MARY MAGDALENE, THE "APOSTLE OF THE APOSTLES", FROM A MORNING MEDITATION FOR THE DISCALCED CARMELITES

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Tender remains for ever the question of Mary Magdalene, that frightened before the empty tomb pained groans: "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we know not where they have laid!». E, said this, shortly after she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, behind his back; but his reason did not know that it was Jesus; But it was the same reason that led her at once to make the leap of faith before the heavenly light of the Risen Body, she knew from her voice that spoke her name: «Maria!».

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Meditation on the figure of Mary Magdalene offered to the Discalced Carmelite nuns this morning.

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In today's party the universal Church celebrates liturgical memory of Santa Maria Maddalena, an extraordinary female figure in the Christological experