visible Church, there is often the impression, maybe wrong, that it is preferable to lose the sheep to welcome and caress the wolves.

From the Island of Patmos, 13 June 2026

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If anyone eats this bread he will live forever – If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever – If anyone eats this bread, will live forever

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Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

Italian, english, español

 

IF ANYONE EATS THIS BREAD HE WILL LIVE FOREVER

In the Eucharist it is the body of Christ itself that, in its fullness as a source of grace, comes to us; and it is not through a more or less superficial and ephemeral contact, but through the most intimate and lasting way possible: the assimilation of a food"

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PDF print format article – article print format – article in business format

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The Gospel of this Solemnity it is the conclusion of the story of the multiplication of the loaves according to John.

This "sign" of sharing, seems to be very important to Jesus, since it is the only one narrated by all four gospels; rather, Matthew and Mark even tell it twice. The narratives are similar, yet each retains some of its own characteristics. Let's see the text:

"During that time, Jesus said to the crowd: «I am the living bread, down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world ". Then the Jews began to argue bitterly among themselves: «How can this man give us his flesh to eat?». Jesus said to them,: "In truth, verily I tell you: if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will resurrect him on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Like the Father, that has life, he sent me and I live for the Father, so also he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like what the fathers ate and died. Whoever eats this bread will live forever" (GV 6,51-58).

Giovanni's story, in particular, it does not seem to be a model of that of the synoptics, since it was not put together with passages taken from the other Gospels; appears as an original composition based on an independent tradition that John would have collected and preserved. E, more specifically, in the Johannine narrative there is a very strong theological orientation which emerges above all in the passage proposed today in the lectionary. This passage could be considered the Eucharistic or sacramental section of the story. Even in the other five versions in the synoptic gospels there is a strong Eucharistic motif, but in John it is more explicit, because it is probably the Gospel furthest from the events narrated. It is possible that gradually the story of the multiplication of the loaves formed part of the tradition of the Christian community, its connection to the special food of God's people, l'Eucharist, was increasingly recognized. The language of the multiplication stories was colored by the Eucharistic liturgies familiar to the various communities.

Even today our communities celebrate the memory of the Body and Blood of the Lord, that is, of the donated body, delivered, of Jesus for the life of men. The words of the Lord: «I am the living bread, down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread he will live forever" (GV 6,51) they reveal first of all who Jesus is: He who reveals the Father and gives life to the world with his own life, for love. In this way the words: «eat my flesh and drink my blood» (cf.. GV 6,53-56), they refer the disciple to the spiritual operation of assimilating the life of Christ into his own existence.

And therefore they refer to faith, that is, to believe, as well as listening to the word of the Lord and acting in practice, in concretely doing the will of the Father, as Jesus himself did. The life of the Lord, his flesh and blood, as witnessed in the Gospels, it is the food that every believer is called to eat so that the life of Jesus lives concretely in him. And the Church becomes the place where the humanity of every believer is called to conform to the life of the risen Lord who continues to give himself to us. So that it is true that a single life binds the Lord and his disciple. The Church thus manifests itself as a place of the alliance between the Lord and the believer.

The evangelical page that was proclaimed it reveals to us the meaning of the Eucharistic mystery that we celebrate. But the verse – «Whoever eats me, he too will live through me" (verbatim) – may seem strangely harsh, so much so that some of Jesus' listeners did not understand him and ended up abandoning him. Perhaps this apparent harshness can be explained, first of all recovering the anthropological sense of eating:

«In the Eucharist it is the very body of Christ that, in its fullness as a source of grace, comes to us; and it is not through a more or less superficial and ephemeral contact, but through the most intimate and lasting way possible: the assimilation of a food" (Pierre-Marie Benoît, ON, The stories of the institution and their scope, Light & Vie, n° 31, 1957).

Even Saint John uses the Greek verb to indicate "eating". three, which some translate literally as "chew". That is, we have a reference to that essential activity of eating which involves the transformation of food through the destruction of solid forms to make them digestible and assimilable.. In this way we can recover the realism of John's text and make it eloquent today, without losing the theological and spiritual value of the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist.

For man, eating is a primordial act which accompanies us from life in the womb until death. But the act of eating is also a reference to man's cultural activity: it involves work, food preparation, sociality, conviviality. Indeed, man eats together with others and eating is connected to a table, place of friendship creation, fraternity, alliance and society. At the table you don't just share food, but they also exchange words and conversations that nourish relationships, that is, what gives meaning to life supported by food. Eating therefore also involves the most extraordinary cultural creation: the language. Tied as it is to orality and desire, the act of eating affects the affective and emotional sphere of man. It is therefore an anthropological symbol of unique significance that captures the human being in his most intimate and hidden depths and places him in the bond with the earth, with the cosmos, with the police, society and the world. There is no more total assent for man to everything that surrounds him than the act of eating. It is the human way of saying yes.

From this material and anthropological aspect we move spontaneously to the theological and spiritual one, which we grasp in all its significance in the words of Jesus that we have heard: «Like the Father, that has life, he sent me and I live for the Father, so also he who eats me will live because of me.". The "eating of me" is placed in line with the sending of the Son by the Father. It is the outcome of the mission received from the Father and the culmination of the Trinitarian event of divine revelation and communication to man in Jesus, but also the extreme act of love reached by the obedience of the Son towards the Father. From the anthropological level of eating we thus go back to the deepest and most intimate theological level which makes us understand how the Lord is the One who gives himself as food to man. “Eating me” is then the most radical expression of the love of Christ and God for humanity. This eating is made possible by the gift that the Father, in his great love (GV 3,16), He makes the Son by sending him into the world so that men may have life in abundance (GV 10,10) and that the Son freely makes of himself, for the love of humanity (GV 10,11.18; 15,13).

What, so, it is fundamental in this eating it is recognizing the gift that is at its origin. This food, indeed, it does not come from man, but it flows from God's love for man and tends to communicate the love in which true life consists. The Eucharistic food we eat is sacrament ― Sacramento ― through which the love and life of God reach man. The Eucharistic community which in approaching the Lord's table reaches its culmination and rediscovers its source, as the Council expresses it, therefore flows from love, through the mediation of the goods of creation, the bread and wine that the Church blesses, which become the Body and Blood of the Lord.

Underlining, at last, the many connections that our evangelical passage has with the entire sixth chapter of Saint John of which it is part, we realize that we find this reality that Jesus reveals to us everywhere: He presents himself as the One who reveals the Father and then as Eucharistic food and drink. For us believers this means that "eating me", requested by Jesus, cannot be separated from "coming to Jesus" (GV 6,35-45), or from "believing in Him". The parallel between believing and eating is significant. Let us remember the important and decisive words of Jesus: «This is the will of my Father, that whoever sees the Son and believes in him has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day" (GV 6,40); “He who believes has eternal life” (GV 6,47); "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day" (GV 6,54); «Whoever eats this bread will live forever» (6,58). Thus believing in the Lord and eating his Body and drinking his Blood are inseparably united, Why: "the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world" (GV 6,33). And the life that Jesus offers us is that of the Father; for this reason coming to Jesus and listening to his Word allows believers to be generated into the new life of the children of God (GV 1,12-13). Before the multiplication of the loaves and the dense discourse that followed, Jesus had stated: «Whoever listens to my word... has eternal life» (GV 5,24). In this way, the phrase «Whoever eats me, he too will live through me" (6,57) it expresses not only the culmination of God's donation and communication to man in Christ, but it also opens us to an unexpected and completely free perspective. He, the Lord Jesus, who has "returned to the bosom of the Father" continues to show us the way of life: “For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (GV 6,33).

But eternal life promised to those who assimilate the life of Christ (cf.. GV 6,51.54.58), in reality it already begins here and now for the believer. In every Eucharist we announce, indeed, the death of the Lord, we proclaim his resurrection, waiting for Him to come.

Like Jesus we too integrate death into life making life an act of donation, an act of love in the footsteps of Jesus (cf.. GV 13,34). For this love Jesus still gives himself as food and drink to men. The life of God and the life of man meet in love, nell’agape, food that truly nourishes man and reality that constitutes the life of God; indeed: «God is love» (1GV 4,8.16). The Eucharist is the sacrament of charity, dell’agape, every time we celebrate it we hear stories of how God gives himself to men and by communicating with the Body and Blood of the Lord we too become capable of giving.

From the Hermitage, 6 June 2026

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IF ANYONE EATS OF THIS BREAD, HE WILL LIVE FOR EVER

«In the Eucharist it is the very Body of Christ that comes to us in the fullness of its power as a source of grace; and it comes not through a contact that is more or less superficial and fleeting, but through the most intimate and enduring mode possible: the assimilation of food.»

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The Gospel proclaimed on this Solemnity is the conclusion of Saint John’s account of the multiplication of the loaves. This “sign” of sharing appears to have been of particular importance to Jesus, since it is the only miracle narrated by all four Evangelists; indeed, Matthew and Mark recount it twice. The accounts are similar, yet each preserves certain distinctive characteristics. Let us consider the text:

«At that time Jesus said to the crowd: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”» (Jn 6:51-58).

John’s account, in particular, does not appear to be a reworking of the Synoptic narratives, for it has not been assembled from passages borrowed from the other Gospels. Rather, it appears as an original composition based upon an independent tradition which John gathered and preserved. More specifically, within the Johannine narrative there is a very strong theological orientation which emerges above all in the passage proposed today by the lectionary. This section may rightly be regarded as the Eucharistic or sacramental portion of the account. The other five versions found in the Synoptic Gospels also contain a strong Eucharistic motif, but in John it is expressed more explicitly, probably because this Gospel stands at a greater chronological distance from the events narrated. As the account of the multiplication of the loaves increasingly became part of the living tradition of the Christian community, its connection with the special food of God’s people — the Eucharist — came to be recognised ever more clearly. The language of the multiplication narratives gradually took on the colouring of the Eucharistic liturgies familiar to the various Christian communities.

Even today our communities celebrate the memorial of the Body and Blood of the Lord: that is, of the Body given and handed over by Jesus for the life of mankind. The Lord’s words: «I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever» (Jn 6:51), first of all reveal who Jesus is: the One who reveals the Father and gives life to the world through His own life, out of love. In this way the words «eat my flesh and drink my blood» (cf. Jn 6:53,54,56) direct the disciple towards the spiritual task of assimilating the life of Christ into his own existence.

Thus these words point us towards faith — that is, towards believing — as well as towards listening to the word of the Lord and putting it into practice by concretely doing the will of the Father, just as Jesus Himself did. The life of the Lord, His flesh and His blood, as witnessed in the Gospels, is the food upon which every believer is called to nourish himself, so that the life of Jesus may live concretely within him. The Church thus becomes the place in which the humanity of every believer is called to be conformed to the life of the Risen Lord, who continues to give Himself to us. In this way it becomes true that a single life binds together the Lord and His disciple. The Church therefore manifests herself as the place of the covenant between the Lord and the believer.

The Gospel passage proclaimed today reveals to us the meaning of the Eucharistic mystery that we celebrate. Yet the verse — «Whoever feeds on me will have life because of me» (literally) — may seem strangely harsh, so much so that some of Jesus’ listeners failed to understand it and ultimately abandoned Him. Perhaps this apparent harshness can be explained by first recovering the anthropological meaning of eating:

«In the Eucharist it is the very Body of Christ that comes to us in the fullness of its power as a source of grace; and it comes not through a contact that is more or less superficial and fleeting, but through the most intimate and enduring mode possible: the assimilation of food» (Pierre-Marie Benoît, OP, The stories of the institution and their scope, Light & Vie, no. 31, 1957).

Saint John even uses the Greek verb three to indicate “eating”, a verb that some translators render literally as “to chew”. We are thus referred to that essential human activity of eating which implies the transformation of food through the breaking down of solid forms so as to make them digestible and capable of being assimilated. In this way we may recover the realism of the Johannine text and render it eloquent for our own time without losing the theological and spiritual value of the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist.

For man, eating is a primordial act that accompanies us from life in the maternal womb until death. Yet the act of eating also points towards man’s cultural activity: it implies labour, the preparation of food, social interaction and conviviality. Indeed, man eats together with others, and eating is connected with the table, a place where friendship, fraternity, covenant and society are created. Around the table not only is food shared, but words and conversations are exchanged, nourishing relationships and thus that which gives meaning to the life sustained by food. Eating therefore also implies humanity’s most extraordinary cultural creation: language itself. Bound as it is to orality and desire, the act of eating engages the affective and emotional sphere of man. It is therefore an anthropological symbol of unique richness, one that grasps the human being in his deepest and most hidden dimensions and situates him within his relationship to the earth, the cosmos, the police, society and the world. For man there exists no more total assent to all that surrounds him than the act of eating. It is the human way of saying “yes”.

From this material and anthropological dimension we pass naturally to the theological and spiritual one, which we grasp in all its richness in the words of Jesus that we have heard: «Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.» The expression “feeds on me” is placed in continuity with the sending of the Son by the Father. It is the outcome of the mission received from the Father and the culmination of the Trinitarian event of divine revelation and communication to humanity in Jesus. At the same time, it is the supreme act of love to which the Son’s obedience to the Father attains. From the anthropological dimension of eating we thus ascend to the deepest and most intimate theological dimension, which enables us to understand how the Lord is the One who gives Himself as food to mankind. “Feeding on me” thus becomes the most radical expression of Christ’s love and of God’s love for humanity. This feeding is made possible by the gift that the Father, in His great love (Jn 3:16), gives in sending the Son into the world so that men may have life in abundance (Jn 10:10), and by the gift that the Son freely makes of Himself for love of humanity (Jn 10:11,18; 15:13).

What is therefore fundamental in this feeding is recognising the gift that lies at its origin. This food does not come from man; rather, it springs from God’s love for man and tends towards the communication of that love in which true life consists. The Eucharistic nourishment that we receive is a sacrament — a Sacrament — through which the love and life of God reach mankind. The Eucharistic community, which reaches its summit in approaching the table of the Lord and there rediscovers its source, as the Council teaches, springs from love through the mediation of the goods of creation: bread and wine, which the Church blesses and which become the Body and Blood of the Lord.

Finally, by considering the many connections that our Gospel passage has with the entirety of Saint John’s sixth chapter, of which it forms a part, we realise that we encounter everywhere this reality revealed to us by Jesus: He presents Himself as the One who reveals the Father and then as Eucharistic food and drink. For us believers, this means that the “feeding on me” demanded by Jesus cannot be separated from “coming to Jesus” (Jn 6:35-45), that is, from “believing in Him”. The parallel between believing and eating is significant. Let us recall Jesus’ important and decisive words: «For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day» (Jn 6:40); «Whoever believes has eternal life» (Jn 6:47); «Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day» (Jn 6:54); «Whoever eats this bread will live forever» (Jn 6:58). Thus believing in the Lord, eating His Body and drinking His Blood are inseparably united, because: «the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world» (Jn 6:33).

And the life that Jesus offers us is the life of the Father. For this reason, coming to Jesus and listening to His word enables believers to be begotten into the new life of the children of God (Jn 1:12-13). Before the multiplication of the loaves and the profound discourse that followed it, Jesus had already declared: «Whoever hears my word … has eternal life» (Jn 5:24). In this way, the phrase «Whoever feeds on me will have life because of me» (Jn 6:57) expresses not only the culmination of God’s self-giving and self-communication to humanity in Christ, but also opens before us an unexpected and entirely gratuitous perspective. He, the Lord Jesus, who has «returned to the bosom of the Father», continues to show us the way of life: «For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world» (Jn 6:33).

Yet the eternal life promised to those who assimilate the life of Christ (cf. Jn 6:51,54,58) actually begins already here and now for the believer. In every Eucharist, indeed, we proclaim the Lord’s death, we profess His Resurrection and await His coming.

Like Jesus, we too integrate death into life by making our life an act of self-giving, an act of love in the footsteps of Jesus (cf. Jn 13:34). For this love Jesus continues to give Himself as food and drink to mankind. The life of God and the life of man meet in love, in agape, the food that truly nourishes man and the reality that constitutes the very life of God; for: «God is love» (1 Jn 4:8,16). The Eucharist is the Sacrament of charity, the Sacrament of agape. Each time we celebrate it, we hear proclaimed how God gives Himself to mankind; and by receiving the Body and Blood of the Lord we ourselves become capable of self-giving.

From the Hermitage, 6 June 2026

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IF ANYONE EAT THIS BREAD, WILL LIVE FOREVER

«In the Eucharist it is the same Body of Christ that comes to us, in all the fullness of its condition as a source of grace; and it does not do so through a more or less superficial and ephemeral contact, but through the most intimate and lasting way possible: the assimilation of food.

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The Gospel of this Solemnity constitutes the conclusion of the story of the multiplication of the loaves according to Saint John. This “sign” of sharing seems to be very important to Jesus, since it is the only one narrated by the four evangelists; even more, Matthew and Mark even tell it twice. The stories are similar and, however, each one retains some of its own characteristics. Let's look at the text:

«At that time, Jesus said to the crowd: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.. "Whoever eats this bread will live forever and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.". Then the Jews began to argue heatedly among themselves: "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"?”. Jesus answered them: "Actually, truly I tell you: unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. Because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Like the Father, what does life have, He has sent me and I live because of the Father, so also he who eats me will live for me. This is the bread that came down from heaven; not like the one your fathers ate and died. "Whoever eats this bread will live forever." (Jn 6,51-58).

John's story, in particular, does not appear to be a simple reworking of the synoptic accounts, since it has not been composed by gathering fragments taken from the other Gospels; rather it appears as an original composition based on an independent tradition that John would have collected and preserved.. Y, more specifically, In the Johannine narrative there is a very marked theological orientation that emerges especially in the passage proposed today by the lectionary.. This text can be considered the eucharistic or sacramental section of the story. Also in the other five versions present in the synoptic gospels there is a strong Eucharistic motif., but in John it appears more explicitly, probably because it is the Gospel furthest from the events narrated. It is possible that, as the story of the multiplication of the loaves became part of the tradition of the Christian community, its relationship with the special food of God's people, the Eucharist, was being recognized more and more clearly. The language of the multiplication stories was progressively permeated by the Eucharistic liturgies familiar to the different communities..

Also today our communities celebrate the memory of the Body and Blood of the Lord, that is to say, of the body given and offered by Jesus for the lives of men. The words of the Lord: «I am the living bread that came down from heaven. "Whoever eats this bread will live forever." (Jn 6,51), they reveal above all who Jesus is: He who reveals the Father and gives life to the world with his own life, for love. Thus, the words "eat my flesh and drink my blood" (cf. Jn 6,53-56), They refer the disciple to the spiritual task of assimilating the life of Christ into his own existence..

So, These words refer to faith, that is to say, to the act of believing, as well as listening to the Word of the Lord and putting it into concrete practice through the fulfillment of the Father's will., just like Jesus himself did. The life of the Lord, his flesh and blood, as witnessed to us in the Gospels, It is the food that every believer is called to nourish so that the life of Jesus lives concretely in him.. And the Church becomes the place where the humanity of each believer is called to be configured with the life of the risen Lord., that continues to give itself to us. So that it is true that one life unites the Lord and his disciple. So, The Church is manifested as the place of the alliance between the Lord and the believer.

The evangelical page that has been proclaimed reveals to us the meaning of the Eucharistic mystery that we celebrate. But the verse — "Whoever eats me, He too will live for me." (literally) — may seem strangely harsh, to the point that some of Jesus' listeners did not understand him and ended up abandoning him. Perhaps this apparent hardness can be explained by recovering, first of all, the anthropological sense of eating:

«In the Eucharist it is the same Body of Christ that comes to us, in all the fullness of its condition as a source of grace; and it does not do so through a more or less superficial and ephemeral contact, but through the most intimate and lasting way possible: the assimilation of food (Pierre-Marie Benoît, OP, The stories of the institution and their scope, Light & Vie, n.º 31, 1957).

Even Saint John uses the Greek verb to indicate the act of "eating" three, which some literally translate as "chew". We thus have a reference to that essential activity of eating that involves the transformation of food through the destruction of solid forms to make them digestible and assimilable.. Through this path we can recover the realism of the Johannine text and make it eloquent for our time., without losing the theological and spiritual value of the Real Presence of the Lord in the Eucharist.

for the man, Eating is a primordial act that accompanies one from life in the womb until death. But the act of eating also refers to the cultural activity of the human being.: involves work, food preparation, sociability and coexistence. Indeed, the man eats together with others, and the act of eating is linked to the table, place where friendship is born, the brotherhood, alliance and society. At the table not only food is shared, but also words and conversations that nourish relationships, that is to say, that which gives meaning to life sustained by food. Eating involves, therefore, also the most extraordinary cultural creation of human beings: the language. Linked as it is to orality and desire, The act of eating affects the affective and emotional sphere of the person. It is about, well, of an anthropological symbol of a unique wealth, capable of capturing the human being in its most intimate and hidden depths, placing it in relation to the earth, the cosmos, the police, society and the world. For man, there is no more total adhesion to everything around him than the act of eating.. It's the human way of saying your own yes.

From this material and anthropological aspect we spontaneously move on to the theological and spiritual aspect, that we perceive in all their richness in the words of Jesus that we have heard: "Like the Father, what does life have, He has sent me and I live because of the Father, "So also he who eats me will live for me.". The "eat me" appears in continuity with the sending of the Son by the Father. It is the result of the mission received from the Father and the culmination of the Trinitarian event of revelation and divine communication to man in Jesus., but also the supreme act of love to which the obedience of the Son towards the Father reaches. From the anthropological level of eating we thus ascend to the deepest and most intimate theological level., that allows us to understand how the Lord is the One who gives himself as food to man. "Eating me" then becomes the most radical expression of the love of Christ and God for humanity.. This eating is possible thanks to the gift that the Father, in his great love (Jn 3,16), makes the Son by sending him into the world so that men may have life in abundance (Jn 10,10), and thanks to the gift that the Son freely makes of himself, for love of humanity (Jn 10,11-18; 15,13).

The fundamental thing in this eating is, therefore, recognize the gift that is at its origin. This food does not come from man, but springs from the love of God for man and tends to the communication of that love in which true life consists. The Eucharistic food we receive is sacrament — Sacrament — through which the love and life of God reach man. The Eucharistic community that, when approaching the Lord's table, reaches its summit and rediscovers its source in it, as the Council teaches, springs from love through the mediation of the goods of creation: the bread and wine that the Church blesses and that become the Body and Blood of the Lord.

Underlining, Finally, the many connections that our evangelical passage maintains with the entire sixth chapter of Saint John, of which it is part, We notice that this reality that Jesus reveals to us reappears everywhere.: He presents himself as the One who reveals the Father and then as Eucharistic food and drink. for us, the believers, This means that the "eat me", demanded by Jesus, cannot be separated from "coming to Jesus" (Jn 6,35-45), that is to say, of "believing in Him". The parallel between believing and eating is significant. Let us remember the important and decisive words of Jesus: «This is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." (Jn 6,40); "He who believes has eternal life" (Jn 6,47); «He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." (Jn 6,54); "Whoever eats this bread will live forever" (Jn 6,58). So, believing in the Lord and eating his Body and drinking his Blood are inseparably linked, why: "the bread of God is what comes down from heaven and gives life to the world" (Jn 6,33). And the life that Jesus offers us is that of the Father; that's why, Coming to Jesus and hearing His Word enables believers to be begotten into the new life of the children of God. (Jn 1,12-13). Before the multiplication of the loaves and the dense discourse that followed, Jesus had stated: "Whoever hears my word... has eternal life" (Jn 5,24). Thus, the expression "Who eats me", He too will live for me." (Jn 6,57) expresses not only the culmination of the gift and communication of God to man in Christ, but also opens us to an unexpected and completely free perspective. That, the Lord Jesus, who has "returned to the bosom of the Father", continues to show us the path of life: "For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world" (Jn 6,33).

But eternal life promised to those who assimilate the life of Christ (cf. Jn 6,51.54.58), in reality it begins here and now for the believer. In each Eucharist we announce, indeed, the death of the Lord, we proclaim his Resurrection and await his coming.

Like Jesus, We also integrate death into life making our existence an act of surrender, an act of love in the footsteps of Jesus (cf. Jn 13,34). For this love Jesus continues to give himself as food and drink to men. The life of God and the life of man meet in love, in the agape, food that truly nourishes the human being and reality that constitutes the very life of God; why: "God is love" (1 Jn 4,8.16). The Eucharist is the sacrament of charity, from agape; Every time we celebrate it we hear the story of how God gives himself to men and, by communing with the Body and Blood of the Lord, we too become capable of giving ourselves to others.

From Ermo, 6 June 2026

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Sant'Angelo Cave in Ripe (Civitella del Tronto)

 

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The Fathers of the Island of Patmos

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Outside of Christ there is no access to the Father – Outside Christ there is no access to the Father – Outside of Christ there is no access to the Father

/in /by
Homiletics of the Fathers of the Island of Patmos

Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

(Italian, English, Español)

 

OUTSIDE CHRIST WE TALK ABOUT GOD, YOU ENTER CHRIST

Enunciating one of those absolutes that today so frighten those who confuse the principles of absoluteness of faith with absolutism, Christ responds: «I am the way, the truth and the life ". It does not simply indicate a way, it does not add a truth, nor does it communicate a life as something separable from itself, but it offers itself and declares itself as them.

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Before this page of the Fourth Gospel we often tend to dwell on the phrase "Do not let your heart be troubled", without realizing that the point is not the disturbance, but its cause.

This happens because John is not an easy read: more than on the lines, it must be read beyond the lines. His Gospel does not proceed by simple narration, but by progressive revelation, in which the words always refer to a further depth. It is no coincidence that it is the same Evangelist who closes the Revelation with the Book of Revelation, showing what remains veiled in many of his stories: like when Jesus speaks of "living water" to the Samaritan woman and she understands material water, while in reality it is a life that cannot be seen and that does not end (cf.. GV 4, 10-14). But let's listen to the text:

During that time, Jesus told his disciples: “Your heart is not troubled. Have faith in God and have faith in me too. In the house of my Father there are many homes. if not, I would have ever told you: “I'm going to prepare a place for you”? When I am gone and I will have prepared you a place, I will come again and take you with me, Because where I am you too. And the place where I go, You know the way ". Tommaso told him: "Man, We don't know where you go; How can we know the way?». Jesus told him: «I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have met me, you will also know my Father: from now on you know him and have seen him ". Philip told him: "Man, show us the Father and that is enough for us". Jesus answered him: «I have been with you for a long time and you have not known me, Filippo? Who saw me, he saw the Father. As you can tell: “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I tell you, I don't say them myself; but the Father, that remains in me, does his works. Believe me: I am in the Father and the Father is in me. If nothing else, believe it for the works themselves. In truth, verily I tell you: who believes in me, he too will do the works that I do and will do greater ones than these, because I go to the Father" (GV 14, 1-12).

It is not fear that disturbs the disciples, but something more radical: it is the disappearance of the reference. When the point of reference disappears, man no longer knows where to go and, when he doesn't know where to go, he doesn't even know how to live. Tommaso, indeed, he's not asking a naive question, but he makes a logical observation: «We don't know where you're going; How can we know the way?». If you don't know the end of the journey, we cannot even know the road that leads to that end. Tommaso does not ask for an explanation, exposes the problem: without knowing where Christ is going, it is not possible to know how to follow it.

By stating one of those absolutes which today so frighten those who confuse the principles of absoluteness of faith with absolutism, Christ responds: «I am the way, the truth and the life ". It does not simply indicate a way, it does not add a truth, nor does it communicate a life as something separable from itself, but it offers itself and declares itself as them. Not one street among others, but the way; not one truth among the possible ones, but the truth; not a life that can be received elsewhere, but life itself. Christ is the divine living negation of religious relativism: In fact, here it is not a question of choosing a path, but to recognize that outside of Him there is no access to the Father: "I am the door: Whoever enters through me, It shall be saved " (GV 10,9).

The statement: "Nobody comes to the Father except by means of me", it means that it is not enough to talk about God, nor look for it, but it is not even enough to believe in it in some way, because without passing through Christ we cannot reach the Father. At this point Filippo asks: "Man, show us the Father and that is enough for us". He is not making a theoretical claim, asks to see God, to have before your eyes what Jesus spoke about. Jesus answers him: «I have been with you for a long time and you have not known me?». Because the problem is not that the Father did not show himself, but that Philip did not recognize where he showed himself. The phrase: "Whoever has seen me has seen the father", it is not a simple reference, but an invitation to recognize that the Son is in the Father and the Father is in Him, generated by the Father and of the same substance as the Father, not something separate, but God from God, light from light, True God from true God, as we recite in the Profession of Faith. This is why looking for the Father outside of Christ is a misunderstanding: not because Christ replaces him, but because the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son; outside this unity there is no access to the Father: «The words that I say to you are not said by myself; but the Father, that remains in me, does his works".

Here we are not just faced with a teaching to understand, but to a reality that is fulfilled: the relationship between the Son and the Father in which man is made a participant. This does not mean that Christianity is not thought: on the contrary, it arises from the Logos and is structurally linked to reason, according to that unity between faith and reason that tradition has always preserved, from Sant'Anselmo d'Aosta to the teaching of John Paul II. Faith is not a set of feelings - to which it is increasingly often reduced today -, but a vision of reality, of man, of God. And precisely because it is Logos, Christianity does not remain an abstract thought: the Logos became flesh. And here's the point: what is true does not remain theory, but it becomes life. Faith is not born from an idea, but from the encounter with Christ; an encounter that involves intelligence and life together. Because of this, in Christianity, thought and life, that is, faith and reason, they don't oppose it: thought without life would become ideology, life without thought would be reduced to blind experience. In Christ, instead, the truth is given as life and life manifests itself in truth.

It is in this sense that Jesus is not simply teaching something, but he is doing what he says: in Him the Father works, because He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. And faith is not just adherence to a teaching, but participation in this action of God which takes place in history: “Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do and will do even greater ones”. This expression does not indicate a superiority of man over Christ, but the fact that, walking to the Father, He makes it possible for his work to continue beyond the time of his visible presence, involving those who believe in Him. Christ does not disappear, but it operates differently. It's not just about imitating gestures, but to enter into the sequela Christi, that comes from being involved in his work, and it is from here that true imitation also arises.

This is where the Church is born: where the work of Christ continues in history. This is why the disturbance of the heart does not disappear because everything becomes clear, but because we are no longer outside of what He does. Without Christ we can speak of God, but only for Christ, with Christ and in Christ we enter the work of God.

From the island of Patmos, 3 May 2026

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OUTSIDE CHRIST THERE IS NO ACCESS TO THE FATHER

By enunciating one of those absolutes that today so frighten those who confuse the principles of the absoluteness of faith with absolutism, Christ responds: «I am the way, the truth, and the life». He does not simply indicate a way, nor add a truth, nor communicate a life as something separable from Himself, but He offers Himself and declares Himself as them.

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Before this passage of the Fourth Gospel, one often tends to dwell on the phrase «Let not your heart be troubled», without grasping that the point is not the trouble, but its cause. This happens because John is not easy to read: more than on the lines, he must be read beyond the lines. His Gospel does not proceed by simple narration, but by progressive revelation, in which words always refer to a deeper reality. It is no coincidence that the same Evangelist, with the Book of Revelation, closes Revelation, unveiling what in many of his narratives remains veiled: as when Jesus speaks of «living water» to the Samaritan woman and she understands material water, while in reality it is a life that cannot be seen and does not run out (cf. Jn 4:10–14). Let us listen to the text:

«Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where [I] am going you know the way.» Thomas said to him, «Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?» Jesus said to him, «I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.» Philip said to him, «Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.» Jesus said to him, «Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.» (John 14:1–12).

It is not fear that troubles the disciples, but something more radical: it is the loss of the point of reference. When the point of reference is lost, man no longer knows where to go and, when he does not know where to go, he no longer knows how to live. Thomas, in fact, does not ask a naïve question, but formulates a logical observation: «We do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?». If the destination of the journey is not known, the road that leads to it cannot be known either. Thomas does not ask for an explanation; he lays bare the problem: without knowing where Christ is going, it is not possible to know how to follow Him.

By enunciating one of those absolutes that today so frighten those who confuse the principles of the absoluteness of faith with absolutism, Christ responds: «I am the way, the truth, and the life». He does not simply indicate a way, nor add a truth, nor communicate a life as something separable from Himself, but He offers Himself and declares Himself as them. Not one way among others, but the way; not one truth among many, but the truth; not a life that can be received elsewhere, but life itself. Christ is the living divine negation of religious relativism: here it is not a matter of choosing a path, but of recognizing that outside Him there is no access to the Father: «I am the door; if anyone enters through me, he will be saved» (Jn 10:9).

The statement «No one comes to the Father except through me» means that it is not enough to speak about God, nor to seek Him, nor even to believe in Him in some way, because without passing through Christ one does not reach the Father. At this point Philip says: «Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us». He is not making a theoretical request: he asks to see God, to have before his eyes what Jesus has spoken about. Jesus answers him: «Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip?». The problem is not that the Father has not been shown, but that Philip has not recognized where He has been shown. The phrase «Whoever has seen me has seen the Father» is not a mere reference, but an invitation to recognize that the Son is in the Father and the Father is in Him, begotten of the Father and of the same substance as the Father, not something separate, but God from God, light from light, true God from true God, as we profess in the Creed. Therefore, seeking the Father outside Christ is a misunderstanding: not because Christ replaces Him, but because the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son; outside this unity there is no access to the Father: «The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works».

Here we are not faced only with a teaching to be understood, but with a reality that takes place: the relationship between the Son and the Father in which man is made a participant. This does not mean that Christianity is not thought: on the contrary, it is born from the Logos and is structurally linked to reason, according to that unity between faith and reason which the tradition has always preserved, from Saint Anselm to the magisterium of John Paul II. Faith is not a set of feelings — to which it is increasingly reduced today —, but a vision of reality, of man, of God. And precisely because it is Logos, Christianity does not remain an abstract thought: the Logos became flesh. And here is the point: what is true does not remain theory, but becomes life. Faith is not born from an idea, but from the encounter with Christ; an encounter that involves both intelligence and life. For this reason, in Christianity, thought and life, that is, faith and reason, do not oppose each other: thought without life becomes ideology, life without thought becomes blind experience. In Christ, instead, truth is given as life and life is manifested in truth.

It is in this sense that Jesus is not simply teaching something, but accomplishing what He says: in Him the Father acts, because He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. And faith is not only adherence to a teaching, but participation in this action of God that takes place in history: «Whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and will do greater works than these». By this expression no superiority of man over Christ is meant, but the fact that, by going to the Father, He makes it possible for His work to continue beyond the time of His visible presence, involving those who believe in Him. Christ does not disappear, but acts in a different way. It is not only a matter of imitating gestures, but of entering into the Christi sequel, which is born from being involved in His work, and from which true imitation also springs.

From here the Church is born: where the work of Christ continues in history. For this reason the trouble of the heart does not disappear because everything becomes clear, but because one is no longer outside what He accomplishes. Without Christ one can speak about God, but only through Christ, with Christ and in Christ does one enter into the work of God.

From the Island of Patmos, May 3, 2026

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OUTSIDE OF CHRIST THERE IS NO ACCESS TO THE FATHER

Stating one of those absolutes that today so frighten those who confuse the principles of the absolute nature of faith with absolutism., Christ answers: «I am the way, "truth and life". It does not simply indicate a path, it does not add a truth nor communicate a life as something separable from itself, but it is offered and declared like them.

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Before this page of the Fourth Gospel, We often tend to stop at the phrase "Let not your heart be troubled.", without understanding that the point is not the confusion, but its cause. This happens because Juan is not easy to read.: more than in the lines, you have to read it beyond the lines. His Gospel does not proceed by simple narration, but by progressive revelation, in which words always refer to a further depth. It is no coincidence that the Evangelist himself, with the Book of Revelation, close the Revelation, showing what remains hidden in many of his stories: like when Jesus speaks of "living water" to the Samaritan woman and she understands material water, while in reality it is a life that is not seen and that does not end (cf. Jn 4, 10-14). Let's listen to the text:

«Your heart is not turned. You believe in God: believe in me too. In my Father's house there are many mansions; but, I would have told you; because I am going to prepare a place for you. And when I have gone and prepared a place for you, I will return and take you with me, so that where I am you may also be. and where I go, "you know the way". Thomas tells him: «Señor, We do not know where you go, how can we know the way?». Jesus tells him: «I am the way, truth and life. No one goes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will also know my Father; From now on you know him and you have seen him". Felipe tells her: «Señor, show us the Father and it is enough for us". Jesus tells him: "Have I been with you for so long and you don't know me?", Felipe? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say: “Show us the Father”? Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I don't say them on my own; the Father who abides in me does his works. believe me: I am in the Father and the Father in me; and if not, believe by the works themselves. Actually, truly I tell you: the one who believes in me, He will also do the works that I do, and will become even greater, because I go to the Father". (Juan 14, 1–12).

It is not fear that disturbs the disciples, but something more radical: is the loss of the reference point. When the reference point disappears, The man no longer knows where to go and, when you don't know where to go, he no longer knows how to live. Tomás, in fact, does not ask a naive question, but presents a logical verification: "We don't know where you're going; how can we know the way?». If the end of the road is not known, nor can you know the path that leads to it. Tomás does not ask for an explanation, reveals the problem: without knowing where Christ is going, it is not possible to know how to follow it.

Stating one of those absolutes that today so frighten those who confuse the principles of the absolute nature of faith with absolutism, Christ answers: «I am the way, "truth and life". It does not simply indicate a path, it does not add a truth nor communicate a life as something separable from itself, but it is offered and declared like them. Not one path among others, but the path; not one truth among many, but the truth; not a life that can be received elsewhere, but life itself. Christ is the living divine negation of religious relativism: This is not about choosing a route, but to recognize that outside of Him there is no access to the Father: «I am the door; "Whoever enters through me will be saved." (Jn 10,9).

The statement "No one goes to the Father except through me" It means that it is not enough to talk about God, nor look for it, not even believe in Him somehow, because without passing through Christ one does not reach the Father. At this point Felipe says: «Señor, show us the Father and it is enough for us". It does not make a theoretical request: asks to see God, have before your eyes what Jesus has spoken about. Jesus answers him: «I have been with you for so long, and you don't know me, Felipe?». The problem is not that the Father has not shown himself, But Felipe has not recognized where he has shown himself. The phrase "He who has seen me has seen the Father" is not a simple reference, but an invitation to recognize that the Son is in the Father and the Father in Him, begotten of the Father and of the same substance as the Father, not something separate, but God of God, light light, true god of true god, as we profess in the Creed. That is why seeking the Father outside of Christ is a mistake.: not because Christ replaces him, but because the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son; outside this unit there is no access to the Father: «The words that I say to you I do not say on my own; "The Father who abides in me performs his works.".

Here we are not only faced with a teaching that must be understood, but before a reality that is realized: the relationship between the Son and the Father in which man is made a participant. This does not mean that Christianity is not thought: on the contrary, It is born from the Logos and is structurally linked to reason, according to that unity between faith and reason that tradition has always guarded, from Saint Anselm to the teaching of Saint John Paul II. Faith is not a set of feelings — to which today it is increasingly reduced —, but a vision of reality, of man and God. And precisely because it is Logos, Christianity does not remain an abstract thought: the Logos became flesh. And here's the point: the truth does not remain a theory, but it becomes life. Faith is not born from an idea, but of the encounter with Christ; an encounter that involves both intelligence and life. That's why, in Christianity, thought and life, that is to say, Faith and reason, they do not oppose: Thought without life becomes ideology, life without thought is reduced to blind experience. in Christ, instead, the truth is given as life and life is manifested in the truth.

It is in this sense that Jesus is not simply teaching something, but doing what it says: in Him the Father works, because He is in the Father and the Father in Him. And faith is not only adherence to a teaching, but participation in this action of God that is carried out in history: «Whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and he will make others greater than these.". This expression does not indicate a superiority of man over Christ., but the fact that, when going to the Father, He makes it possible for his work to continue beyond the time of his visible presence, involving those who believe in Him. Christ does not disappear, but it acts in a different way. It's not just about imitating gestures, but to enter the sequela Christi, that comes from being involved in their work, and from which true imitation also springs.

From here the Church is born: where the work of Christ continues in history. That is why the confusion of the heart does not disappear because everything becomes clear., but because one is no longer outside of what He does. Without Christ we can talk about God, but only for Christ, with Christ and in Christ one enters into the work of God.

From the Island of Patmos, 3 May 2026

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The Good Shepherd and the Sheep Gate – The Good Shepherd and the gate of the sheep – The Good Shepherd and the sheep gate

/in /by

Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

Italian, english, español

 

THE GOOD SHEPHERD AND THE SHEEP GATE

The sheep pen metaphorically indicates the holy place of Israel, the Temple of Jerusalem, or its vestibule, which represents and symbolizes theocratic Judaism; while the shepherd of the sheep, he who enters through the door, it is Jesus, new Shepherd of Israel, that, effectively, he presented himself at the Temple in Jerusalem, to reveal himself to the Jews during the Feast of Tabernacles.

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The liturgy reserves a privileged place for the figure of the Good Shepherd on the Fourth Sunday of Easter. The whole Tradition conveys the fundamental idea that Christ is the savior of the sheep, since Jesus leads his followers beyond death, towards heavenly pastures, in the Father's house. The passage reported below expresses this tension which is both soteriological and Christological.

"In truth, verily I tell you: whoever does not enter the sheepfold through the door, but it comes up from another side, he is a thief and a brigand. Who instead enters the door, he is a shepherd of the sheep. The guardian opens the door and the sheep listen to his voice: he calls his sheep, each by name, and leads them out. And when he drove out all his sheep, walk before being, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. However, they will not follow a stranger, but they will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers". Jesus told them this simile, but they did not understand what he was talking to them about. Then Jesus said to them again: "In truth, verily I tell you: I am the door of the sheep. All those who came before me, they are thieves and brigands; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door: Whoever enters through me, will be saved; He will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance" (GV 10,1-10).

To better grasp the scope of the text, it is necessary to insert it into the large section of the fourth Gospel to which it belongs, that goes from GV 7,1 until Gv l0.42. These four chapters constitute the center of Jesus' public life, the culmination of his revelation to the world, in the Temple of Jerusalem. The thematic unity of this section is evident: Jesus reveals himself to the world (cf.. 7,4), but he is continually in controversy with "the Jews". A theme from the prologue returns that reaches here, regarding the public life of Jesus, its discriminating point: «He came to his own and his own did not welcome him» (GV 1,11).

First of all, what is this "sheep pen"?. In the Greek Bible it is often metaphorically associated with areas involving the Temple. Let's also add that, already in the AT, the term "sheep", it is often used in a simply allegorical sense to designate the people of Israel (This 34,31; Gives 23,1). The words in our verse would therefore evoke a situation similar to that of Shall 100,3-4 (LXX):

«Recognize that only the Lord is God: he made us and we are his, his people and flock of his pasture. Enter its doors with hymns of thanks, its halls with songs of praise, praise him, bless his name".

In Gv l0.1 the sheep enclosure metaphorically indicates the holy place of Israel, the Temple of Jerusalem, or its vestibule, which represents and symbolizes theocratic Judaism; while the shepherd of the sheep, he who enters through the door, it is Jesus, new Shepherd of Israel, that, effectively, he presented himself at the Temple in Jerusalem, to reveal himself to the Jews during the Feast of Tabernacles (GV 7,14).

They are veiled allusions, ma precise, that Jesus, according to St. John, he is doing regarding his mission and they mix both figurative elements together, and references to historical situations, with the aim of making people understand the value and quality of his messiahship. He is not a thief or a brigand — the same Greek term will be used to identify Barabbas in the passion story, defined by Matteo as a "famous" prisoner (Mt 27,16) — Jesus is not a rioter or rebel interested in violent liberation from Roman domination, in order to establish a Jewish power that was both political and religious. Instead he entered the Temple the normal way, during the Feast of Tabernacles; he presented himself legitimately to the Jewish people to reveal himself to them as their Shepherd, like the true Messiah. In the chapter. 10 of Saint John Jesus adopts figurative language, enigmatic, yet the teaching remains essentially the same: still always has as its object the messianic mission of Jesus.

The second verse of the passage is even more theologically relevant: "He (the Shepherd) calls his sheep, each by name, and leads them out". All the sheep in the pen, the Jews, they were able to know the word of Jesus (cf.. GV 18,20), but only some of them became "his sheep", that is, those that were given to him by the Father (v. 29; cf.. 6,37.39). By virtue of this gift, Jesus will be able to say that I am "in his hand" (v.28); for the same reason again, at the Last Supper, he will be able to consider the disciples as "his own" (GV 13,1). This predisposition on the part of the Father corresponds to a call on the part of Jesus: «He calls his sheep, each by name". It is the first act of the constitution of a new flock by Jesus.

His sheep, the Shepherd "lets them out" of the enclosure. The verb used here by the evangelist is the technical term from the vocabulary of Exodus: God "brought his people out of Egypt"., the children of Israel (It is 3.10; 6,27); the same way later, at the time of the second Exodus, he will "bring them out" from among the peoples (This 34,13). The idea evoked by this word is clear: «let out», it means freeing from slavery. It is considerable and at the same time tragic, that this term, a time used to indicate the end of captivity, must now be used against Israel itself; since his eyes have not been opened to the true light of the messianic times and therefore the Messiah Jesus himself must now "bring out" his sheep, as once from Egypt.

But to grasp all the implications of this idea in the general economy of the life of Jesus, it must be connected to the previous story, that of the man born blind, in which it had already been formulated. For this man of the people, Jesus at the beginning was just a stranger (GV 9,11). Ma, after healing, during the controversy with the Jews, he progressively discovers a prophet in him (v. 17), a messenger of God (v.33), the Son of man (vv. 35-37), thus becoming the very type of the believer. The Jews, instead, who believed themselves to be so clairvoyant in religious matters, they have become totally blind to the light of the world (vv. 39-4l). Now, noting the former blind man's attachment to Jesus, "they threw him out" (GV 9,34). This is when discrimination takes place (pity) which Jesus will talk about at the end of the controversy (GV 9,39), discrimination that prefigures and announces the rupture between Church and Synagogue (synagogue dis GV 9,22). In today's passage the behavior of the Jews themselves is thus taken up and sanctioned, who had excluded from the synagogue the man born blind who was healed by Jesus and became his disciple. The call that the Shepherd addresses to his sheep in the Jewish enclosure thus becomes the first act of a separation, the one that will contrast the ancient flock Israel and the new, Judaism and the Church. And it is likely that John is writing at this particular moment in which the separation is taking place, which in any case does not authorize anyone to make anti-Jewish revenge or justify anti-Semitism.

The relationships between the Shepherd and his sheep are described in these terms: “He walks before them and the sheep follow him”. As he already did, the evangelist again uses the typical vocabulary of the Exodus cycle: "The Sir, your God, that precedes you, he himself will fight for you, as he did with you, before your eyes, in Egypt" (Deut 1,30; Mich 2,13). In the fourth gospel, the verb «to walk (journey)» is almost always referred to Jesus in relation to his mission, which is a new Exodus (cf.. GV 14,2.3.12.28; 16,7.28). Thus the Shepherd, who walks before his sheep, he presents himself as the new leader of God's people. The sheep "follow" him, expressing that essential docility of the disciple towards the Master (cf.. GV 1,37.38.41.43), based on the fact that they know his voice. These themes, then, they will be taken up with greater insistence in the second part of the speech (vv. 14-16) and then in the final declarations of Jesus at the feast of the Dedication (v. 27).

As necessary, at last, interpret the formula «the sheep gate»? If the old fence has ceased its function, it is no longer necessary to mention it, in fact logically Jesus could have said: «I am the door of the enclosure». But instead he uses a new expression because He is now the door for the sheep themselves. Between Jesus and his, new relationships are outlined from now on; once you leave the enclosure, the sheep must now "enter" through the door that is Jesus. Here we move from the historical level to the typological and spiritual level. It is no longer about the enclosure of Judaism: entering through the "door" that is Jesus, the sheep enter a new environment, of a completely different nature. In this regard, the exegetes recall the Shall 118,19-20: «Open the doors of justice to me: I will enter to thank the Lord. This is the door of the Lord: the righteous enter through it". That the background of our verse is constituted by this psalm is likely as Ps 118 it was used in the liturgy of the Feast of Tabernacles and we remember that the speech on the Good Shepherd was given, according to John, near the Temple, at the final moment of that great solemnity. The whole context therefore favored the use of this metaphor of the door. But the insistence with which Jesus applies it to himself - "I am the door of the sheep" - clearly demonstrates that this can no longer be a question of the Temple of the ancient economy. Jesus, taking inspiration from the realities that surround him, he wants to talk about the new Temple that he himself inaugurates. In figurative speech, the gate and the enclosure still designated historical realities: the Temple of Jerusalem and theocratic Judaism; but starting from the moment in which these realities are metaphorically referred to Jesus, they are transposed from the plane onto another plane, which is spiritual.

Even the use of the terminology of our verse in the pre-John Christian tradition it is very enlightening. The Synoptics speak several times about the door that gives access to the Kingdom (Mt 7,13-14; 25,10-12; LC 13,24-26); it was a metaphor for the eschatological vocabulary. The same goes for the verb «to enter», which was commonly used to designate entry into the Kingdom of God (Mt 7,21; At 14,22). Giovanni takes up this usage again (GV 3,5), but in the current context, everything focuses on Jesus: it is through him that we must "enter" to be saved.

This necessarily brief analysis of the vocabulary of our passage highlights the theological significance of Jesus' phrase: "I am the door of the sheep". The first idea he expresses is that of mediation, therefore of the possibility of access to salvation. It is explicitly said in the text of v. 9: "I am the door: whoever enters only through me will be saved". The other part, Jesus is not just a mediator. The door is not just a place of passage through which one "enters", it already belongs to the enclosure itself. Indeed, in the Old Testament, the "gate" of the city or of the Temple often metonymically indicates the whole of the city or the Temple in its entirety: cf.. Shall 122,2; 87,1-2; 118,20. Referring to Jesus, the image of the door therefore does not only mean that salvation and life are accessed through him; it also indicates that the sheep find these goods in him. In other words, Jesus is not just a way of access; it is also the new fence, the new Temple, in which his people can obtain messianic goods. Here we find the theme of Jesus the new Temple, stated by S. John from the beginning of his gospel (2,13-22). But if so, we may perhaps wonder why the metaphor of the door was preferred to that of the enclosure or temple. Probably, the image of the door, with everything its biblical background suggested, it was better suited to expressing two related ideas simultaneously: one part, the entrance one, of mediation; on the other, that of a vital environment and communion. These are the two ideas that will reappear in the very suggestive text of GV 14,6: «I am the Way, the Truth and the Life"; Jesus is the Way to the Father, the perfect mediator who gives us access to the life of the Father; but at the same time it is Life: in Jesus himself we find the life of the Father, because he, the Only Begotten Son "now returned to the bosom of the Father" (GV 1,18), he possesses it fully within himself.

The patristic tradition will highlight the future aspect more, specifically eschatological, of the door theme: through Jesus we have access to eternal life, to the kingdom of heaven. But here as elsewhere, John anticipates eschatological themes in the very person and historical work of Jesus: at the same time through him and in communion with him, end of ora, we can obtain the goods of salvation, divine life. The idea expressed here was commented magnificently in an anonymous text that circulated under the name of Augustine in various anthologies of patristic quotations: «Jesus is the door, the door in which is the house, the house in which the weary rests». See also Ignatius of Antioch: «He is the door of the Father, through which Abraham enters, Isaac and Jacob and the prophets and the apostles and the Church"; Erma: «The door is the Son of God. It is the only entrance that leads to the Lord. Therefore no one will bring us to him except his Son."; St. Augustine: «For Christ is that door, and through Christ we enter into eternal life».

from the Hermitage, 26 April 2026

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THE GOOD SHEPHERD AND THE GATE OF THE SHEEP

The sheepfold metaphorically indicates the holy place of Israel, the Temple of Jerusalem, or its vestibule, which represents and symbolizes the theocratic Judaism; while the shepherd of the sheep, the one who enters through the gate, is Jesus, the new Shepherd of Israel, who, in fact, presented himself in the Temple of Jerusalem to reveal himself to the Jews during the feast of Tabernacles.

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The liturgy assigns a privileged place to the figure of the Good Shepherd on the Fourth Sunday of Easter. The whole Tradition conveys the fundamental idea that Christ is the savior of the sheep, since Jesus leads his own beyond death, toward the heavenly pastures, into the house of the Father. The passage reported below expresses this tension, which is at once soteriological and Christological.

«Amen, amen, I say to you: whoever does not enter the sheepfold through the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens to him and the sheep listen to his voice: he calls his own sheep, each one by name, and leads them out. And when he has brought out all his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger, however, they will not follow, but they will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers». Jesus told them this parable, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus said to them again: «Amen, amen, I say to you: I am the gate of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate: if anyone enters through me, he will be saved; he will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life and have it abundantly» (Jn 10:1–10).

In order to grasp more fully the scope of the text, it is necessary to situate it within the great section of the Fourth Gospel to which it belongs, which extends from Jn 7:1 to Jn 10:42. These four chapters constitute the center of the public life of Jesus, the culminating point of his revelation to the world, in the Temple of Jerusalem. The thematic unity of this section is evident: Jesus reveals himself to the world (cf. 7:4), but he is continually in controversy with «the Jews». A theme from the Prologue returns here and reaches, with regard to the public life of Jesus, its decisive point: «He came to his own, and his own did not receive him» (Jn 1:11).

First of all, what is this «sheepfold»? In the Greek Bible it is often metaphorically associated with areas concerning the Temple. We must also add that, already in the Old Testament, the term «sheep» is frequently used in a purely allegorical sense to designate the people of Israel (This 34:31; Because 23:1). The vocabulary of our verse would therefore evoke a situation analogous to that of Ps 100:3–4 (LXX):

«Know that the Lord alone is God: he made us and we are his, his people and the flock of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise; give thanks to him, bless his name».

In Jn 10:1 the sheepfold metaphorically indicates the holy place of Israel, the Temple of Jerusalem, or its vestibule, which represents and symbolizes the theocratic Judaism; while the shepherd of the sheep, the one who enters through the gate, is Jesus, the new Shepherd of Israel, who indeed presented himself in the Temple of Jerusalem to reveal himself to the Jews during the feast of Tabernacles (Jn 7:14).

These are veiled yet precise allusions that Jesus, according to Saint John, is making regarding his mission; they combine both figurative elements and references to historical situations, in order to make understood the value and the nature of his messianic identity. He is not a thief or a robber — the same Greek term will be used to identify Barabbas in the Passion narrative, described by Matthew as a «notorious» prisoner (Mt 27:16) — Jesus is not a revolutionary or a rebel interested in violent liberation from Roman domination, in order to establish a Jewish power that is at once political and religious. Rather, he entered the Temple by the proper way, during the feast of Tabernacles; he presented himself legitimately to the Jewish people in order to reveal himself as their Shepherd, as the true Messiah. In chapter 10 of Saint John, Jesus adopts a figurative, enigmatic language, yet the teaching remains essentially the same: it always concerns his messianic mission.

The second verse of the passage is even more theologically significant: «He calls his own sheep, each one by name, and leads them out». All the sheep of the fold, the Jews, were able to hear the word of Jesus (cf. Jn 18:20), but only some of them became «his sheep», that is, those who were given to him by the Father (v. 29; cf. 6:37,39). By virtue of this gift, Jesus can say that they are «in his hand» (v. 28); for the same reason, during the Last Supper, he will consider the disciples as «his own» (Jn 13:1). To this disposition on the part of the Father corresponds a call on the part of Jesus: «He calls his own sheep, each one by name». This is the first act in the constitution of a new flock brought about by Jesus.

His sheep, the Shepherd «leads out» from the fold. The verb used here by the evangelist is the technical term of the vocabulary of the Exodus: God «brought out» his people, the children of Israel, from Egypt (Ex 3:10; 6:27); likewise later, at the time of the second Exodus, he will «bring them out» from among the peoples (This 34:13). The idea evoked by this word is clear: «to lead out» means to liberate from slavery. It is striking, and at the same time tragic, that this term, once used to indicate the end of captivity, must now be used against Israel itself; for its eyes did not open to the true light of the messianic times, and therefore the Messiah Jesus must now «lead out» his sheep, as once from Egypt.

But in order to grasp all the implications of this idea within the overall economy of Jesus’ life, it must be connected to the preceding account, that of the man born blind, where it had already been formulated. For this man, Jesus was at first only an unknown figure (Jn 9:11). But after the healing, in the course of the controversy with the Jews, he progressively discovers in him a prophet (v. 17), one sent by God (v. 33), the Son of Man (vv. 35–37), thus becoming the very type of the believer. The Jews, on the other hand, who considered themselves so clear-sighted in religious matters, became completely blind before the light of the world (vv. 39–41). Now, seeing the attachment of the former blind man to Jesus, «they cast him out» (Jn 9:34). At this moment the κρίμα is fulfilled, the judgment of which Jesus speaks at the end of the controversy (Jn 9:39), a judgment that foreshadows and announces the rupture between Church and Synagogue (Synagogue of Jn 9:22). In the present passage, the behavior of those same Jews is thus taken up again and ratified: they had excluded from the synagogue the man born blind, healed by Jesus and become his disciple. The call that the Shepherd addresses to his sheep within the Jewish fold thus becomes the first act of a separation: that which will oppose the old flock, Israel, and the new one, the Church. It is probable that John is writing precisely in this moment when this separation is taking place, which nevertheless does not authorize any anti-Jewish retaliation or justification of antisemitism.

The relationship between the Shepherd and his sheep is described in these terms: «He goes before them, and the sheep follow him». As he has already done, the evangelist once again uses the vocabulary typical of the Exodus cycle: «The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes» (Deut 1:30; Mic 2:13). In the Fourth Gospel, the verb «to go» (journey) almost always refers to Jesus in relation to his mission, which is a new Exodus (cf. Jn 14:2,3,12,28; 16:7,28). In this way, the Shepherd who walks ahead of his sheep presents himself as the new leader of the people of God. The sheep «follow» him, expressing that essential docility of the disciple toward the Master (cf. Jn 1:37,38,41,43), founded on the fact that they know his voice. These themes will then be taken up more insistently in the second part of the discourse (vv. 14–16) and later in Jesus’ final declarations at the feast of Dedication (v. 27).

How, finally, must the expression «the gate of the sheep» be interpreted? If the old fold has completed its function, it is no longer necessary to mention it; logically, Jesus could have said: «I am the gate of the fold». But instead he uses a new expression, because now he himself is the gate for the sheep. New relationships are henceforth outlined between Jesus and his own; once they have gone out of the fold, the sheep must now «enter» through the gate which is Jesus. Here we pass from the historical level to the typological and spiritual level. It is no longer a matter of the fold of Judaism: by entering through the «gate» that is Jesus, the sheep enter into a new environment of a completely different nature. The exegetes refer in this regard to Ps 118:19–20: «Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will enter them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it». It is likely that the background of our verse is this psalm, since Ps 118 was used in the liturgy of the feast of Tabernacles, and we recall that the discourse on the Good Shepherd was delivered, according to John, in the vicinity of the Temple, at the concluding moment of that great solemnity. The whole context therefore favored the use of this metaphor of the gate. But the insistence with which Jesus applies it to himself — «I am the gate of the sheep» — clearly shows that it can no longer refer to the Temple of the old economy. Jesus, drawing inspiration from the realities that surround him, intends to speak of the new Temple that he himself inaugurates. In the figurative discourse, the gate and the fold still designated historical realities: the Temple of Jerusalem and the theocratic Judaism; but from the moment in which these realities are referred metaphorically to Jesus, they are transposed to another level, which is spiritual.

The use of the terminology of our verse in the pre-Johannine Christian tradition is also very illuminating. The Synoptics speak several times of the gate that gives access to the Kingdom (Mt 7:13–14; 25:10–12; Page 13:24–26); it was a metaphor belonging to the eschatological vocabulary. The same applies to the verb «to enter», which was commonly used to designate entry into the Kingdom of God (Mt 7:21; Acts 14:22). John takes up this usage (Jn 3:5), but in the present context everything is centered on Jesus: it is through him that one must «enter» in order to be saved.

This necessarily brief analysis of the vocabulary of our passage highlights the theological significance of Jesus’ statement: «I am the gate of the sheep». The first idea it expresses is that of mediation, and therefore of the possibility of access to salvation. This is explicitly stated in v. 9: «I am the gate: whoever enters only through me will be saved». On the other hand, Jesus is not only mediator. The gate is not merely a place of passage through which one «enters»; it already belongs to the fold itself. Indeed, in the Old Testament, the «gate» of the city or of the Temple often metonymically indicates the entire city or the Temple in its totality: cf. Ps 122:2; 87:1–2; 118:20. Applied to Jesus, the image of the gate therefore does not only mean that through him one has access to salvation and to life; it also indicates that the sheep find these goods in him. In other words, Jesus is not only a way of access; he is also the new fold, the new Temple, in which his own can obtain the messianic goods. Here we find again the theme of Jesus as the new Temple, proclaimed by Saint John from the very beginning of his Gospel (2:13–22). But if this is so, one might ask why the metaphor of the gate has been preferred to that of the fold or of the Temple. Probably the image of the gate, with all that its biblical background suggested, was better suited to express simultaneously two connected ideas: on the one hand, that of entrance, of mediation; on the other, that of a vital environment and of communion. These are the two ideas that will reappear in the very evocative text of Jn 14:6: «I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life»; Jesus is the Way to the Father, the perfect mediator who grants us access to the life of the Father; but he is at the same time the Life: in Jesus himself we find the life of the Father, because he, the Only-Begotten Son «who is in the bosom of the Father» (Jn 1:18), possesses it in himself in fullness.

The patristic tradition will place greater emphasis on the future, specifically eschatological aspect of the theme of the gate: through Jesus we have access to eternal life, to the kingdom of heaven. But here, as elsewhere, John anticipates the eschatological themes in the very person and historical work of Jesus: at the same time, through him and in communion with him, already now we can obtain the goods of salvation, the divine life. The idea expressed here has been magnificently commented upon in an anonymous text that circulated under the name of Augustine in various florilegia of patristic citations: «Jesus is the door, the door in which is the house, the house in which the weary rests». See also Ignatius of Antioch: «He is the door of the Father, through which enter Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the prophets and the apostles and the Church»; Hermas: «The gate is the Son of God. It is the only entrance that leads to the Lord. No one will therefore be introduced to him except through his Son»; Saint Augustine: «For Christ is that door, and through Christ we enter into eternal life».

From the Hermitage, 26 April 2026

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THE GOOD SHEPHERD AND THE SHEEP GATE

The sheepfold metaphorically indicates the holy place of Israel, the Jerusalem Temple, or your hallway, which represents and symbolizes theocratic Judaism; while the shepherd of the sheep, the one who enters through the door, It's Jesus, the new Shepherd of Israel, what, indeed, He appeared in the Temple of Jerusalem to reveal himself to the Jews during the Feast of Tabernacles.

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The liturgy reserves the figure of the Good Shepherd a privileged place on the Fourth Sunday of Easter. All Tradition transmits the fundamental idea that Christ is the savior of the sheep, because Jesus leads his people beyond death, towards the heavenly pastures, in the Father's house. The passage presented below expresses this tension that is at the same time soteriological and christological..

"Actually, truly I tell you: he who does not enter the sheepfold through the door, but it goes up on the other hand, that is a thief and robber. But he who enters through the door is a shepherd of the sheep. The guardian opens it and the sheep hear his voice: he calls his sheep, to each one by name, and takes them out. And when he has taken out all his sheep, walk in front of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. to a stranger, instead, they won't follow, but they will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers". Jesus told them this parable, but they didn't understand what he was talking about. Then Jesus told them again: "Actually, truly I tell you: I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door: if one enters for me, will be saved; will come and go and find grass. The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy; "I have come so that they may have life and have it abundantly." (Jn 10,1-10).

To better understand the scope of the text, it is necessary to place it within the great section of the fourth Gospel to which it belongs, which goes from Jn 7,1 until Jn 10,42. These four chapters constitute the center of Jesus' public life, the climax of his revelation to the world, in the Temple of Jerusalem. The thematic unity of this section is evident: Jesus reveals himself to the world (cf. 7,4), but he finds himself continually in controversy with "the Jews". Here we return to a theme from the prologue that reaches its decisive point with regard to the public life of Jesus.: "He came to his own and his own did not receive him" (Jn 1,11).

First of all, What is this "sheep fold"? In the Greek Bible it is frequently associated, in a metaphorical way, to spaces related to the Temple. Let us also add that, already in the Old Testament, The term "sheep" is often used in an allegorical sense to designate the people of Israel. (This 34,31; Because 23,1). The vocabulary of our verse would evoke, therefore, a situation analogous to that of Sal 100,3-4 (LXX):

«Recognize that the Lord is God: he made us and we are his, his people and the flock of his pasture. Enter its doors with thanksgiving, through its courts with hymns of praise; thank him, bless his name".

And Jn 10,1 the sheepfold metaphorically indicates the holy place of Israel, the Temple of Jerusalem or its vestibule, which represents and symbolizes theocratic Judaism; while the shepherd of the sheep, the one who enters through the door, It's Jesus, the new Shepherd of Israel, who in fact appeared in the Temple of Jerusalem to reveal himself to the Jews during the Feast of Tabernacles (Jn 7,14).

These are veiled but precise allusions that Jesus, according to Saint John, is doing about your mission; They mix figurative elements and references to historical situations., in order to make understand the value and nature of his messiahship. He is neither a thief nor a robber — the same Greek term will be used to identify Barabbas in the passion story., described by Mateo as a "famous" prisoner (Mt 27,16) — Jesus is neither a revolutionary nor a rebel interested in a violent liberation from Roman rule to establish a Jewish power that is both political and religious.. On the contrary, He entered the Temple by the legitimate path, during the Feast of Tabernacles; He legitimately presented himself to the Jewish people to reveal himself as their Shepherd, like the true messiah. In the chapter 10 of Saint John, Jesus adopts figurative and enigmatic language, but the teaching remains essentially the same: always has as its object its messianic mission.

The second verse of the passage It is even more relevant from a theological point of view: "He calls his sheep, to each one by name, and takes them out". All the sheep of the fold, the jews, they were able to know the word of Jesus (cf. Jn 18,20), but only some became "his sheep", that is to say, those that were given to him by the Father (v. 29; cf. 6,37.39). By virtue of this gift, Jesus can say that they are "in his hand" (v. 28); for the same reason, during the last supper, will be able to consider the disciples as "his own" (Jn 13,1). This disposition on the part of the Father corresponds to a call from Jesus: "He calls his sheep, to each one by name. This is the first act of the constitution of a new flock carried out by Jesus.

The Shepherd "takes" his sheep out of the fold. The verb used here by the evangelist is the technical term of the vocabulary of the Exodus: God “brought” his people out of Egypt, the children of Israel (Ex 3,10; 6,27); in the same way, later, at the time of the second Exodus, He will "take them out" from among the peoples (This 34,13). The idea evoked by this word is clear: "take out" means to free from bondage. It is notable and at the same time tragic that this term, once used to indicate the end of captivity, must now be applied against Israel itself; because their eyes were not opened to the true light of the messianic times, and therefore the Messiah Jesus must now "take out" his sheep, as in another time of Egypt.

But to understand the full implications of this idea in the whole life of Jesus, It is necessary to relate it to the preceding story, that of the man blind from birth, where it had already been formulated. for this man, Jesus at first was nothing more than a stranger (Jn 9,11). But, after healing, in the course of the controversy with the Jews, progressively discovers in him a prophet (v. 17), to a messenger from God (v. 33), to the Son of man (vv. 35-37), thus becoming the very type of the believer. The Jews, instead, who believed themselves to be so clairvoyant in religious matters, They became completely blind to the light of the world (vv. 39-41). Now, seeing the former blind man's attachment to Jesus, "they expelled him" (Jn 9,34). At that moment the κρίμα is fulfilled, the judgment that Jesus will speak about at the end of the controversy (Jn 9,39), judgment that prefigures and announces the break between Church and Synagogue (synagogue de Jn 9,22). In today's passage the behavior of those same Jews is taken up and sanctioned., that they had excluded from the synagogue the man born blind who was cured by Jesus and became his disciple. The call that the Shepherd addresses to his sheep within the Jewish fold thus becomes the first act of a separation: the one that the old flock will oppose, Israel, and the new, the Church. It is likely that John is writing precisely at this moment when the separation is taking place, which, however, absolutely does not authorize anti-Jewish reprisals or justifications of anti-Semitism.

The links between the Shepherd and his sheep are described in these terms: "He walks before them and the sheep follow him". As you have already done, the evangelist uses again the vocabulary typical of the Exodus cycle: "The Lord your God, that marches before you, will fight for you, as he did to you in Egypt before your eyes." (Dt 1,30; friends 2,13). In the fourth Gospel, the verb "walk" (journey) almost always refers to Jesus in relation to his mission, what is a new Exodus (cf. Jn 14,2.3.12.28; 16,7.28). Thus, The Shepherd who walks before his sheep presents himself as the new leader of God's people. The sheep "follow" him, expressing the essential docility of the disciple towards the Master (cf. Jn 1,37.38.41.43), founded on the fact that they know their voice. These topics will be taken up with greater insistence in the second part of the speech. (vv. 14-16) and later in the final statements of Jesus on the feast of the Dedication (v. 27).

How should it be interpreted, Finally, the expression "the sheep gate"? If the old fold has finished its function, no need to mention it anymore; logically, Jesus could have said: «I am the door of the sheepfold». But use a new expression, because now he himself is the door for the sheep. New relationships are now being outlined between Jesus and his people.; once out of the fold, the sheep must "enter" through the door that is Jesus. Here we move from the historical level to the typological and spiritual level.. It is no longer about the fold of Judaism: entering through the "door" that is Jesus, the sheep enter a new realm of a completely different nature. For this purpose, exegetes refer to Ps. 118,19-20: «Open the doors of justice for me: I will enter through them to give thanks to the Lord. This is the door of the Lord: through it the righteous enter. It is likely that the background of our verse is this psalm, since the Salt 118 It was used in the liturgy of the Feast of Tabernacles, and let us remember that the Good Shepherd speech was given, according to John, in the vicinity of the Temple, at the concluding moment of that great solemnity. The entire context favored, therefore, using this door metaphor. But the insistence with which Jesus applies it to himself – “I am the gate of the sheep” – clearly shows that it can no longer be the Temple of the old economy.. Jesus, inspired by the realities that surround him, He wants to talk about the new Temple that he himself inaugurates. In figurative speech, the door and the sheepfold still designated historical realities: the Temple of Jerusalem and theocratic Judaism; but from the moment in which these realities refer metaphorically to Jesus, they move to another plane, what is the spiritual.

Also the use of terminology of our verse in the pre-Johannic Christian tradition is very illuminating. The synoptics speak several times of the door that gives access to the Kingdom (Mt 7,13-14; 25,10-12; LC 13,24-26); It was a metaphor for eschatological vocabulary. The same thing happens with the verb "enter.", which was commonly used to designate entry into the Kingdom of God (Mt 7,21; Hch 14,22). Juan takes up this use (Jn 3,5), but in the current context everything focuses on Jesus: It is through him that we must "enter" to be saved..

This necessarily brief analysis of the vocabulary of our passage highlights the theological scope of Jesus' statement: "I am the door of the sheep". The first idea he expresses is that of mediation, and therefore the possibility of access to salvation. It is explicitly stated in v. 9: «I am the door: "Whoever enters only through me will be saved.". Besides, Jesus is not just a mediator. The door is not only a place of passage through which one "enters"; already belongs to the same fold. Indeed, in the Old Testament, The "gate" of the city or the Temple frequently indicates, by metonymy, the entire city or the Temple in its entirety: cf. Shall 122,2; 87,1-2; 118,20. Applied to Jesus, the image of the door does not mean, therefore, only that through it you access salvation and life; It also indicates that the sheep find these goods in it. In other words, Jesus is not just an access; It is also the new fold, the new temple, in which his own can obtain messianic goods. Here the theme of Jesus as a new Temple reappears, stated by Saint John from the beginning of his Gospel (2,13-22). But, if this is so, One may wonder why the metaphor of the door has been preferred to that of the sheepfold or the Temple.. Probably, the image of the door, with everything that its biblical background suggested, was better suited to simultaneously express two related ideas: on the one hand, the entrance, mediation; on the other, that of a vital atmosphere and communion. These are the two ideas that will reappear in the suggestive text of Jn 14,6: «I am the Way, "Truth and Life"; Jesus is the Way to the Father, the perfect mediator who introduces us into the life of the Father; but it is at the same time life: In Jesus himself we find the life of the Father, because he, the Only Begotten Son “who is in the bosom of the Father” (Jn 1,18), he possesses it in himself in fullness.

The patristic tradition will emphasize the future aspect more, specifically eschatological, of the door theme: through Jesus we have access to eternal life, to the kingdom of heaven. but here, like in other places, John anticipates eschatological themes in the same person and in the historical work of Jesus: at the same time, through him and in communion with him, From now on we can obtain the goods of salvation, divine life. The idea expressed here has been magnificently commented on in an anonymous text that circulated under the name of Augustine in various florilegiums of patristic quotations.: «Jesus is the door, the door in which is the house, the house in which the weary rests». See also Ignatius of Antioch: «He is the door of the Father, through which Abraham enters, Isaac and Jacob and the prophets and the apostles and the Church"; Hermas: «The door is the Son of God. It is the only entrance that leads to the Lord. "No one will be brought before him except by his Son."; Saint Augustine: «For Christ is that door, and through Christ we enter into eternal life».

From the Hermitage, 26 April 2026

 

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Sant'Angelo Cave in Ripe (Civitella del Tronto)

 

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Alberto Ravagnani read through Bob Dylan's «Blowin' in the wind».

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ALBERTO RAVAGNANI READ THROUGH «BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND» DI BOB DYLAN

If we want the Church to have priests who are happy and serene in carrying out such a demanding and all-encompassing ministry, they must not be left floating in the wind, but that you respond with sincerity.

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The well-known story of Alberto Ravagnani which crossed social media a few days ago, for his decision to leave the priesthood, he collected as is customary nowadays, comments and reflections of different nature and equally alternating positions: he did well, it hurt, it was time, let us pray for him.

Every choice remains profoundly human even when it has to do with realities that involve the spiritual sphere, faith, the church, It gave. Whereby, without prejudice to good conscience, must be respected, including that of Ravagnani who decides to put aside his being a Catholic priest. I asked myself, But, if there were deeper reasons behind this very striking gesture, due to Don Alberto's media exposure. Naturally, not knowing the person directly, indeed having frequented it almost nothing social, if not very rarely and out of curiosity towards the phenomenon of priests influence, I base myself on his latest releases, in which he explained some reasons for his gesture and in the book now published with the emblematic title: The choice (Who).

In a video interview (Who) Don Alberto confronts Giacomo Poretti, the well-known actor of the comic trio Aldo, John and James, which has a following podcast is that, against the other, he makes no secret of his faith. Giovanni delicately asks Alberto some questions about why he became a priest and why he has now decided to leave. Ravagnani's answers highlight how they used to be, before the conversion, occurred following a confession, he was introverted, very closed in on himself and how he then felt the desire to communicate his newfound happiness to everyone. The phrasebook is simple, it doesn't dig deep, according to a style in use among the influence, including priests, who have this need to be easily understood by everyone. So was the decision to leave, always explained with words that are far too simplistic for such a tiring choice, appears linked to his current desire for freedom which has led him to now perceive the priest's dress as tight for what he feels like doing, that is, equally bringing Jesus to young people, to the worlds that do not know him or mock him, but without the restrictions and rules imposed on those who hold the role of presbyter, who must obey the Bishop for example.

According to his words, the word "don" preceded by the first name, it would be an obstacle, because it would lead people to see the role first of all or to remember the negative examples of some priests. He confesses that he will always feel like "Don Alberto" and that probably having been a "Don" will still identify him that way in the eyes of those he meets, even if Giacomo Poretti cordially reminds him that it will always be for him: Alberto. But then Ravagnani also makes other confessions, that a 21 year old, in the seminar, when he began to dress like a priest, with the collar for example, he was happy about it, only to then realize that he had put other experiences aside, like emotional ones or a degree, to see and perceive himself only as a presbyter and as such dressed. It turns out, so, missing something and what previously identified it is no longer useful, indeed it appears to be an obstacle. The fact that a priest, now ex, can end the interview by talking about his perception of the priest as a man who must appear almost perfect in the eyes of people and therefore he, discovering instead the value of freedom with respect to this vision, now he can breathe a sigh of relief, makes you think.

In a later video (Who), done to promote his recent book, Ravagnani offers some other reasons that go deeper. He states sequentially:

«I was a good child, a good boy, a brave seminarian, a good priest, a brave father, a bravo influence, but the need to be so impeccable ended up overwhelming me. And maybe that was a good thing, because between being perfect and being true the second is much better".

Any therapist, to hear these words, would raise the antennas and ask the interested party questions that would no longer concern the choice itself to abandon the priesthood, behind which always hide judgments both of the interested party towards himself and of the users reached by such news. They would rather have to do with deeper reasons that infer the psychic reality of the person making such assertions and their personality, how it has developed over time and therefore why one should feel that they are good and perfect: compared to whom, to demonstrate what, which internal gratification or psychological position does it consolidate?

Opening his book we note that the sentence he uttered in the video is in fact the summary of the chapters that make up the writing. In the text he examines the epochal passages of his life up to this point and confesses among many other things that he has in fact turned to a therapist who is helping him to unravel the internal tangle. You can read it where one of the conversations with the specialist is reported: «I take a deep breath. But I know I have to do something. I have to have the courage to choose. For the good of the Fraternity (n.d.r: a community animated by him). And of the Church". «And also for his», he adds, piano. "Yup", I say after a moment, "for mine too". He remains silent for a while." (pag. 237).

Scrolling through the pages of the biography an aspect stands out that in itself would have nothing original, if it weren't for the character's notoriety. That is, the story of a young man who he carried with him throughout his adolescence, of the seminary and of the priestly ministry the psychological position of the child he implements, in a context of misunderstanding, especially family, a defense mechanism that leads him on the one hand to protect himself from the world that does not understand or welcome him as he is; on the other to consider himself better and capable of straightening out that world with his commitment and effort; shielding himself by becoming good, being perfect, show how good you are in order to be recognized.

Let's read his words arose following an outburst of violence by the father:

«I don't remember getting hurt, but I remember that I would have liked to do it to my father: obviously I had to cancel this immoral impulse. And then another ten thousand experience points for the good boy, who learns to suppress desires for revenge or anger, because he perceives those feelings as "wrong" and incompatible with being loved. That is how, year after year, the good child in me grows up to completely take over the scene of my life. Little Alberto becomes good and well-liked by everyone. At home I am obedient and never give my parents any trouble. At school I am polite and diligent, the model student praised by the teachers and always available to help my classmates. In my grandparents' town everyone tells me I'm an angel, because I'm kind, patient and imperturbable, basically an adult in a child's body. Or maybe, a child who is unable to live fully as such" (pag. 17).

The itinerary already seems well traced and where it can best be explored if not in the Church? An all-encompassing and enveloping entity, capable of enhancing the psychological mechanisms of goodness and perfection. A reality, The Other Brother, always needs improvement so why not enter right there where I can make my talent count, step by step, in a titanic effort that will then backfire on me, precisely because no one had helped me see that child who just wanted to be welcomed, understood and valued; that he could have different experiences, including mistakes, that bring a boy to maturity, until he becomes a man capable of making choices. Instead of banning yourself, to nourish a psychic position, the natural experiences of youthful life, like studying, sport, traveling and last but not least affection and sex. It comes naturally to me to say: there was no way it wouldn't end the way it did, with the abandonment of the priesthood. Because life presses with its demands, the body also screams and I am not here to underline that the only spaces of freedom that Ravagnani obtained for himself were those of autoeroticism, confessed by him in the book. So I think, that he was right in the end to make the choice he made, if this leads him to the truth of himself and to action, even in his thirties, the normal experiences that lead a young person to psychological maturity, morale, existential. Especially if you have never done them or if you have prevented them yourself due to an idea of ​​unhealthy perfection. This is my wish for him, that he gets out of his script and lives a real life.

However, a painful question remains. How come the Church, that is, the people responsible for the training of that seminarian, later presbyter, they didn't notice all this at all? It's one thing for someone to become a good animator within an oratory, no matter how varied and engaging the Milanese ones may be, but it's another thing for a boy who is almost twenty years old to be welcomed into the seminary and brought to the priesthood without anyone ever helping him to look inside himself., so that he could become a real priest; not a good priest. And we're talking about years, not for a few days.

Ravagnani's analysis of life in the seminary, apart from the fact that he liked it and exalted it, but we also know why at this point, she is merciless. Let's also do the tare and let's also say that it comes from someone who is leaving and therefore it will inevitably be easy for him to now find out all the flaws of the case on how one gets to the priesthood and on how one lives or on the negative examples that abound. But that the Rector of a seminary - and we are talking about one of the most important dioceses in the Church -, be sure to ask a young man who enters: «Have you ever had sexual intercourse?»; while the true motivations of a boy who comes to write are never examined: «I've never tried with a girl, but with God yes. And I did it with him. I didn't ask him out, I asked him to enter the seminary" (pag. 35). Yet he speaks of multiple conversations he had with those responsible, with the spiritual father. Because this idea of ​​self, this image of faith and God, cloaked in a Promethean search for perfection, it was never noticed? And conversely one has to ask: what kind of training is given in the seminars, what is it ultimately aimed at?

Priests leave who in one direction, some for another, there have been many and there will be many more. The church, as Francesco Guccini sang about his city of choice, Bologna, And: «An old matron, with slightly soft hips"; capable of absorbing everything and moving forward. But if these issues are not addressed, where you go? Today fewer and fewer children and young people are knocking on the doors of seminaries, but that's not the point in the end, as the story of Don Alberto reveals. Because even in those realities that are seen as the panacea for all ills, because there a few more young people arrive and ask for the dress, the strict rules and that tradition is maintained, people's intimate problems remain. Ravagnani also coveted the collar, he dressed in black, even in my underwear (his words, pag. 61), he felt like a priest to the core. Maybe something needs to be revised? Some fault admitted? Perhaps that good psychologist who pointed out to Ravagnani that good must be sought for oneself as well as for others, could have access to the seminars? Or you are afraid to find out the truth? That the king is often naked, even if he perceives himself to be true and right because he thinks he is dressed appropriately and respects the rules of the role to the full.

The questions pile up. But if we want the Church to have priests who are happy and serene in carrying out such a demanding and all-encompassing ministry, they must not be left floating in the wind, but that you respond with sincerity.

From the Hermitage, 11 February 2026

 

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Sant'Angelo Cave in Ripe (Civitella del Tronto)

 

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Every man should seek his own desert – Every man should seek his own desert – Every man should seek his own desert

/in /by

Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

 

Italian, english, español

 

EVERY MAN SHOULD SEARCH FOR HIS DESERT

John the Baptist lives in an essential way, simple and without any form of narcissism, he is completely focused on those he doesn't yet know, but who he already recognizes as stronger than him. So from the Baptist we learn not to look so much at ourselves, but to open ourselves to others and to the Other and above all we learn to search, maybe even where we live, a little "desert" of ours where not only our voice resonates, but that of the only Word that saves.

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PDF print format article – PDF Article print format – PDF Article in printed format

 

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Not only the Gospels tell us about John the Baptist, but also historians, for example the Jew Flavius ​​Josephus who defined it in his work Jewish Antiquities as a "good man"., who exhorted the Jews to lead a virtuous life and to practice mutual justice and piety towards God, inviting them to approach the baptism together".

The Baptist imagines the figure of the Messiah as a ruthless judge, who would not come to save, but to settle the score by proposing the simplest solution, capable of remedying the spread of sin: the death of the sinner. But Jesus will never exercise his messianic role in this way and he will take up some of the Baptist's words, like the one on conversion (cf.. Mt 4,17: «Convert»), he will say that he came not for ruin, but for the salvation of sinners. This is the Gospel passage for the second Sunday of Advent:

"In those days, John the Baptist came and preached in the Judean desert saying: «Be converted, because the kingdom of heaven is near!». In fact, he is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said: «Voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord, his paths straight!». And he, Giovanni, he wore a camel hair dress and a leather belt around his hips; his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea and the whole area along the Jordan flocked to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. Seeing many Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he told them: "You brood of vipers!! Who made you believe you could escape the impending wrath? Therefore produce a fruit worthy of conversion, and don't think you can say it within yourselves: «We have Abraham as our father!». For I tell you that from these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already placed at the roots of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you in the water for conversion; but he who comes after me is stronger than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. He holds the shovel in his hand and will clean his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but he will burn the straw with unquenchable fire" (Mt 3,1-12).

In the words of John the Baptist we understand his urgent call for conversion, which distinguishes the season of Advent. The word used is metanoia, which we could literally break down into two concepts, "beyond" (meta) the "mind" (We), to indicate a "change of opinion". Especially Jesus, more than the Baptist, who called for a revision of customs and the correction of injustices, will ask for a conversion of the way of thinking to welcome the kingdom and its newness.

Giovanni al Giordano must have aroused considerable amazement at the time, finding themselves in a rather particular situation and condition, if not anomalous; so long as, we know from the Evangelist Luke (cf.. LC 1,5) who was the son of a priest, nevertheless he lives in the Judean desert. This fact must have impressed the memory of his contemporaries, the fact, that is, that Giovanni had distanced himself from his father's profession. A commentator writes: «The only son of a priest of Jerusalem had in fact the solemn obligation to take over from his father in his function and to guarantee, through marriage and children, the continuity of his priestly lineage. If this was the real historical situation, at a certain point John must have turned his back and must have scandalously - for Jewish eyes - refused his obligation to be a priest in his father's footsteps". A sensational gesture therefore takes place at the beginning of Giovanni's story, that Matthew's Gospel passage presents to us today. He goes near the place from which Elijah ascended to heaven, the fiery prophet of the Old Testament who attempted to bring Israel back to God and whose return would precede the Messiah. Perhaps for this reason John dresses like Elijah (2Re 1,8), but because his diet was based on Jewish rules of purity, locusts being insects that we can feed on (Lv 11,22), and bee honey as well kasher — that is, respectful of the laws of Kasherut, the suitability of a food to be consumed by the Jewish people - it is however possible that the Forerunner also had other concerns. Because impurity prevented one from approaching God, John does not only perform ascetic gestures, but avoid dressing in fabrics touched by women or eating foods elaborated by others, for fear of contamination.

As we wrote at the beginning John did not clearly see the face of the Messiah, yet he consistently lived his wait to the end, in the desert and near the Jordan, where he baptized. Looking at him, Christians experience the time of Advent as an opportunity not to be wasted and to be, Also today, in our desert, returning to ourselves, changing mentality and life, to open ourselves to Him, Jesus the Christ, that is to come.

Furthermore, the words spoken by John are still relevant today, not only because they announce conversion for forgiveness of sins, but also because they invite us to be credible by leading an authentic life. John the Baptist lives in an essential way, simple and without any form of narcissism, he is completely focused on those he doesn't yet know, but who he already recognizes as stronger than him. So from the Baptist we learn not to look so much at ourselves, but to open ourselves to others and to the Other and above all we learn to search, maybe even where we live, a little "desert" of ours where not only our voice resonates, but that of the only Word that saves.

In fact all the readings for the second Sunday of Advent converge in delivering a message centered on the Messiah. He is the one on whom the Spirit of God rests with his gifts (Is 11,1-10); Jesus is that Messiah who, according to the word of Scripture, he fulfilled the promises of God made to the fathers (RM 15,4-9); finally he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire: it is the strongest announced by the Baptist (Mt 3,1-12). It is revealed by the Spirit (first reading), prophesied by the Scriptures (second reading), indicated by a man, Giovanni, the prophet and precursor (Gospel). Therefore this second Sunday of Advent has at its center the biblical message of preparation for the coming of the Lord. This happens with the help of the Spirit to be invoked and to whose dynamism one submits, with the help of Scripture to listen to and meditate on, so that he transforms our hearts so that they are inclined towards conversion. Which is what Giovanni asks for by experiencing it firsthand. While exhorting others by saying: «Prepare the way of the Lord» (Mt 3,3), Giovanni is already preparing it, he makes himself the path that the Lord will follow. He is the forerunner, he who precedes the Messiah with his life anticipating in himself much of what the Messiah will then do.

from the Hermitage, 7 December 2025

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EVERY MAN SHOULD SEEK HIS OWN DESERT

John the Baptist lives in an essential, simple way and without any form of narcissism; he is wholly oriented toward the One whom he does not yet know, but whom he already recognises as stronger than himself. Thus from the Baptist we learn not to look so much at ourselves, but to open ourselves to others and to the Other; and above all we learn to seek — perhaps precisely where we live — our own small “desert”, where not only our own voice resounds, but the voice of the one Word that saves.

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Not only the Gospels speak to us about John the Baptist, but also historians — for example the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who in his work Jewish Antiquities described him as “a good man, who exhorted the Jews to lead a virtuous life, to practice justice toward one another and piety toward God, inviting them to approach baptism together.” The Baptist imagined the figure of the Messiah as a ruthless judge who would come not to save but to settle accounts, proposing the simplest solution to remedy the spread of sin: the death of the sinner. But Jesus would never exercise His messianic role in such a manner, and even if He would take up some of the Baptist’s words — such as the call to conversion (cf. Mt 4:17: “Repent”) — He would declare that He had come not for the ruin but for the salvation of sinners. This is the Gospel passage of the Second Sunday of Advent:

«In those days John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: “A voice of one crying out in the desert, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins. When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”» (Mt 3:1–12).

In the words of John the Baptist we perceive his urgent appeal to conversion, which characterises the season of Advent. The word used is metanoia, which we could literally break into two concepts: “beyond” (meta) the “mind” (We), indicating a “change of mind” or “change of understanding”. Above all Jesus — more than the Baptist, who invited to a revision of customs and to the correction of injustices — will ask for a conversion of the way of thinking in order to welcome the kingdom and its newness.

John at the Jordan must have aroused considerable astonishment in his own time, finding himself in a situation and condition rather unusual, if not anomalous; for we know from the Evangelist Luke (cf. Page 1:5) that he was the son of a priest, and yet he lives in the desert of Judea. This fact must have impressed the memory of his contemporaries — that John had distanced himself from his father’s profession. A commentator writes: “The only son of a priest of Jerusalem had, in fact, the solemn obligation to take his father’s place in his function and to guarantee, through marriage and children, the continuity of his own priestly lineage. If this was the real historical situation, at a certain point John must have turned his back and — scandalously, to Jewish eyes — refused his obligation to be a priest in his father’s footsteps.”

Thus, a striking gesture stands at the beginning of John’s story, which today’s Gospel passage from Matthew presents to us. He goes near the place from which Elijah had been taken up into heaven, the fiery prophet of the Old Testament who had attempted to bring Israel back to God, and whose return was expected to precede the Messiah. Perhaps for this reason John dresses like Elijah (2 Kgs 1:8), but since his diet was based on Jewish purity rules — locusts being insects permitted for consumption (Lev 11:22), and wild honey likewise kasher, that is, in accordance with the laws of kashrut which determine whether a food is suitable for the Jewish people — it is possible that the Forerunner had other concerns as well. Since impurity prevented a person from approaching God, John not only performs ascetical acts, but avoids wearing fabrics touched by women or eating foods prepared by others, for fear of becoming ritually defiled.

As we wrote at the beginning, John did not clearly see the face of the Messiah, yet he lived his expectation coherently and to the full, in the desert and by the Jordan, where he was baptising. Looking at him, Christians live the season of Advent as an opportunity not to be wasted, and as a call to dwell, even today, in our own desert, returning within ourselves, changing our mindset and our lives, opening ourselves to Him — Jesus the Christ — who is to come.

Moreover, the words spoken by John today are still timely, not only because they proclaim conversion for the forgiveness of sins, but also because they invite us to be credible by leading an authentic life. John the Baptist lives in an essential, simple way and without any form of narcissism; he is wholly oriented toward the One whom he does not yet know, but whom he already recognises as stronger than himself. Thus from the Baptist we learn not to look so much at ourselves, but to open ourselves to others and to the Other; and above all we learn to seek — perhaps precisely where we live — our own small “desert”, where not only our own voice resounds, but the voice of the one Word that saves.

Indeed all the readings of the Second Sunday of Advent converge in delivering a message centred upon the Messiah. He is the one upon whom the Spirit of the Lord rests with His gifts (Is 11:1–10); Jesus is that Messiah who, according to Scripture, has fulfilled the promises of God made to the fathers (Rom 15:4–9); finally, He is the one who will baptise with the Holy Spirit and fire: He is the Mighty One announced by the Baptist (Mt 3:1–12). He is revealed by the Spirit (first reading), prophesied by the Scriptures (second reading), pointed out by a man — John — the prophet and forerunner (Gospel). Therefore this Second Sunday of Advent has at its centre the biblical message of preparation for the coming of the Lord. This takes place with the aid of the Spirit — to be invoked and to whose dynamism we must submit — and with the help of Scripture — to be heard and meditated — so that it may transform our heart and incline it toward conversion. This is what John asks, living it himself in the first person. While he exhorts others saying, “Prepare the way of the Lord” (Mt 3:3), John is already preparing it; he makes of himself the way that the Lord will follow. He is the forerunner, the one who precedes the Messiah with his life, anticipating in himself much of what the Messiah will later accomplish.

From the Hermitage, 7 December 2025

 

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EVERY MAN SHOULD LOOK FOR HIS OWN DESERT

John the Baptist lives in an essential way, simple and without any form of narcissism; is totally oriented towards Him whom he does not yet know, but who he already recognizes as stronger than him. This is how we learn from the Baptist not to look so much at ourselves, but to open ourselves to others and the Other; and above all we learn to look for — perhaps precisely where we live — a small “desert” of our own., where only our voice does not resonate, but the voice of the only Word that saves.

.

Not only the Gospels tell us about John the Baptist; so do historians — for example the Jew Flavius ​​Josephus, who in his work Jewish antiquities He described him as “a good man.”, who exhorted Jews to lead a virtuous life, to practice mutual justice and piety towards God, inviting them to approach baptism together.”. The Baptist imagined the figure of the Messiah as an implacable judge who would come not to save, but to settle accounts, proposing the simplest solution to remedy the spread of sin: the death of the sinner. But Jesus would never exercise his messianic mission in this way.; and although he will take up some words of the Baptist - such as that of conversion (cf. Mt 4,17: «Convert») - will say that he has come not for perdition, but for the salvation of sinners. This is the Gospel passage from the second Sunday of Advent:

«In those days John the Baptist appeared preaching in the desert of Judea: “Become, because the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”. He is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said: “Voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight their paths!”. Juan wore a camel hair dress and a leather belt around his waist.; and their food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem came out to him, all Judea and all the region of the Jordan; and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing your sins. Seeing that many Pharisees and Sadducees came to his baptism, he told them: “Breed of vipers! Who has taught you to flee from the impending wrath? Dad, well, fruit worthy of conversion; and don't think that you can tell each other: 'We have Abraham as our father'. For I tell you that from these stones God is able to raise children to Abraham.. The ax is already placed at the root of the trees: and every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for conversion; but he who comes after me is stronger than me, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. He has the fork in his hand: He will clean his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn.; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.". (Mt 3,1–12).

In the words of John the Baptist we perceive his urgent call to conversion, that characterizes the season of Advent. The word used is metanoia, which we could literally decompose into two concepts: "beyond" (meta) of the “mind” (We), to indicate a “change of mind” or “change of mentality”. Above all Jesus — more than the Baptist, who invited us to review customs and correct injustices - will ask for a conversion of the way of thinking to welcome the Kingdom and its novelty.

Juan, next to the Jordan, must have aroused great astonishment in its time, finding yourself in a very particular situation and condition, if not abnormal; because we know from the evangelist Luke (cf. LC 1,5) who was the son of a priest, and yet he lives in the Judean desert. This fact must have impressed the memory of his contemporaries.: that Juan had distanced himself from his father's profession. A commentator writes: "The only son of a priest in Jerusalem had, indeed, the solemn obligation to succeed his father in his office and to guarantee, through marriage and children, the continuity of his priestly lineage. If this was the real historical situation, At one point Juan must have turned his back and — scandalously —, for Jewish eyes — rejecting his obligation to be a priest following in his father's footsteps.". a gesture, therefore, clamorous is at the beginning of the story of Juan, that the Gospel passage of Matthew presents to us today. He goes to the place from where Elijah had been taken to heaven., the fiery prophet of the Old Testament who had tried to lead Israel back to God, and whose return would precede the Messiah. Maybe this is why Juan dresses like Elijah. (2 Re 1,8), but since their diet was based on the standards of Jewish purity—locusts being insects permitted for consumption (Lv 11,22), and wild honey likewise kasher, that is to say, in accordance with the laws of the kashrut about the nutritional suitability of the Jewish people — it is possible that the Precursor had other concerns as well. Since impurity prevented us from approaching God, Juan not only performs ascetic gestures, but avoids wearing fabrics touched by women or eating foods prepared by others., for fear of ritual contamination.

As we wrote at the beginning, John did not see the face of the Messiah clearly, and yet he lived coherently and to the bottom his expectation, in the desert and by the Jordan, where he baptized. looking at it, Christians live the season of Advent as an occasion that should not be wasted and as a call to remain, also today, in our own desert, returning to ourselves, changing mentality and life, to open ourselves to Him — Jesus the Christ — who is to come.

Besides, the words spoken today by Juan they are still current, not only because they announce conversion for the forgiveness of sins, but also because they invite us to be credible by leading an authentic life. John the Baptist lives in an essential way, simple and without any form of narcissism; is totally oriented towards Him whom he does not yet know, but who he already recognizes as stronger than him. This is how we learn from the Baptist not to look so much at ourselves, but to open ourselves to others and the Other; Above all, we learn to look for — perhaps precisely where we live — a small “desert” of our own., where only our voice does not resonate, but the voice of the only Word that saves.

Indeed, All the readings of the second Sunday of Advent converge to transmit a message centered on the Messiah. He is the one on whom the Spirit of the Lord rests with his gifts (Is 11,1-10); Jesus is that Messiah who, according to the scripture, has fulfilled the promises made by God to the parents (RM 15,4-9); Finally, is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire: is the strongest announced by the Baptist (Mt 3,1-12). It is revealed by the Spirit (first reading), prophesied by the scriptures (second reading), pointed out by a man — John — the prophet and forerunner (Gospel). That is why this second Sunday of Advent has at its center the biblical message of preparation for the coming of the Lord.. This is done with the help of the Spirit — who we must invoke and whose dynamism we must welcome — and with the help of Scripture — which we must listen to and meditate on — so that it transforms our hearts and inclines our lives toward conversion.. That's what Juan asks, living it himself in first person. While exhorting others saying: "Prepare the way of the Lord" (Mt 3,3), Juan is already preparing it; makes himself the path that the Lord will follow. He is the forerunner, the one who precedes the Messiah with his life, anticipating in itself much of what the Messiah will later do.

From the wasteland, 7 December 2025

 

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Sant'Angelo Cave in Ripe (Civitella del Tronto)

 

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The Fathers of the Island of Patmos

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Our Lord Jesus Christ King of the Universe – Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe – Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

/in /by

Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

Italian, english, español

 

OUR LORD JESUS ​​CHRIST KING OF THE UNIVERSE

The title of king referring to Christ emerges with strength and frequency precisely in the Gospels of the Passion. It will be the Johannine Gospel that will make this theological theme one of the decisive arguments for understanding in depth the meaning of Jesus' saving death on the cross and its universal value.

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Pope Pius XI, on December 11th 1925, with the encyclical What a first established the feast of Christ the King. One of the purposes set by the institution of the solemnity was to counteract secularism, defined by that pontiff: «plague of our age». He saw the exclusion of God from society as the main cause of the evils that afflicted the world of the time:

«And so that the fruits are more abundant and last more stably in human society, it is necessary that knowledge of the royal dignity of our Lord be disseminated as much as possible. To this end, it seems to us that nothing else can be more beneficial than the institution of a particular feast dedicated to Christ the King.".

However, as almost always happens in the Church, also this pronouncement of the pontifical magisterium, for the topics covered, it favored both the exegetical study of Scripture on those themes, as well as the consequent theological reflection. Thus new horizons have opened up, and useful and in-depth reflections were offered to the faithful on Christian testimony and spirituality. But here is the evangelical passage of the Solemnity:

From the Gospel according to Luke - «In that time, [after they had crucified Jesus,] the people were watching; the leaders instead mocked Jesus saying: “He saved others! Save yourself, if he is the Christ of God, the chosen one". Even the soldiers laughed at him, they approached him to hand him some vinegar and said: “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself". Above him there was also a writing: “This is the king of the Jews”. One of the criminals hanging on the cross insulted him: “You are not the Christ? Save yourself and us!”. The other instead rebuked him saying: “You have no fear of God, you who are condemned to the same punishment? We, rightly, because we receive what we deserved for our actions; but he didn't do anything wrong.". And said: "Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom". She answered him: “Truly I tell you: today with me you will be in paradise" (LC 23,35-43).

For this year's Solemnity a passage taken from the passion of the Lord is proposed in the liturgical proclamation, According to Luca, which we had previously already encountered during Holy Week. In fact, the compilers of the Lectionary could have also drawn on other texts to highlight the idea of ​​the kingship of Christ. For instance, that of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, where is that, According to Luca, He is proclaimed king:

«Blessed is he who comes, the king in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!» (LC 19,38).

But it is equally true that the title of king referring to Christ emerges with strength and frequency precisely in the Gospels of the Passion. It will be the Johannine Gospel that will make this theological theme one of the decisive arguments for understanding in depth the meaning of Jesus' saving death on the cross and its universal value.

Who, in the Lucanian narrative of the passion, we are inside the section that describes the culminating phase of Jesus' execution, or his crucifixion, which includes vv. 32-49, a portion, so, broader than that proposed by the Liturgy of the Word. The lectionary focuses on two frameworks: a) The derision of religious leaders and soldiers; b) The dialogue of the two thieves, where again appears a derision and Jesus' response to one of the two that only Luke reports among the evangelists. Not only, Saint Luke is also the only one to record and offer readers the extraordinary words of Jesus on forgiveness:

"Dad, forgive them, for they know not what they do " (LC 23,34).

They are absent in some prestigious manuscript manuscripts, like «B», The Vatican, perhaps eliminated by the copyists due to anti-Jewish controversy or to underline that the subsequent fall of Jerusalem will be the work of divine punishment, according to the words of the Lord:

«Daughters of Jerusalem, don't cry over me, but weep for yourselves and for your children […] Because, if this is how you treat green wood, which will happen to dry wood?» (LC 23,28).

For those who don't know, in the Bible it sometimes happens that the most beautiful expressions are also those with the greatest problems from the point of view of the witnesses of the text who pass them down, so much so as to become a "cross" for textual critics, the scholars, that is, who dedicate their time and knowledge to offer us that text closest to the original, which is then reported in the critical editions which are the basis of the translations of the Holy Scripture into modern languages. Returning to the dialogue between Jesus and the thief, it was said that it is not found in the oldest text of the gospels, Marco's, nor in the two other lessons, that of Matthew and Saint John. On the contrary, in Mark it is clearly said that both those who were crucified with Jesus insulted him:

«And even those who were crucified with him reviled him» (MC 15,32).

The historical question also intrigued the Church Fathers, including Origen, Saint John Chrysostom, San Girolamo. They provided a simplified solution by imagining that both criminals initially attacked Jesus, as Marco reports; but then one of the two understood and then changed his opinion, while the other one continued to insult. The other solution instead, maybe more logical, is to believe that Luke drew the news from a different source and therefore consciously distances himself from Mark, knowing of the change of one of the two thieves.

But who are Luke's "thieves".? This evangelist does not use, like the other gospels, the term thief, but rather that of a malefactor, literally "who has caused damage through fraud or deception". In Mark and Matthew they are instead two bandits, weighted in Greek, a term that was also used to indicate rebels, as is the case with Barabbas, in the gospel of John. But as one commentator writes: «On every page of his story, Luke avoids any possible confusion between the Christian movement and the rebels who rose up against Rome" (François Bovon). An 8th century Latin manuscript. he also gives us the names of the two criminals: Joathas e Maggatras, while in the apocryphal Acts of Pilate we find different names: Weaning and Gestations. In short, at the end we notice that Jesus finds himself between two evildoers; rather, in v. 32 Luke writes that "two other criminals were also led to the gallows", making it clear that Jesus was assimilated to criminals.

The dialogue, in is beautiful and moving, it starts from the criminal who turns to the other crucified, rebuking him and admitting his sin. He makes a real act of repentance and by claiming to have made a mistake he demonstrates his conversion. Then he turns to the Lord, repeatedly. CEI translates «e disse», while in the Greek text we have an imperfect, as if to indicate an action repeated in the past: «And he said», maybe several times. Calling the Lord by his proper name, "Jesus", the crucified criminal turns out to be the only one in the gospels who addresses Him in such a direct way. It's a sign of confidence, perhaps because on the cross, while dying, there are no more formalities. The criminal continues: "Remember me", asking what the person praying asks of God in the Psalms, but we can also remember Samson dying in the book of Judges:

«Then Samson called upon the Lord, saying: “Lord God, remember me! Give me strength just this once again, oh God" (Gdc 16,28).

In the end, here is the reference to the Kingdom, the evildoer says: «in your Kingdom»; demonstrating that he understands which kingdom it is, of that of Jesus and not of any one of this world.

Jesus' response shows the typical Lucanian trait, thanks to the adverb «today», which occurs many times in the third gospel. He says that salvation is now, from now and it won't be until later. Jesus then expresses an extraordinary relationship if we think about who his interlocutor was, using the companion complement: "with me"; and finally he speaks of a "paradise", a term of Persian origin, which means garden and which recalls the book of Genesis. In fact, in an ancient Syriac translation we read that Jesus promised the criminal to stay with him "in the garden of Eden".

We have mentioned the importance of the theme of Jesus' kingship in the fourth Gospel, that of San Giovanni. But what is Luca telling us on this topic? We must consider that while telling a story, the evangelist Luke does not offer us a chronicle of what happened: «it does not describe the procedure of fixing the condemned man on the cross, rather it illustrates the theological and soteriological significance of what happened", which has to do with God and salvation. In fact, it is in the extreme moment of weakness that the kingdom and kingship Jesus has chosen is most evident. God carries out his will precisely in the moment of greatest weakness of his Son. It is with his death that the true liberation that Jesus spoke about and for which he came occurs, as Luca says in Blessed:

«To give to his people the knowledge of salvation in the remission of their sins» (LC 1,77).

The prophecy about the life of Jesus also comes true on the cross, engraved in the very name it bears; Jesus means "God saves", as the angel explains well to Joseph in Mt 1,21: «Ella (the Virgin) she will give birth to a son and you will call him Jesus: in fact he will save his people from their sins" This word is realized above all by the cross, on which the same name is engraved, accompanied by his royal title. Even from there, even from the cross of the Son, God is capable of saving. On the contrary, it is Jesus himself who, with the little breath he has left in that circumstance, announces salvation to one of the many sinners he encountered during the time of his ministry: "Today you will be with me in Heaven" (LC 23,43).

What salvation is Jesus capable of?? Naturally of a global salvation, which embraces the entire life of the criminal crucified with him, liberation from his sins, but also the promise to let him enter his kingdom. To do this, Jesus also expresses power, but not as the powerful people of the world exercise it, because it is disinterested as only the grace that entirely saves man can be, because its horizon is the ultimate good. Today's celebration thus helps us to put things back in the right order and to have a typically Christian vision of life and history. Even if everything around us is shaking, Governments and powerful people change and what happens sometimes scares us, Christians know that it is they who hold the reins of history, mysteriously, the Providence of God. On the contrary, precisely in moments when reality seems to deny the presence of God, as Pius XI underlined in the Encyclical mentioned above, Christians have a model that explains how things work: through the kingship exercised by Jesus Christ in the folds of history.

From the Hermitage, 22 November 2025

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OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, KING OF THE UNIVERSE

The title of King, applied to Christ, emerges with peculiar force and frequency precisely in the Passion narratives. The Johannine Gospel will make this theological theme one of the decisive keys for understanding in depth the meaning of Jesus’ salvific death upon the Cross and its universal significance.

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Pope Pius XI, on 11 December 1925, instituted the feast of Christ the King with the encyclical What a first. One of the purposes he intended in establishing this solemnity was to counteract secularism, which that pontiff described as “the plague of our age”. He perceived in the exclusion of God from society the principal cause of the ills that afflicted the world of his time:

“And that the fruits [of the Jubilee] may be more abundant, and may last the more securely in human society, it is necessary that the knowledge of the regal dignity of our Lord should be spread as widely as possible. To this end it seems to Us that nothing would be more efficacious than the institution of a special feast in honour of Christ the King”.

Yet, as so often happens within the Church, even this pronouncement of the pontifical Magisterium — given the themes it touches — fostered both a deeper exegetical study of Scripture on these subjects and the consequent theological reflection. Thus new horizons opened, and useful and penetrating insights were offered to the faithful for Christian witness and for the spiritual life. And here is the Gospel passage of the Solemnity:

From the Holy Gospel according to Luke — “At that time, [after they had crucified Jesus,] the people stood by watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, his chosen one.’ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up to offer him sour wine and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.’There was also an inscription over him: ‘This is the King of the Jews.’ One of the criminals who were hanging there reviled him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Have you no fear of God, you who are subject to the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving what our deeds deserve; but this man has done nothing wrong.’ And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise’” (Page 23:35-43).

For this year’s Solemnity, the liturgical proclamation presents a passage taken from the Lord’s Passion according to Luke, a text we had already encountered during Holy Week. Indeed, the compilers of the Lectionary might have drawn upon other passages to highlight the theme of Christ’s kingship. For example, the account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, where, according to Luke, He is acclaimed as King:

“Blessed is he who comes, the King, in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens!” (Page 19:38).

Yet it is equally true that the title of King, applied to Christ, emerges with peculiar force and frequency precisely in the Passion narratives. The Johannine Gospel will make this theological theme one of the decisive keys for understanding in depth the meaning of Jesus’ salvific death upon the Cross and its universal significance.

Here, in Luke’s Passion narrative, we find ourselves within the section that describes the culminating moment of Jesus’ execution — namely, His crucifixion — which spans verses 32–49, a portion therefore broader than that offered by the Liturgy of the Word. The lectionary focuses on two scenes: a) the mockery of the religious leaders and of the soldiers; b) the dialogue between the two criminals, in which mockery appears once more, together with the reply of Jesus to one of them — a detail recorded only by Luke among the evangelists. Not only so: Saint Luke is also the only one to preserve and offer to readers the extraordinary words of Jesus on forgiveness:

“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Page 23:34).

These words are absent from certain prestigious manuscript witnesses, such as Codex Vaticanus (“B”), perhaps removed by scribes either out of anti-Jewish polemic or in order to underscore that the subsequent fall of Jerusalem would be an act of divine punishment, according to the Lord’s own words:

“Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep rather for yourselves and for your children… For if this is what is done to the green wood, what will happen to the dry?” (Page 23:28).

For those unfamiliar with the matter, it often happens in the Bible that the most beautiful expressions are precisely those that pose the greatest problems from the point of view of the textual witnesses that transmit them — to the point of becoming a cross for textual critics, that is, for those scholars who devote their time and expertise to offering us the text closest to the original, upon which the critical editions used for modern translations of Holy Scripture are based. Returning to the dialogue between Jesus and the criminal, it was noted that this episode is absent both from the oldest Gospel text — that of Mark — and from the other two traditions, those of Matthew and John. Indeed, Mark states explicitly that both of the men crucified with Jesus reviled him:

“And those who were crucified with him also reviled him” (Mk 15:32).

This historical problem intrigued the Fathers of the Church — among them Origen, Saint John Chrysostom, and Saint Jerome. They proposed a simplified solution: that at the beginning both criminals attacked Jesus, as Mark reports; but that one of the two, at a certain point, understood, and then changed his attitude, while the other continued to insult Him. The other solution, perhaps more plausible, is that Luke drew this account from a different source, and therefore deliberately diverges from Mark, being aware of the change in the disposition of one of the criminals.

But who, then, are the “thieves” of Luke? This evangelist does not employ, as the other Gospels do, the term thief, but rather malefactor — literally, “one who has caused harm through fraud or deceit.” In Mark and Matthew, instead, we find two bandits — freight in Greek — a term also used to indicate insurgents, as in the case of Barabbas in the Gospel of John. But, as one commentator notes, “On every page of his narrative, Luke avoids any possible confusion between the Christian movement and the rebels who rose up against Rome” (François Bovon).

A Latin manuscript of the eighth century even supplies us with the names of the two malefactors: Joathas and Maggatras; while in the apocryphal Acts of Pilate we encounter the names Desmas and Gestas. In the end, however, wha t matters is that Jesus finds Himself between two malefactors; indeed, in verse 32 Luke writes that “two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him,” thus making it clear that Jesus was classified among offenders.

The dialogue — beautiful and deeply moving in itself — begins with the malefactor who turns toward the other crucified man, reproaching him and acknowledging his own sin. He makes a true act of repentance and shows his conversion precisely by admitting his wrongdoing. Then he turns repeatedly to the Lord. The Italian Bible renders it “and he said,” but in the Greek text the verb is in the imperfect: “he was saying,” suggesting a repeated or continuous action in the past — perhaps he said it several times. Addressing the Lord by His proper name, “Jesus,” the crucified malefactor proves to be the only one in all the Gospels who speaks to Him in so direct a manner. It is a sign of familiarity — perhaps because, upon the cross, at the threshold of death, all formalities fall away. The malefactor continues: “Remember me,” echoing what the supplicant so often asks of God in the Psalms; and we may also recall Samson, dying in the Book of Judges:

“Then Samson called to the Lord and said, ‘Lord God, remember me! Strengthen me once more, just this once, O God'” (Jgs 16:28).

Finally comes the reference to the Kingdom: the malefactor says, “when you come into your kingdom,” showing that he understands what Kingdom this is — the Kingdom of Jesus, not one of the kingdoms of this world.

The response of Jesus bears the distinctive mark of Luke, especially through the adverb “today,” which recurs so frequently in the third Gospel. He declares that salvation is from now, from this very moment, and not merely something that awaits beyond death. Jesus then expresses a relationship of extraordinary intimacy — all the more astonishing when we consider who His interlocutor is — by using the expression “with me”; and He concludes by speaking of “paradise,” a word of Persian origin meaning “garden,” recalling the Book of Genesis. Indeed, in an ancient Syriac translation we read that Jesus promises the malefactor that he will be with Him “in the garden of Eden.”

We have already touched upon the importance of the theme of the kingship of Jesus in the fourth Gospel, that of Saint John. But what, then, is Luke telling us on this matter? It must be borne in mind that, although narrating an event, the evangelist Luke does not offer us a chronicle of what happened: he “does not describe the procedure by which the condemned man was fixed to the cross; rather, he illustrates the theological and soteriological significance of what took place” — that which pertains to God and to salvation. Indeed, it is at the very moment of extremest weakness that the nature of the kingdom and kingship chosen by Jesus is displayed most clearly. God accomplishes His will precisely at the moment of the greatest weakness of His Son. It is through His death that the true liberation takes place — the liberation of which Jesus had spoken and for which He had come, as Luke states in the Blessed:

“to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins” (Page 1:77).

Upon the cross, moreover, the prophecy concerning the life of Jesus — inscribed within His very name — is fulfilled. Jesus means “God saves,” as the angel explains to Joseph in Mt 1:21: “She (the Virgin) will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” This word is fulfilled above all upon the cross, where the same name appears, accompanied by His royal title. Even there — even from the cross of the Son — God is able to save. Indeed, it is Jesus Himself who, with the little breath remaining to Him in that circumstance, announces salvation to one of the many sinners He encountered during His earthly ministry:

“Today you will be with me in paradise” (Page 23:43).

Of what salvation is Jesus capable? A salvation that is truly complete — one that embraces the whole life of the malefactor crucified beside Him: the forgiveness of his sins, yet also the promise that he will enter His kingdom. To effect this, Jesus too exercises a power, though not as the rulers of this world exercise power. His is a power entirely free of self-interest, as only grace can be — grace that saves the human person in his entirety, for its horizon is the ultimate good.

The feast we celebrate today helps us to set things once more in their proper order and to recover a vision of life and of history that is distinctively Christian. Even if all around us is in turmoil — governments change, powers rise and fall, and events at times frighten us — Christians know that it is, mysteriously, the Providence of God that holds the reins of history. Indeed, precisely in those moments when reality seems to deny the presence of God — as Pius XI emphasised in the encyclical mentioned above — Christians have a model that reveals how things truly work: the kingship exercised by Jesus Christ in the hidden folds of history.

From the Hermitage, 22 November 2025

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OUR LORD JESUS ​​CHRIST, KING OF THE UNIVERSE

The title of king applied to Christ appears with force and frequency precisely in the gospels of the Passion. It will be the Gospel of Saint John that will make this theological topic one of the decisive points to understand in depth the meaning of the saving death of Jesus on the cross and its universal value..

.

Pope Pius XI, he 11 December 1925, with the encyclical What a first, instituted the feast of Christ the King. One of the intended purposes when establishing this solemnity was to counteract secularism., defined by that pontiff as "the plague of our time". He saw the exclusion of God from society as the main cause of the evils that afflicted the world at that time.:

«And so that the fruits may be more abundant and remain more firmly in human society, It is necessary that knowledge of the royal dignity of our Lord be disseminated as much as possible.. To this end, it seems to us that nothing else can be of greater benefit than the institution of a particular and proper festival of Christ the King..

However, as almost always happens in the Church, This pronouncement of the pontifical magisterium—due to the topics it addresses—has favored both the exegetical development of Sacred Scripture on such issues and the subsequent theological reflection.. Thus new horizons have been opened, and useful and profound reflections for Christian witness and spiritual life have been offered to the faithful.. And here is the evangelical passage of the Solemnity:

From the holy Gospel according to Saint Luke — «At that time, [after they had crucified Jesus,] the people stood there watching; the bosses, for his part, They mocked Jesus saying: “He has saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Messiah of God, the Chosen One”. The soldiers also made fun of him, They came up to offer him vinegar and said: “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!”. Above it was an inscription: “This is the king of the Jews”. One of the crucified criminals insulted him: “Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”. But the other rebuked him saying: “Do you not fear God?”, you who are under the same sentence? Us, justly, because we received what our actions deserved; he, instead, "He hasn't done anything wrong.". And he added: "Jesus, “Remember me when you come to your Kingdom.”. Jesus replied: “Truly I tell you: Today you will be with me in paradise." (LC 23,35-43).

For this year's Solemnity a passage taken from the Passion of the Lord according to Saint Luke is proposed in the liturgical proclamation, which we had already found previously during Holy Week. Indeed, The editors of the Lectionary could also have turned to other texts to highlight the idea of ​​the kingship of Christ. For example, the story of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, where, according to Luke, is proclaimed king:

«Blessed is he who comes, the king, in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven." (LC 19,38).

But it is equally true that the title of king applied to Christ appears with force and frequency precisely in the Gospels of the Passion. It will be the Gospel of Saint John that will make this theological topic one of the decisive points to understand in depth the meaning of the saving death of Jesus on the cross and its universal value..

Here, in the Lucan story of the Passion, we find ourselves within the section that describes the culminating phase of Jesus' execution, that is to say, his crucifixion, that includes the verses 32-49, a passage, therefore, broader than that proposed by the Liturgy of the Word. The Lectionary focuses on two tables: a) The mockery of religious leaders and soldiers; b) The dialogue of the two evildoers, where a mockery appears again and Jesus' response to one of them, that only Luke collects among the evangelists.

In addition, san Lucas is the only one that records and offers readers Jesus' extraordinary words about forgiveness:

"Dad, forgive them, because they don't know what they're doing." (LC 23,34).

These words are absent in some prestigious manuscript codices, like “B”, he The Vatican, perhaps suppressed by copyists because of the anti-Jewish controversy, or to emphasize that the subsequent fall of Jerusalem would be the work of divine punishment, according to the words of the Lord:

«Daughters of Jerusalem, don't cry for me; cry rather for yourselves and for your children […] Because if that's how they treat the green log, what will happen to the dry?» (LC 23,28).

For those who don't know, In the Bible it sometimes happens that the most beautiful expressions are also those that present the greatest problems from the point of view of the witnesses of the text who transmit them., until it became a “cross” for textual critics, that is to say, the scholars who dedicate their time and knowledge to offering us the text closest to the original, which is then reproduced in the critical editions that serve as the basis for translations of the Holy Scripture into modern languages.

Returning to the dialogue between Jesus and the evildoer, We said that it is not found even in the oldest text of the gospels, Mark's, nor in the other two stories, those of Matthew and Saint John. It's more, In Mark it is clearly stated that the two who had been crucified with Jesus insulted him:

"Those who had been crucified with him also insulted him" (MC 15,32).

The historical question also intrigued the Fathers of the Church, among them Origins, Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Jerome. They offered a simplified solution by imagining that at the beginning both criminals attacked Jesus, as Marcos actually refers; but then one of the two understood and then changed his mind, while the other continued insulting him.

The other solution, maybe more logical, consists of assuming that Luke obtained this information from a different source and that therefore he consciously distances himself from Mark, knowing of the change of attitude of one of the two criminals.

But who are Lucas' “thieves”?? This evangelist does not use, like the other gospels, the term “thief”, but rather that of malefactor, literally “one who has caused harm through fraud or deception”. In Mark and Matthew, however, there are two bandits (weighted in Greek), term that was also used to designate rebels, as is the case of Barabbas in the gospel of John. But, as one commentator writes:

«On each page of his story, Luke avoids any possible confusion between the Christian movement and the rebels against Rome. (François Bovon).

A Latin manuscript from the 8th century He even provides us with the names of the two criminals.: Joathas and Draw back, while in the apocrypha Acts of Pilate we find other names: Desmas and A gesture.

Ultimately, We see that Jesus is between two evildoers; it's more, in the v. 32, Luke writes that “two other evildoers were also led to the torture.”, clearly implying that Jesus was assimilated to criminals.

The dialogue, in itself beautiful and moving, begins with the evildoer who addresses the other crucified, rebuking him and admitting his own sin. Perform a true act of repentance and, by stating that he has done wrong, expresses his conversion.

Then he turns to the Lord, repeatedly. The EEC edition translates "and said", while in the Greek text an imperfect appears, as indicating a repeated action in the past: "And he said", maybe several times.

By calling the Lord by his proper name, "Jesus", This crucified evildoer turns out to be the only one in the gospels who addresses Him so directly. It is a sign of trust, maybe because on the cross, when you die, there is no longer any room for formalities.

The evildoer continues: "Remember me", asking what the prayer asks of God in the Psalms; but we can also remember Samson dying in the book of Judges:

"Then Samson called upon the Lord, saying: “Lord God, remember me! Grant me strength just this once, oh God” (Joe 16,28).

Finally comes the reference to the Kingdom: the evildoer says "in your Kingdom", demonstrating an understanding of what Kingdom it is – that of Jesus – and not just any one of this world.

Jesus' response shows the typical Lucan trait thanks to the adverb "today", that appears so many times in the third gospel. He affirms that salvation is from now on, from this very moment, and not only after.

Jesus also expresses an extraordinary relationship if we think who his interlocutor was, using the company plugin: "with me"; and finally he speaks of a "paradise", term of Persian origin that means garden and that evokes the book of Genesis.

In fact, In an ancient Syriac translation we read that Jesus promised the evildoer that he would be with Him "in the Garden of Eden.".

We had mentioned the importance of the topic of the kingship of Jesus in the fourth Gospel, that of Saint John. But what does Luke tell us about it?? It is necessary to consider that, still telling a story, the evangelist Luke does not offer us a chronicle of what happened: "does not describe the procedure of fixing the condemned on the cross, but rather it illustrates the theological and soteriological scope of what happened.", that is to say, that which has to do with God and salvation.

Indeed, It is in the extreme moment of weakness where it is best manifested what Kingdom and what royalty Jesus has chosen. God fulfills his will precisely at the moment of his Son's greatest weakness.. It is with his death that the true liberation of which Jesus has spoken and for which he has come is realized., As Luke says in Blessed:

"To give to his people the knowledge of salvation through the remission of their sins" (LC 1,77).

The prophecy about the life of Jesus is also fulfilled on the cross, registered in the same name that bears; Jesus means "God saves", as the angel clearly explains to Joseph on Mt 1,21:

«Ella (the Virgin) she will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus, because He will save his people from their sins".

this word It is done above all from the cross, where the same name is inscribed, accompanied by his royal title. Even from there, from the cross of the Son, God is able to save. Even more: It is Jesus himself who, with the little breath that he has left in such circumstances, announces salvation to one of the many sinners he has encountered throughout his ministry:

«Today you will be with me in paradise» (LC 23,43).

What salvation is Jesus capable of?? Of course a global salvation, that encompasses the entire life of the evildoer crucified with Him: the deliverance from his sins and also the promise of making him enter his Kingdom. To do this, Jesus manifests a power, but not as the powerful of this world exercise it, because it is selfless as only the grace that saves the human being in its entirety can be., since its horizon is the ultimate good.

Today's party It thus helps us to put things in their right order and to have a truly Christian vision of life and history.. Although everything around us shakes, change governments and the powerful, and what happens sometimes scares us, Christians know that whoever holds the reins of history is, mysteriously, the Providence of God.

It's more: precisely in moments when reality seems to deny the presence of God - as Pius XI emphasized in the aforementioned encyclical -, Christians have a model that explains how things work: through the kingship exercised by Jesus Christ in the folds of history.

From the Hermitage, 22 November 2025

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Make way for us Pharisees, perfect champions of purity, to pass – Stand aside, for we pharisees, champions of purity, are coming through – get away, what happened, the pharisees, perfect champions of purity!

/in /by

Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

Italian, english, español

 

MAKE WAY FOR US TO PASS PHARISEES PERFECT CHAMPIONS OF PURITY

"Hate, I thank you because I am not like other men, thieves, unrighteous, adultery, nor even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and pay tithes of everything I own.".

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Like last Sunday's Gospel, this one from the XXX Sunday of Ordinary Time also contains a teaching on prayer. It is entrusted to the parable of the Pharisee and the publican in the temple, a text present only in the third gospel.

If Luca had specified the purpose for which Jesus had told the parable of the insistent widow and the unjust judge, or the need for persevering prayer (LC 18,1); this instead is narrated with specific recipients in mind: «He also spoke this parable for some who had the inner presumption of being righteous and despised others» (LC 18,9). In light of LC 16,15 where Jesus qualifies the Pharisees as those who "consider themselves righteous before men", one might think that the target of the story is precisely them alone, but the attitude targeted in the parable is a religious distortion that occurs everywhere and also affects Christian communities, and it is certainly these recipients that Luke is thinking of when writing his gospel. It is important to clarify this to avoid caricatural readings of the Pharisees, which unfortunately have not been lacking in Christianity precisely starting from the reading of this parable. And here is the evangelical text:

«Two men went up to the temple to pray: one was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, while standing, he prayed like this to himself: "Hate, I thank you because I am not like other men, thieves, unrighteous, adultery, nor even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and pay tithes of everything I own.". The publican instead, stopped at a distance, he didn't even dare roll his eyes, but he beat his chest saying: "Hate, be merciful to me a sinner! '. I tell you: these, unlike the other, He went down to his house justified, For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, those who humble themselves will be exalted " (LC 18,9-14).

The piece can easily be divided into three parts: An introduction, of a verse; a parable of four verses (vv. 10-13); and the conclusion, of Jesus: «I tell you». The protagonists of the parable are two men, who ascend to the holiest place in Israel, the temple. The verb ascend not only says that the temple was located high up, its a mountain, but also that to go to Jerusalem one ascends, almost as if to indicate the way, also physical, how to get closer to God. In this regard we can recall the "Psalms of the Ascensions", starting from Ps 120, but also, in the Gospel, the good Samaritan who worried about the man who fell into the hands of bandits while "going down from Jerusalem to Jericho" (LC 10,30). St. Luke here describes two opposing polarities in first-century Judaism, thus showing that the characters are not chosen at random. The Pharisees were the most pious and devout people, while tax collectors were often considered thieves, a category of professionals in the pay of Rome, as Zacchaeus of Jericho could have been (LC 19,1). It also emerges that prayer at the temple could be private, while the public one was held in the morning and in the evening, and was regulated by the Templar liturgy.

So we have two men who go to the temple to pray. Their movement is identical, their purpose is the same and the place to which they go is the same, yet a great distance separates them. They are close and at the same time far away, so much so that their co-presence in the place of prayer still raises the question today, to Christians, of what it means to pray together, side by side, next to each other in the same place. It is in fact possible to pray alongside and be separated from the comparison, from comparison and even contempt: "I'm not like this tax collector" (v. 11). The differences between the two characters are also relevant for the gestures and postures of their bodies and in their positioning in the sacred space. The publican remains at the back, «stops at a distance» (v. 13), he does not dare advance, it is inhabited by the fear of those who are not used to the liturgical place, he bows his head to the ground and beats his chest saying very few words. The Pharisee, instead, expresses his confidence, his being a accustomed of the sacred place and pray while standing with your forehead high, pronouncing many refined words in his articulated thanks. This self-awareness has nothing to do with the right self-esteem, ma, marrying with contempt for others, turns out to be ostentatious arrogance, from someone who is perhaps not so sure of himself, so much so that it does not harbor any doubt in itself. And the presence of others serves to corroborate his consciousness of superiority. The verb used by Luke, exoutheneine, translated as «despise», literally means "to retain nothing", and it will be Herod's attitude towards Jesus in the story of the passion (LC 23,11). The Pharisee's confidence in condemning others is necessary to sustain the confidence of his own being better and right.

In the words of the Pharisee it also emerges what image of God he has. He prays "within himself", that is, "turned to himself" (cf.. automatic process Of LC 18,11) and his prayer seems dominated by the ego. Formally he gives thanks, but in truth he thanks God not for what he has done for him, but rather for what he does for God. The sense of thanksgiving is thus distorted since his ego replaces God and his prayer ends up being a list of pious services and a satisfaction with his not being "like other men" (v. 11). The lofty image of himself clouds that of God so much that it prevents him from seeing as a brother the one who prays in the same place and feels so at ease that God only has to confirm what he is and does.: It does not require conversion or change. Thus Jesus reveals that God's gaze does not welcome his prayer: «the publican returned to his house justified, unlike the other" (v. 14). Revealing to the reader the quiet prayer of the two characters in the parable, Luke makes an incursion into their interiority and into the soul of those who pray, showing that background of prayer that can be one with it, or conflict with it. It opens like this, in this song, a glimpse of light on the heart and depths of those who pray, on the thoughts that inhabit him while he is collected in prayer. This is a bold but important operation, because behind the words that are pronounced in liturgical or personal prayer there are often images, thoughts, feelings that can also be in sensational contradiction with the words that are spoken and with the meaning of the gestures that are made.

It is the relationship between prayer and authenticity. The Pharisee's prayer is sincere, but not truthful. It is that of the publican, while that of the Pharisee remains only sincere, as it expresses what this man believes and feels, however, bringing to light the pathology hidden in his words. They, that is, truly believing what he says, at the same time he shows that what moves him to prayer is the intimate conviction that what he does is enough to justify him. Therefore his conviction is granitic and unshakable. His personal sincerity is consistent with the image of God that moves him.

Let us underline the verse again 13, that is, the posture and prayer of the publican which contrasts with that of the Pharisee. He stays behind, perhaps in the most remote space compared to the temple building, he doesn't roll his eyes, but he recognizes himself as a sinner by beating his chest, the way David said: "I have sinned against the Lord" (2Sam 12,13); like the "prodigal son" he says: «I have sinned against heaven and against you» (LC 15,21). The publican's prayer is not centered on himself, but he asks for only one thing - mercy - with the expression: «Have mercy», inexorably, what does it mean: propitiate, make benevolent, atone for sins. The publican makes no comparison, he considers himself the only sinner, a real sinner. In the end, al v.14, we encounter Jesus' comment, which highlights who is justified and who is not. The answer begins with the expression: «I tell you» (lego smile), as if to signal a significant conclusion, a request for solemn attention. Then Jesus says that of the two who had gone up to the temple, only the publican came away justified. The verb used by Jesus means to descend home (the CEI: "went home"). The sinner's prayer is accepted by God, that of the Pharisee, however, was not because he had nothing to ask. God, on the other hand, always welcomes requests for forgiveness when they are authentic and this parable therefore turns out to be a further teaching on prayer, like the one just above, of the judge and the widow.

The Christian reader through this parable understands that the authenticity of prayer passes through the good quality of relationships with others who pray with me and who with me form the body of Christ. And in the Christian space, in which Jesus Christ is "the image of the invisible God" (With the 1,15), prayer is a process of continuous purification of the images of God starting from the image revealed in Christ and him crucified (cf.. 1Color 2,2), image that contests all the counterfeit images of God. We can say that the Pharisee's attitude is emblematic of a religious type that replaces the relationship with the Lord with quantifiable performances, he fasts twice a week and pays tithes of everything he buys, also performing supererogatory works. To the relationship with the Lord under the sign of the Spirit and the gratuitousness of love, it replaces a form of seeking sanctification through control, which requires detachment from others. The prayer, instead, suggests Luca, requires humility. And humility is adherence to reality, to the poverty and smallness of the human condition, all’humus of which we are made. It is courageous self-knowledge in the face of the God who manifested himself in the humility and abasement of the Son. Where there is humility, there is openness to grace and there is charity and mercy is found.

From the Hermitage, 26 October 2025

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STAND ASIDE, FOR WE PHARISEES, CHAMPIONS OF PURITY, ARE COMING THROUGH

“Oh God, I thank Thee that I am not like other men — thieves, unjust, adulterers — nor even like this publican. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on all I possess».

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As in last Sunday’s Gospel, so too in that of this Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time we find a teaching on prayer. It is conveyed through the parable of the Pharisee and the publican in the temple — a text found only in the third Gospel. If Saint Luke had specified the purpose for which Jesus told the parable of the persistent widow and the unjust judge, namely the necessity of persevering prayer (Page 18:1), this one, on the other hand, is told with certain hearers clearly in mind: “He also told this parable to some who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised others” (Page 18:9). In the light of Luke 16:15, where Jesus describes the Pharisees as those “who justify themselves in the sight of men”, one might suppose that they alone are the intended target of the narrative. Yet the attitude denounced in the parable is a religious distortion that can arise anywhere — it inhabits even Christian communities — and it is surely to such as these that Luke directs his Gospel. It is important to make this clarification so as to avoid caricatured readings of the Pharisees, which unfortunately have not been lacking within Christianity, often beginning precisely from this parable. And here is the Gospel text itself:

“Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, 'Oh God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on all I possess.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, 'Oh God, be merciful to me a sinner ’. I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted”. (Page 18:9–14).

The passage can easily be divided into three parts: an introduction of one verse; a parable of four verses (vv. 10–13); and the conclusion spoken by Jesus: “I tell you.”The protagonists of the parable are two men who go up to the holiest place in Israel, the Temple. The verb to go up indicates not only that the Temple stood on high, upon a mountain, but also that one ascends when going to Jerusalem — almost as though to suggest, even in bodily movement, the manner in which one draws near to God. In this regard we may recall the Psalms of Ascent, beginning with Psalm 120, and likewise, in the Gospel, the Good Samaritan who took care of the man fallen among robbers while “going down from Jerusalem to Jericho” (Page 10:30). Saint Luke here depicts two opposing poles within first-century Judaism, showing that the characters were not chosen at random. The Pharisees were regarded as the most pious and devout, while the tax collectors were often seen as thieves — a class of professionals in the service of Rome, as Zacchaeus of Jericho may have been (Page 19:1). It also becomes clear that prayer in the Temple could be private, while public prayer was held in the morning and in the evening and was governed by the Temple liturgy.

We thus have two men who go to the Temple to pray. Their movement is identical, their purpose the same, and the place to which they go is one and the same; yet a great distance separates them. They are close to each other and yet far apart, so that their being together in the place of prayer raises, even for us Christians today, the question of what it truly means to pray together — side by side, one beside another, in the same sacred space. It is indeed possible to pray next to someone and yet be separated by comparison, by rivalry, or even by contempt: “I am not like this tax collector” (v. 11). The differences between the two characters are also evident in their gestures, in the posture of their bodies, and in the way they situate themselves within the sacred space. The tax collector remains at the back, “standing at a distance” (v. 13); he does not dare to come forward, he is filled with the awe of one unaccustomed to the liturgical place; he bows his head to the ground and beats his breast, uttering but a few words. The Pharisee, on the other hand, displays his assurance, his familiarity with the holy place; he prays standing upright, head held high, pronouncing many carefully chosen words in his elaborate thanksgiving. This self-awareness has nothing to do with proper self-respect; joined with contempt for others, it becomes a form of ostentatious arrogance — perhaps the posture of one who, in truth, is not so sure of himself, and who harbours no doubt within. The presence of others serves only to confirm his sense of superiority. The verb used by Luke, exoutheneine, translated as “to despise”, literally means “to regard as nothing”, and it will describe the attitude of Herod toward Jesus in the Passion narrative (Page 23:11). The Pharisee’s certainty in condemning others is the very means by which he sustains the illusion of his own righteousness and superiority.

In the words of the Pharisee there also emerges the image of God that he bears within himself. He prays “to himself” — that is, “turned toward himself” (pros heauton, Page 18:11) — and his prayer appears to be ruled entirely by the ego. Formally, he performs an act of thanksgiving, yet in truth he thanks God not for what God has done for him, but for what he does for God. The very meaning of thanksgiving is thus distorted, for his self takes the place of God, and his prayer becomes a catalogue of pious achievements and a self-satisfaction at not being “like other men” (v. 11). His exalted image of himself obscures that of God, to the point of preventing him from seeing as a brother the man who prays in the same holy place. He feels himself so perfectly righteous that God has nothing left to do but to confirm what he already is and does: he has no need of conversion, no need of change. Thus Jesus reveals that God’s gaze does not look with favour upon his prayer: “the tax collector went home justified, rather than the other” (v. 14). By unveiling for the reader the subdued prayer of the two figures in the parable, Luke ventures into their inner world — into the soul of the one who prays — showing that hidden background of prayer which may either be one with it or at odds with it. This passage thus opens a window of light upon the heart and the depths of the one who prays, upon the thoughts that dwell within him even as he stands in prayer. It is a bold but essential insight, for behind the words uttered in prayer — whether liturgical or personal — there often lie images, thoughts, and feelings that may stand in striking contradiction to the very words we speak and to the gestures we perform.

It is the relationship between prayer and authenticity. The prayer of the Pharisee is sincere, but not truthful. That of the tax collector is truthful, whereas the Pharisee’s remains merely sincere — in that it expresses what this man believes and feels, yet at the same time reveals the hidden pathology within his words. Believing truly what he says, he also shows that what moves him to pray is the inner conviction that what he does is sufficient to justify him. Hence his conviction is granite-like and unshakable. His personal sincerity is wholly consistent with the image of God that animates him.

Let us pause once more upon verse 13 — upon the posture and the prayer of the tax collector, which stands in direct contrast to that of the Pharisee. He remains at the back, perhaps in the most distant space of the Temple precincts; he does not lift his eyes to heaven but acknowledges himself as a sinner, beating his breast as David once said, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Sam 12:13); and as the prodigal son confessed, “I have sinned against heaven and against you” (Page 15:21). The prayer of the tax collector is not centred upon himself; he asks only one thing — mercy — with the expression “Be merciful” (hilaskomai), which means to propitiate, to make favourable, to atone for sins. The tax collector makes no comparison; he considers himself the only sinner, a true sinner. Finally, in verse 14, we find the comment of Jesus, who indicates who is justified and who is not. His response begins with the expression “I tell you” (lego smile), signalling a solemn conclusion, a call for attentive listening. Then Jesus declares that of the two who went up to the Temple, only the tax collector went down to his house justified. The verb used by Jesus means to go down to one’s house. The sinner’s prayer is received by God; the Pharisee’s is not, for he had nothing to ask. God, however, always welcomes the plea for forgiveness when it is sincere. This parable thus becomes yet another teaching on prayer — like the one just above, of the judge and the widow.

Through this parable, the Christian reader understands that the authenticity of prayer passes through the goodness and integrity of one’s relationships with others who pray alongside us and who, together with us, form the Body of Christ. In the Christian sphere, where Jesus Christ is “the image of the invisible God” (With the 1:15), prayer becomes a process of continual purification of our images of God, beginning from the image revealed in Christ — and in Him crucified (cf. 1 Color 2:2) — the image that contests and unmasks all false and distorted representations of God. The attitude of the Pharisee may be seen as emblematic of a religious type that replaces relationship with the Lord by measurable performance. He fasts twice a week and pays tithes on all he acquires, even undertaking works of supererogation. In place of a relationship with the Lord marked by the Spirit and by the gratuity of love, there arises a pursuit of sanctification through control — a striving that demands separation from others. Prayer, on the contrary, as Luke suggests, requires humility. And humility is an adhesion to reality — to the poverty and smallness of the human condition, to the humus from which we are made. It is the courageous knowledge of oneself before the God who has revealed Himself in the humility and self-emptying of the Son. Where there is humility, there is openness to grace, and there is charity, and mercy is found.

From the Hermitage October 26, 2025

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STAY AWAY, WHAT WE HAPPENED, THE PHARISEES, PERFECT CHAMPIONS OF PURITY!

«Oh God, I thank you because I am not like other men, thieves, unfair, adulterers, nor like this publican. "I fast twice a week and pay tithes of everything I own.".

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Just like in last Sunday's Gospel, Also in that of this thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time we find a teaching on prayer. It is expressed through the parable of the Pharisee and the publican in the temple, a text present only in the third Gospel. If Saint Luke had specified the purpose for which Jesus told the parable of the persevering widow and the wicked judge—viz., the need to always pray without fainting (LC 18,1) —, in this other, instead, is narrated with specific recipients in mind: "He also told this parable for some who trusted in themselves because they considered themselves righteous and despised others." (LC 18,9). In the light of Lk 16,15, where Jesus describes the Pharisees as those "who consider themselves righteous before men", It could be thought that they are the only recipients of the story. However, The attitude denounced in the parable is a religious distortion that can manifest itself anywhere; also lives in Christian communities, and it is surely to these recipients that Luke addresses his Gospel.. It is important to specify this to avoid caricatured readings of the Pharisees, what, unfortunately, have not been lacking in Christianity, born precisely from the interpretation of this parable. And here is the evangelical text:

«Two men went up to the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee, erected, He prayed inside saying: “Oh God, I thank you because I am not like other men, thieves, unfair, adulterers, nor like this publican. “I fast twice a week and pay tithes of everything I own.”. But the publican, staying at a distance, He didn't even dare to raise his eyes to the sky., but he beat his chest saying: “Oh God, have mercy on me, that I am a sinner. I tell you that this one went home justified and that one did not.; because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (LC 18,9-14).

The passage can easily be divided into three parts: a verse introduction; a four verse parable (vv. 10-13); and the conclusion pronounced by Jesus: “I tell them”. The protagonists of the parable are two men who climb to the holiest place in Israel, the temple. The verb rise indicates not only that the temple was on top, on a mountain, but also that to go to Jerusalem one ascends, almost as if to suggest—even in physical movement—the way in which one approaches God. For this purpose we can remember the Psalms of the climbs, starting with the Psalm 120, and also, in the Gospel, the figure of the good Samaritan who took pity on the man who fell into the hands of bandits while "going down from Jerusalem to Jericho" (LC 10,30). Saint Luke presents here two opposite poles within 1st century Judaism, thus showing that the characters were not chosen at random. The Pharisees were considered the most pious and devout people, while tax collectors were often seen as thieves: a class of professionals at the service of Rome, What Zacchaeus of Jericho could have been like (LC 19,1). In this passage it is also made present that prayer in the temple could be private., while public prayer was held in the morning and afternoon, and was regulated by the temple liturgy.

Have, well, to two men who go up to the temple to pray. Their movement is identical, their purpose is the same and the place they are going is the same.; however, a great distance separates them. They are close and at the same time distant, so that their joint presence in the place of prayer also raises today, to Christians, the question of what it truly means to pray together, side by side, in the same sacred space. Indeed, it is possible to pray together with another and, however, be separated by comparison, rivalry or even contempt: "I am not like this publican" (v. 11).

The differences between the two characters They are also notable in the gestures, in the posture of their bodies and in the way they are situated within the sacred space. The publican remains in the background, "keeping at a distance" (v. 13); does not dare to move forward, is inhabited by the fear of those who are not accustomed to the liturgical place; He bows his head to the ground and beats his chest, saying just a few words.. The Pharisee, instead, expresses his security, his condition of habituation to the holy place; now raised, with your head held high, uttering many carefully chosen words in his elaborate thanks. This self-awareness has nothing to do with fair self-esteem.; linked to contempt for others, is revealed in a form of ostentatious arrogance perhaps on the part of someone who actually, he's not so sure of himself, to the point that he has no doubt inside. The presence of others only serves to reinforce his consciousness of superiority.. The verb used by Luke, exoutheneín, translated as "despise", literally means “to consider as nothing”, and describes Herod's attitude toward Jesus in the Passion story (LC 23,11). The Pharisee's confidence in condemning others is the means by which he sustains the illusion of his own righteousness and superiority..

In the words of the Pharisee the image of God that he carries within himself is also revealed. Pray “with yourself”, that is to say, "directed toward oneself" (Pros haughton, LC 18,11), and his prayer seems dominated by ego. Formally performs a thanksgiving, but in reality he thanks God not for what God has done for him, but for what he does for God. The sense of gratitude is thus denatured, for his own self takes the place of God, and his prayer becomes a catalog of pious practices and a self-congratulation for not being "like other men." (v. 11). The magnified image of himself obscures that of God to the point of preventing him from seeing the one who prays in the same holy place as a brother.. He feels so righteous that God has nothing to do but confirm what he already is and does.: does not need any conversion or change. So, Jesus reveals that God's gaze does not take pleasure in his prayer: «The publican went home justified, and the other doesn't" (v. 14). By revealing to the reader the silent prayer of the two characters in the parable, Luke penetrates into his inner world — into the soul of the one who prays — showing that undercurrent of the prayer that may coincide with it or conflict with it.. This passage opens, therefore, a slit of light on the heart and depths of those who pray, about the thoughts that inhabit him even while he is collected in prayer.
This is a bold observation, but necessary, because behind the words spoken in prayer - whether liturgical or personal - images are usually hidden, thoughts and feelings that may be in flagrant contradiction with the words that are said and with the meaning of the gestures that are made.

It's about the relationship between prayer and authenticity. The Pharisee's prayer is sincere, but not true. That of the publican on the other hand, it's true, while that of the Pharisee remains merely sincere, to the extent that it expresses what this man believes and feels, but at the same time it reveals the hidden pathology in his words. Truly believing in what he says, It also shows that what drives him to pray is the intimate conviction that what he does is enough to justify it.. That is why his conviction is granite and unbreakable.. His personal sincerity is fully consistent with the image of God that moves him..

Let's stop once again at the verse 13, in the posture and prayer of the publican, that serve as a counterweight to those of the Pharisee. Stay behind, perhaps in the space furthest from the temple precinct; does not raise his eyes to the sky, but he recognizes himself as a sinner by beating his chest, the way David said: "I have sinned against the Lord" (2 Sam 12,13); and as the prodigal son confessed: "I have sinned against heaven and against you" (LC 15,21). The Publican's Prayer Is Not Self-Centered; He asks for one thing—mercy—with the expression “Have compassion.” (hilaskomai), What does it mean to encourage?, become favorable, atone for sins. The publican makes no comparisons; he considers himself the only sinner, a true sinner. Finally, in the verse 14, we find Jesus' comment, that highlights who is justified and who is not. His response begins with the expression "I tell you." (lego smile), as to point out a significant conclusion, an invitation to listen attentively. After, Jesus declares that of the two who went up to the temple, only the publican went home justified. The verb used by Jesus means to descend home. The sinner's prayer is accepted by God; that of the Pharisee, instead, no, because he had nothing to ask for. God, however, always welcome pleas for forgiveness when they are authentic. This parable thus becomes a new teaching on prayer, just like the previous one, that of the judge and the widow.

Through this parable, The Christian reader understands that the authenticity of prayer depends on the quality and goodness of the relationships with others who pray with me and who, together with me, they form the Body of Christ. In the Christian sphere, where Jesus Christ is "the image of the invisible God" (With the 1,15), Prayer becomes a process of continuous purification of our images of God, from the image revealed in Christ — and in Him crucified (cf. 1 Color 2,2) —, image that questions and unmasks all false and distorted representations of God. The attitude of the Pharisee can be considered emblematic of a religious type that replaces the relationship with the Lord with quantifiable returns.. He fasts twice a week and pays tithes on everything he acquires., even performing supererogatory works. Instead of a relationship with the Lord under the sign of the Spirit and the gratuitousness of love, a form of search for sanctification appears through control, that requires distancing from others. The prayer, Instead—as Luke suggests—, requires humility. And humility is adherence to reality, to the poverty and smallness of the human condition, al humus what we are made of. It is the courageous knowledge of oneself before God that has manifested itself in the humility and self-emptying of the Son.. Where there is humility, there is openness to grace, there is charity and mercy is found.

From the Hermitage, 26 October 2025

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Sant'Angelo Cave in Ripe (Civitella del Tronto)

 

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Faith as resistance in the night of God. «When the son of man comes, find faith on earth?» – Faith as resistance in the night of God. “When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?” – Faith as resistance in the night of God. "When the son of man comes, Will you find faith on earth?»

/in /by
Homiletics of the Fathers of the Island of Patmos

Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

(Italian, English, Español)

 

FAITH AS RESISTANCE IN THE NIGHT OF GOD. «WHEN THE SON OF MAN COMES, HE WILL FIND FAITH ON EARTH?»

When the Son of Man comes, perhaps he won't find many works, nor many institutions remained strong; but if he will find a small remnant who still believes, hope and love, then your question will have already been answered. For even one faith to live, even a single heart that continues to pray in the night, it is enough to keep the lamp of the Church lit.

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PDF print format article – PDF article print format – PDF article in printed format

 

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The final sentence of this Lucanian passage it arouses fear and trembling in my Christian and priestly soul. The parable of the judge and the widow does not end with consolation, but with a question.

Jesus does not promise better times, nor does it guarantee that God's justice will manifest itself according to our expectations; instead it leaves a question hanging, that spans the centuries and rests on every generation: «When the Son of man comes, find faith on earth?».

From the Gospel according to Luke (18, 1-8) — «At that time, Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray, without ever getting tired: “In a city there lived a judge, who neither feared God nor had regard for anyone. There was also a widow in that city, who went to him and told him: 'Give me justice against my adversary'. For a while he didn't want to; but then he said to himself: “Even though I do not fear God and have no regard for anyone, since this widow bothers me so much, I will do justice to her so that she doesn't continually come to bother me.". And the Lord added: “Listen to what the dishonest judge says. And God will not perhaps do justice to his elect, who cry out to him day and night? It will probably make them wait a long time? I tell you he will do them justice promptly. But the Son of Man, when will, find faith on earth?”».

This question is the dramatic seal of the Gospel of the blessed evangelist Luke, because it reveals the paradox of the Christian faith: God is faithful, but often man is not. The risk is not that God forgets man, but rather that man becomes tired of God. This is why Jesus speaks of the need to always pray, without ever getting tired: not because God is deaf, but because prayer keeps faith alive in a time that consumes it to the point of emptying it, especially in this Europe of ours without memory, who denies their Christian roots in a sometimes violent and destructive way.

The widow in this parable represents the suffering soul of the Church mystical body of Christ: fragile, but stubborn. In the silence he continues to knock on the judge's door, even when everything seems useless. It is the faith that does not give in to the temptation of indifference; it is the faith that resists in the night of the apparent absence of God. And God is not like the dishonest judge, but sometimes it tests faith precisely at the moment in which it seems to behave as such: is silent, unresponsive, delays justice. This is where persevering prayer becomes an act of pure trust, a silent rebellion against despair.

When Jesus asks if, upon his return, find faith on earth, it does not speak of a vague belief or religious feeling; It's about faith that endures, the one that remains firm even when every appearance of religion seems to dissolve, that faith which is the foundation of things hoped for and proof of things not seen" (cf.. EB 11,1); that faith that will make us blessed because despite not having seen we believed (cf.. GV 20,29). It is the faith of Abraham, who believes against all hope (cf.. RM 4,18); the faith of the widow who continues to ask for justice (cf.. LC 18,3); the faith of the Church that does not stop praying even when the world mocks her.

The real threat is not atheism widespread throughout the world, but one that is increasingly widespread within the visible Church: the cleric atheism, extreme consequence of the spiritual apathy that erodes the heart and transforms faith into habit and hope into cynicism. but yet, It is precisely in this desert that God's faithfulness is revealed: when everything seems dead the seed of faith survives hidden in the earth, like a silent germ awaiting God's spring.

In the penitential rite we confess that we have sinned in thoughts, words, works and omissions. Among these sins, omission is perhaps the most serious, because it contains the root of all the others, a bit like pride, which is the queen and synthesis of all the deadly sins. And of the dramatic phrase that closes this evangelical passage - both hermetic and enigmatic - the sin of omission is, in his own way, paradigm. Just think about how many, in the face of the disorder and decadence that have afflicted the Church for decades, they wash their hands like Pilate in the praetorium, saying: "The Church is Christ, and is governed by the Holy Spirit". As if this formula were enough to justify inertia and failure to assume any responsibility. The house burns, but we reassure ourselves by saying: «It's his, He will take care of it. Did he not promise that the gates of hell will not prevail?».

We are faced with the sanctification of impotence, at the “theology” of "I mind my own business" disguised as trust in Providence. Then when the problems cannot be denied and evaded in any way, one is even capable of affirming: «Those who come after us will take care of it», a true triumph of the most nefarious irresponsible spirit.

If the question of Christ — «When the Son of man comes, find faith on earth?» — we put it in this realistic context, a disturbing echo would emerge. Yup, the Lord promised «not praevalebunt» and certainly, upon his return, he will still find the Church. But which Church? Because it could also find a visible Church emptied of Christ - of which we sometimes seem almost ashamed - and filled with something else: of humanitarianism without grace, of justice without truth and law, of spirituality without the Spirit … A Church that still exists in its external form, but who risks no longer having faith.

It's this one, perhaps, it is the most terrible of the prophecies implicit in that question: that faith can disappear not from the world, but precisely from the Church. Even in the face of this disturbing possibility - that the Son of Man may find his faith weakened, almost extinguished - the Gospel does not abandon us to fear, but it calls us to the hope that does not disappoint. Authentic faith is not a stable possession, it is a grace to be cherished and renewed every day. Like breathing, it lives only in continuity: I know if it interrupts, dies. For this reason prayer becomes the highest act of spiritual resistance: praying does not mean reminding God of our existence, but to remind ourselves that God exists and that his faithfulness precedes any of our infidelity.

When faith seems to be failing in the Church, God never ceases to inspire it in the little ones, in the humble, in the poor who cry out to Him day and night. This is the logic of the Kingdom: while structures become rigid and men become distracted, the Spirit continues to breathe in the silent hearts that believe even without seeing. Where the institution appears tired and decadent, God remains alive in his people. Where the word is silent, faith continues to whisper.

Christ's question — «I will find faith on earth?» — is not a condemnation, but an invitation and at the same time a challenge: “You will keep the faith when everything around you seems lost?” It is a call to stay awake in the night, not to delegate the responsibility of believing to others. The Son of Man does not ask for a triumphant Church in the worldly or political sense of the term, but a Church that watches, that doesn't stop knocking, who perseveres in prayer like the widow in the parable. And that widow, symbol of the poor and faithful Church, teaches us that the miracle of faith does not consist in changing God, but in letting ourselves be changed by Him, until we ourselves become a living prayer.

When the Son of Man comes, perhaps he will not find many works or many institutions that have remained strong; but if he will find a small remnant who still believes, hope and love, then your question will have already been answered. For even one faith to live, even a single heart that continues to pray in the night, it is enough to keep the lamp of the Church lit.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

From the island of Patmos, 20 October 2025

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FAITH AS RESISTANCE IN THE NIGHT OF GOD. “WHEN THE SON OF MAN COMES, WILL HE FIND FAITH ON EARTH?”

When the Son of Man comes, He may perhaps find few works and few institutions still standing firm; yet if He finds a small remnant that still believes, hopes, and loves, then His question will already have found its answer. For even a single living faith, even a single heart that continues to pray in the night, is enough to keep the lamp of the Church burning.

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The concluding sentence of this Lucan passage awakens within my Christian and priestly soul a sense of awe and trembling. The parable of the judge and the widow does not end with consolation, but with a question. Our Lord does not promise brighter days, nor does He assure us that the justice of God will manifest itself according to our expectations; rather, He leaves a question suspended in the air — one that travels through the centuries and settles upon every generation: “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith upon the earth?”

From the Gospel according to Luke (18:1-8) — At that time Jesus told His disciples a parable about the necessity of praying always without becoming weary. “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’ For a long time he was unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘Even though I neither fear God nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.’” And the Lord said, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of His chosen ones who call out to Him day and night? Will He be slow to answer them? I tell you, He will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

This question stands as the dramatic seal of the Gospel according to the blessed Evangelist Luke, for it discloses the paradox at the heart of Christian faith: God remains faithful, yet man so often does not. The danger is not that God should forget man, but that man should grow weary of God. Hence our Lord speaks of the need to pray always and never lose heart — not because God is deaf, but because prayer keeps faith alive in an age that exhausts and empties it, especially in this Europe of ours, grown amnesiac and intent on denying its Christian roots.

The widow in this parable represents the suffering soul of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ: fragile, yet unyielding. In silence she keeps knocking at the judge’s door, even when all seems futile. Hers is the faith that does not yield to indifference; the faith that endures through the night of God’s apparent absence. And God, though unlike the unjust judge, at times tests faith precisely in the moment when He seems to act as one: He keeps silence, He withholds His answer, He delays justice. It is there that persevering prayer becomes an act of pure trust — a silent rebellion against despair.

When Jesus asks whether, at His return, He will find faith upon the earth, He is not speaking of a vague belief or a mere religious sentiment; He is speaking of the faith that endures — the faith that remains steadfast even when every outward form of religion seems to dissolve. It is that faith which is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (cf. Heb 11:1); the faith that will make us blessed, “for having not seen, we have yet believed” (cf. Jn 20:29). It is the faith of Abraham, who “hoped against hope” (cf. Rom 4:18); the faith of the widow who continues to plead for justice (cf. Page 18:3); the faith of the Church that does not cease to pray even when the world mocks her.

The true menace is not the atheism that pervades the world, but the one that spreads ever more within the visible Church — an ecclesiastical atheism, the ultimate consequence of spiritual apathy that corrodes the heart, turning faith into habit and hope into cynicism. Yet it is precisely in this desert that the faithfulness of God is revealed: when all seems dead, the seed of faith survives hidden within the soil, like a silent germ awaiting the springtime of God.

In the penitential rite we confess that we have sinned in thought, word, deed, and omission. Among these sins, omission is perhaps the most grievous, for it encloses within itself the root of all the others — much as pride, queen and synthesis of the capital sins, contains them all. The dramatic phrase that closes this Gospel passage — at once hermetic and enigmatic — finds in the sin of omission its fitting paradigm.

Consider, for example, how many, faced with the disorder and decay that for decades have afflicted the Church, wash their hands like Pilate in the praetorium, saying: “The Church belongs to Christ, and it is governed by the Holy Spirit.” As though that formula were sufficient to justify their inertia. The house is ablaze, yet we console ourselves by saying: “It is His; He will see to it. Did He not promise that the gates of hell shall not prevail?”

We are witnessing the sanctification of impotence — a theology of minding one’s own business disguised as trust in Providence. It is an evasion of responsibility that masquerades as faith. When problems cannot be denied or avoided in any way, we are even capable of saying: “Those who come after us will take care of it”, a true triumph of the most nefarious irresponsible spirit.

If we were to set Christ’s question — “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith upon the earth?” — within this realistic context, an unsettling echo would emerge. Yes, the Lord has promised not praevalebunt, and assuredly, at His return, He will find the Church still standing. But which Church? For He may find, rather, a visible Church emptied of Christ — of whom at times we seem almost ashamed — and filled instead with something else: humanism without grace, diplomacy without truth, spirituality without the Spirit. A Church that yet exists in its outward form, but one that risks no longer possessing faith.

And this, perhaps, is the most terrible of all the prophecies implicit in that question: that faith might vanish not from the world, but from the very house of God. Even in the face of this disquieting possibility — that the Son of Man might find a faith grown dim, almost extinguished — the Gospel does not abandon us to fear; it recalls us instead to the hope that does not disappoint.

True faith is not a stable possession; it is a grace to be guarded and renewed each day. Like breath, it lives only in its continuity: if it ceases, it dies. This is why prayer becomes the highest act of spiritual resistance: to pray does not mean to remind God of our existence, but to remind ourselves that God exists, and that His faithfulness precedes every one of our infidelities.

When faith seems to falter within the Church, God does not cease to awaken it in the little ones, in the humble, in the poor who cry to Him day and night. This is the logic of the Kingdom: while structures grow rigid and men grow distracted, the Spirit continues to breathe within silent hearts that believe without seeing. Where the institution appears weary, God remains alive in His people. Where the word falls silent, faith continues to whisper.

The question of Christ — “Will I find faith upon the earth?” — is not a condemnation but an invitation: “Will you keep the faith when all around you seems lost?”. It is a summons to remain awake in the night, not to delegate to others the responsibility of believing. The Son of Man does not ask for a triumphant Church in the worldly or political sense of the term, but for a Church that keeps vigil, that does not cease to knock, that perseveres in prayer like the widow of the parable. And that widow, symbol of the poor and faithful Church, teaches us that the miracle of faith does not consist in changing God, but in allowing ourselves to be changed by Him — until we ourselves become living prayer.

When the Son of Man comes, He may perhaps find few works and few institutions still standing firm; yet if He finds a small remnant that still believes, hopes, and loves, then His question will already have found its answer. For even a single living faith, even a single heart that continues to pray in the night, is enough to keep the lamp of the Church burning.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

From The Island of Patmos, 20 October 2025

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FAITH AS RESISTANCE IN THE NIGHT OF GOD. «WHEN THE SON OF MAN COMES, WILL YOU FIND FAITH ON EARTH?»

When the Son of Man comes, you may not find many works or many institutions that remain firm; but if you find a small remnant that still believes, wait and love, your question will have already found the answer. Because even a single faith lives, Even a single heart that continues to pray at night, It is enough to keep the lamp of the Church lit..

.

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The final sentence of this Lucan passage arouses in my Christian and priestly spirit fear and trembling. The parable of the judge and the widow does not end with a consolation, but with a question. Jesus does not promise better times or guarantee that God's justice will manifest according to our expectations.; deja, rather, a suspended question that crosses the centuries and rests on each generation: "When the Son of Man comes, Will you find faith on earth?».

From the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke (18, 1-8) — At that time, Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to always pray without giving up.: "There was a judge in a city who neither feared God nor respected men.. In that same city there was a widow who came to him saying: “Do me justice against my adversary”. For some time he refused, but then he said to himself: “Although I do not fear God nor respect men, how this widow is bothering me, I will give him justice so that he does not continually come to bother me." And the Lord added: «Look at what the unjust judge says; well God, Will he not do justice to his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night? Will you make them wait? I tell you that he will give them justice soon. But when the Son of man comes, Will you find this faith on earth?».

This question is the dramatic seal of the Gospel of the blessed evangelist Lucas, because it reveals the paradigm of the Christian faith: God remains faithful, but often the man is not. The risk is not that God forgets man, but in man getting tired of God.

That is why Jesus talks about the need to always pray, without fainting: not because God is deaf, but because prayer keeps faith alive in a time that wears it down until it is empty., especially in this Europe of ours, no memory, that denies its Christian roots and seeks to build a world where God no longer has a place.

The widow of this parable represents the suffering soul of the Church, Mystical Body of Christ: fragile, but stubborn. Silently continue knocking on the judge's door, even when everything seems useless. It is the faith that does not give in to the temptation of indifference; the faith that endures in the night of God's apparent absence. And God is not like the unjust judge, but sometimes it tests faith precisely at the moment when it seems to behave as such: calla, does not respond, delays justice. This is when persevering prayer becomes an act of pure trust., a silent rebellion against despair.

When Jesus asks if, upon his return, you will find faith on earth, It does not speak of a vague belief or a religious feeling; speaks of the faith that resists, one that remains steadfast even when all semblance of religion seems to dissolve; that faith that is “the foundation of what is hoped for and the guarantee of what is not seen” (cf. Heb 11,1); that faith that will make us blessed because, "without having seen, “we have believed” (cf. Jn 20,29). It is the faith of Abraham, who “believed hoping against all hope” (cf. Rom 4,18); the faith of the widow who continues to ask for justice (cf. LC 18,3); the faith of the Church that does not stop praying even when the world mocks it.

The real threat is not atheism spread in the world, but that which spreads more and more within the visible Church: ecclesiastical atheism, extreme consequence of spiritual apathy that erodes the heart and transforms faith into habit and hope into cynicism. Y, however, It is precisely in this desert where God's faithfulness is revealed: when everything seems dead, the seed of faith survives hidden in the earth, like a silent germ waiting for God's spring.

In the penitential rite we confess to having sinned in thought, word, work and omission. Among these sins, the omission is perhaps the most serious, because it contains within itself the root of all the others, in the same way that pride, queen and synthesis of all the capital sins, contains them all. And the dramatic phrase that closes this evangelical passage — at the same time hermetic and enigmatic — involves the sin of omission., in your way, with the paradigm.

Just think about how many, in the face of the disorder and decadence that has afflicted the Church for decades, They wash their hands like Pilate in the praetorium saying: "The Church belongs to Christ and is governed by the Holy Spirit". As if that formula were enough to justify inertia. The house is on fire, but we calm ourselves by saying: «It's yours, He will take care. Hasn't he promised that the gates of hell will not prevail?».

We are facing the sanctification of impotence, facing a theology of “I take care of my own business” disguised as trust in Providence. It is an escape from responsibility that seeks to present itself as faith. When problems cannot be denied or avoided in any way, we are even able to say: “Those who come after us will take care of it.”, true triumph of the most nefarious irresponsible spirit.

If we inserted Christ's question — «When the Son of man comes, Will you find faith on earth?» — in this realistic context, a disturbing echo would resonate in it. Yeah, the Lord has promised not praevalebunt and, certainly, upon his return he will still find the Church. But what Church? Because I could also find a visible Church emptied of Christ — of whom we sometimes seem almost ashamed — and filled with something else.: of graceless humanitarianism, of diplomacy without truth, of spirituality without Spirit. A Church that continues to exist in its external form, but who runs the risk of no longer having faith.

And this is perhaps the most terrible of prophecies implicit in that question: that faith can disappear not from the world, but precisely from the house of God. Even in the face of this disturbing possibility—that the Son of Man may find faith weakened, almost extinct, the Gospel does not abandon us to fear, but calls us to hope that does not disappoint.

Authentic faith is not a stable possession; It is a grace that must be guarded and renewed every day. like breath, only live in continuity: if interrupted, die. That is why prayer becomes the highest act of spiritual resistance.: Praying does not mean reminding God of our existence, but to remind ourselves that God exists, and that his faithfulness precedes all our infidelities.

When faith seems to fail in the Church, God does not stop raising it in the little ones, in the humble, in the poor who cry out to Him day and night. This is the logic of the Kingdom: while structures harden and men become distracted, the Spirit continues to blow into the silent hearts that believe without having seen. Where the institution seems tired, God is still alive in his people. Where the word is silent, faith keeps whispering.

Christ's question — «Will I find faith on earth?» — is not a sentence, but an invitation: «Will you keep the faith when everything around you seems lost?» It is a call to stay awake at night, not to delegate the responsibility of believing to others. The Son of Man does not ask for a triumphant Church in the worldly or political sense of the term., but a Church that watches, that doesn't stop knocking on the door, who perseveres in prayer like the widow in the parable. And that widow, symbol of the poor and faithful Church, teaches us that the miracle of faith does not consist of changing God, but in letting ourselves be changed by Him, until we become living prayer ourselves.

When the Son of Man comes, perhaps you will not find many works or many institutions that remain firm; but if you find a small remnant that still believes, wait and love, your question will have already found the answer. Because even a single faith lives, Even a single heart that continues to pray at night, It is enough to keep the lamp of the Church lit..

Praise be Jesus Christ!

From the Island of Patmos, 20 October 2025

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The saving joy of being only useless servants – The saving joy of being only unworthy servants – The salvific joy of being only useless servants

/in /by

Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

Italian, english, español

 

THE SAVING JOY OF BEING ONLY USELESS SERVANTS

The authentic disciple of the Lord, after having done his service well, he must however recognize himself as useless because his work does not necessarily guarantee him salvation, as grace will always be a gift and not a boast for having done something.

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PDF print format article – PDF article print format – PDF article in printed format

 

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The Gospel of Luke today reports two sayings of Jesus. The first concerns faith, in response to a question from the apostles.

The second which is presented in extended form, almost a small parable, refers to the service that "useless servants" provide. The context is still that of Jesus' great journey to Jerusalem which began in LC 9,51 and will end in LC 19,45. Today's Gospel closes the second section of this pilgrimage of Jesus which is characterized by the invitation to enter the Kingdom by following certain conditions. What follows is the Gospel text:

"During that time, the apostles said to the Lord: «Increase our faith!». The Lord replied: «If you had faith as much as a mustard seed, you might say to this mulberry tree: «Uproot yourself and go and plant yourself in the sea, and it would obey you. Who among you, if he has a servant to plow or graze the flock, he will tell him, when he returns from the field: «Come quickly and sit at the table?» He won't tell him instead: «Prepare something to eat, stringiti le vesti ai fianchi e sérvimi, until I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink?» Perhaps he will be grateful to that servant, because he followed the orders he received? So do you, when you have done everything you were told to do, said: «We are useless servants. We did what we had to do" (LC 17,5-10).

After having discussed the use of material goods, of relationships with others and of the Church with community instructions, for the first time in the Gospel of Luke the Lord speaks on the theme of faith in response to an intervention by the apostles: «Increase our faith» (LC 17,5). The question of the latter refers to a similar situation recalled by the Gospel of Mark. There, after the story of the transfiguration, the father of a possessed boy turns to Jesus to ask for his son's liberation, and tells him: «Credo; help my unbelief" (MC 9,24). The Lord answers him not in words, but with a gesture of power, exorcising the impure spirit. The gospel of Matthew tells the same episode but amplifies it, adding the reaction of the disciples not handed down by Saint Mark and recording however the same words of Jesus that we hear today: «Then the disciples approached Jesus, on the sidelines, and they asked him: «Because we couldn't drive him away?». And he answered them: «For your little faith. Verily I say unto you: if you have faith equal to a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain: «Move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you" (Mt 17,19-20).

Actually Marco too preserves the same saying of Jesus in Luke, but in a different context, that of the fruitless fig tree: «Jesus answered them: «Have faith in God! Verily I say unto you: if one were to say to this mountain: Get up and throw yourself into the sea, without doubting in his heart, but believing that what he says happens, this will happen to him" (MC 11,22-23).

Are, as Archimedes said, to lift the world you need a point of support, this is undoubtedly faith for Jesus. Jesus has just spoken of the inevitability of scandals occurring in the Christian community and invited those who sin to be corrected and those who repent and openly recognize their sin to be infinitely forgiven. (LC 17,1-4). In this context we understand the prayer of the disciples to see their faith increased. How to hold up, indeed, the weight of scandals, of obstacles to the life of communion, of the stumbling block placed on the smallest or simplest in the ecclesial space? How to exercise fraternal correction that does not crush the brother but frees him? How to forgive again and always those who repent every time? Only through faith. Let it be, by way of example, to move a mulberry tree as in today's page of Luke or a mountain, as in the gospels of Mark and Matthew, the aforementioned "lever" to do this is faith, as big as a mustard seed, in fact what matters is quality and not quantity. In the evangelical miracles it is presupposed in the needy that Jesus encounters, allows us to avoid spectacularisation or idolatry, Jesus normally asks for faith before his intervention, since after that it is no longer guaranteed, as in the case of the ten healed lepers in next Sunday's Gospel: only one returned to say thank you (cf.. LC 17,11-19).

In the second part of the song a similarity is reported, almost a parable, which presents a situation that, Fortunately, today it is very difficult to trace, since slavery has been abolished and those who perform a service do so because they are competent and gratified and not simply because they are qualified as servants. However in the Bible these terms, net of social situations different from ours, are used to define a religious condition, often positive. For instance, in the Gospel of Luke, Mary herself proclaims herself the "servant" of the Lord (cf.. LC 1,38). How typical of Jesus, the parable places us before a paradoxical situation, as an invitation to look at reality from another point of view, which is that of God. In this case the paradox corresponds to the fact that the servant, having done his duty, it was necessary to his master. But the authentic disciple of the Lord, after having done his service well, he must however recognize himself as useless because his work does not necessarily guarantee him salvation, as grace will always be a gift and not a boast for having done something. The Greek term, used by Luca, acreios (achreioi), which has the original meaning of "worthless", applied to the people mentioned by Jesus it indicates any servants, to whom nothing is owed. It's a strong feeling, which could offend modern sensibilities, yet it hides a religious and salvific meaning that, eg, the apostle Paul captures it when speaking about faith in the Letter to the Romans: «Where then is the boasting?? He was excluded! By what law? From that of the works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that man is justified by faith, independently of the works of the Law" (Rom 3,27-28). And again in the Letter to the Ephesians: “For by grace you are saved through faith; and that doesn't come from you, but it is a gift from God; nor does it come from works, so that no one can boast about it" (Ef 2,8-9).

Therefore for the disciple and in the Christian community, faith is required for service and they walk together; this is the link that we can trace between the simile that Jesus makes and the exhortation to faith, although the size of a mustard seed. Jesus is instructing those who follow him and great faith is required of the disciple, which can only be continually asked of God. The effort and commitment that Christians must have to do what they do, often at the risk of their lives in some situations and parts of the world, he must also be able to recognize that one is saved not because one was good or achieved results, but because it is God who saves. All credit, even those legitimately obtained, they must be brought back to the merciful and savior God.

From the Hermitage, 5 October 2025

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THE SAVING JOY OF BEING ONLY UNWORTHY SERVANTS

The disciple of the Lord, after having carried out his service well, must still recognise himself as unprofitable, because his work does not of itself guarantee salvation; grace will always be a gift and never a boast for having done something.

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The Gospel of Luke today reports two sayings of Jesus. The first concerns faith, in response to a request from the apostles.

The second, presented at greater length as a short parable, refers to the service rendered by the «unprofitable servants». The setting is still that of the great journey of Jesus to Jerusalem which began at Page 9:51 and will end at Page 19:45. With today’s Gospel we come to the close of the second section of this pilgrimage of Jesus, which is marked by the invitation to enter the Kingdom by following certain conditions. What follows is the Gospel text:

«And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” The Lord replied, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to [this] mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. “Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’? Would he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished’? Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded? So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’” (Luke 17:5–10)».

After speaking about the use of material goods, relations with one’s neighbour and the life of the Church with her communal instructions, for the first time in Luke’s Gospel the Lord speaks about the theme of faith in response to a request from the apostles: «Increase our faith» (Page 17:5). Their plea recalls a similar situation noted by Mark. There, after the account of the Transfiguration, the father of a possessed boy turns to Jesus to ask for his son’s liberation and says to him: «I do believe, help my unbelief!» (Mk 9:24). The Lord answers him not with words but with a deed of power, by casting out the unclean spirit. Matthew recounts the same episode but expands it, adding the disciples’ reaction (which Mark does not record) and preserving the same words of Jesus that we hear today: «Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you”» (Mt 17:19–20).

Mark also preserves the same saying of Jesus as Luke, but in a different context, that of the barren fig tree: «Jesus said to them in reply, “Have faith in God. Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him”» (Mk 11:22–23).

If, as Archimedes said, to lift the world one needs a fixed point, for Jesus that point is undoubtedly faith. He has just spoken about the inevitability that scandals occur within the Christian community and has urged that the sinner be corrected and that the one who repents be forgiven without limit (Page 17:1-4). In this context one understands the disciples’ prayer to have their faith increased. How, indeed, can one bear the weight of scandals, of obstacles to communion, of stumbling blocks placed before the little ones in the Church’s life? How can one exercise fraternal correction that does not crush a brother but frees him? How can one forgive again and again those who repent each time? Only by means of faith. Whether, by way of example, it is a matter of moving a mulberry tree as in Luke, or a mountain as in Mark and Matthew, the “lever” to do so is faith — great even if only like a mustard seed — for what counts is its quality rather than its quantity. In the Gospel miracles faith is presupposed in those in need whom Jesus meets; it allows one to avoid spectacle or idolatry. Jesus normally asks for faith before he intervenes, because afterwards it is no longer guaranteed, as in the case of the ten lepers of next Sunday’s Gospel: only one returned to give thanks (cf. Page 17:11–19).

In the second part of the passage a comparison is reported, almost a parable, presenting a situation which, thankfully, is very hard to find today, since slavery has been abolished and those who perform a service do so because they are competent and fulfilled, not simply because they are labelled as servants. Nevertheless, in the Bible such terms, quite apart from social situations different from our own, are used to define a religious condition, often a positive one. For example, in Luke’s Gospel Mary herself proclaims herself the «handmaid» of the Lord (cf. Page 1:38). As is typical of Jesus, the parable sets before us a paradoxical situation that invites us to look at reality from another point of view, that of God. The paradox here is that the servant, having done his duty, has in fact been necessary to his master. But the true disciple of the Lord, after having carried out his service well, must still recognise himself as unprofitable, because his work does not of itself guarantee salvation; grace will always be a gift and never a boast for having done something. The Greek word used by Luke, acreios (achreioi), whose primary sense is “without claim,” applied to the persons in Jesus’ example indicates ordinary servants to whom nothing is owed. It is a strong expression that can jar modern sensibilities, yet it conceals a religious and saving meaning which, for example, the Apostle Paul brings out when he speaks about faith in the Letter to the Romans: «What occasion is there then for boasting? It is ruled out. On what principle, that of works? No, rather on the principle of faith. For we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law» (Rom 3:27–28). And again in the Letter to the Ephesians: «For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast» (Eph 2:8–9).

For the disciple, then, and within the Christian community, faith is required for service and the two walk together. This is the link we can trace between the comparison that Jesus makes and the exhortation to a faith even the size of a mustard seed. Jesus is instructing those who follow him, and the disciple is asked for a great faith which can only be continually begged from God. The hard work and commitment Christians must put into what they do — often at the risk of their very lives in certain situations and parts of the world — must also be joined to the recognition that we are saved not because we have been good or have achieved results, but because it is God who saves. All merits, even those legitimately obtained, must be referred back to the merciful and saving God.

From the Hermitage October 5, 2025

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THE SALVIFIC JOY OF BEING ONLY USELESS SERVANTS

The true disciple of the Lord, after having performed your service well, must also be recognized as useless, because his work does not by itself guarantee his salvation; grace will always be a gift and not a reason to boast for having done something.

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The Gospel of Luke today collects two sayings of Jesus. The first refers to faith, in response to a request from the apostles.

The second, presented more extensively as a small parable, refers to the service provided by "useless servants". The context remains that of Jesus' great journey to Jerusalem that began in LC 9,51 and will conclude in LC 19,45. With today's Gospel the second section of this pilgrimage of Jesus closes., which is characterized by the invitation to enter the Kingdom following certain conditions. Next, the evangelical text:

«At that time, the apostles said to the Lord: “Increase our faith!”. The Lord responded: “If you had faith like a mustard seed, would you say to this mulberry tree: 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea', and I would obey you. Which of you, If you have a servant plowing or shepherding the flock, will tell you, when he comes back from the field: 'Come right away and sit at the table'? Won't you rather tell him: 'Prepare me to eat; Gird yourself and serve me while I eat and drink, and then you will eat and drink? Do you thank the servant because he did what he was told?? So do you, when you have done everything that has been ordered of you, DECIDED: 'We are useless servants. “We have done what we had to do.” (LC 17,5–10).

After having tried of the use of material goods, of relationships with neighbors and the life of the Church with its community instructions, For the first time in the Gospel of Luke the Lord speaks on the topic of faith in response to a request from the apostles: «Increase our faith!» (LC 17,5). The plea refers to a similar situation remembered by the Gospel of Mark. Over there, after the story of the Transfiguration, The father of a possessed boy goes to Jesus to ask for his son's release and tells him: "Believe; help my disbelief!» (MC 9,24). The Lord answers him not with words, but with a gesture of power, expelling the impure spirit. Mateo narrates the same episode but expands it, adding the reaction of the disciples (that Marcos does not register) and preserving the same words of Jesus that we hear today: "Then the disciples came to Jesus apart and said to him: “Why couldn't we expel him??”. He told them: “Because of your little faith. Truly I tell you: If you have faith like a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain: 'Move from here to there', and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you” (Mt 17,19–20).

Actually, Mark also preserves the same saying of Jesus as Luke, but in a different context, the one with the barren fig tree: «Jesus answered them: “Have faith in God. Truly I tell you: whoever says to this mountain: 'Take off and throw yourself into the sea', without doubt in the heart, but believing that what he says will happen, It will happen to him." (Mc 11,22–23).

And, as Archimedes said, To move the world you need a support point, For Jesus that point is undoubtedly faith. He has just spoken about the inevitability of scandals in the Christian community and has invited people to correct those who sin and forgive without limit those who repent. (Lc 17,1–4). In this context the prayer of the disciples to increase their faith is understood.. How to endure, indeed, the weight of the scandals, of obstacles to communion, of the stumbling block placed on the little ones in ecclesial life? How to exercise a fraternal correction that does not crush the brother but rather frees him? How to forgive again and again someone who repents every time? Only through faith. Whether it is, as an example, to move a mulberry tree, like on today's page of Lucas, or a mountain, as in Mark and Matthew, the aforementioned “lever” to do so is faith, large even if it is the size of a mustard seed: quality matters, not the amount. Faith in the needy that Jesus encounters is presupposed in evangelical miracles.; allows you to escape from spectacle or idolatry. Jesus usually asks for faith before intervening, because after that it is no longer guaranteed, as in the case of the ten lepers of next Sunday's Gospel: only one returned to give thanks (cf. Lc 17,11–19).

In the second part The passage contains a comparison, almost a parable, which presents a situation that, fortunately, today it is very difficult to find, because slavery has been abolished and whoever provides a service does so because he is competent and performs, not simply by being qualified as a servant. However, In the Bible these terms—regardless of social situations different from ours—are used to define a religious condition., often positive. For example, in the Gospel of Luke, Mary herself proclaims herself a “servant” of the Lord (cf. LC 1,38). As is typical of Jesus, The parable places us before a paradoxical situation that invites us to look at reality from another point of view.: God's. The paradox here is that the servant, having fulfilled his duty, has been necessary to his lord. But the true disciple of the Lord, after having performed your service well, must also be recognized as useless, because his work does not by itself guarantee his salvation; grace will always be a gift and not a reason to boast for having done something. The Greek term used by Luke, acreios (achreioi), whose primary meaning is "without right", applied to the people of Jesus' example indicates ordinary servants to whom nothing is owed. It's a strong expression, that can shock modern sensibilities, but it contains a religious and salvific meaning that, For example, the apostle Paul captures when speaking about faith in the Letter to the Romans: "Where is, well, the reason to glory? is excluded. why law? For the works? No, by the law of faith. For we hold that man is justified by faith, without the works of the law" (Rom 3,27–28). And also in the Letter to the Ephesians: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this does not come from you, but it is a gift from God; It doesn't come from the works, so that no one can boast." (Ef 2,8–9).

For the disciple, well, and within the Christian community, faith is required for service and both walk together; This is the link that we can trace between the comparison that Jesus makes and the exhortation to a faith, even if it's the size of a mustard seed. Jesus is instructing those who follow him, and great faith is asked of the disciple, that can only be asked of God continually. The effort and commitment that Christians must put into what they do—many times at the risk of their own lives in certain situations and places in the world—must be linked to the recognition that we are saved not because we have been good or achieved results., but because it is God who saves. All the merits, even those legitimately obtained, They must refer to the merciful and savior God.

From the Hermitage, 5 October 2025

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Sant'Angelo Cave in Ripe (Civitella del Tronto)

 

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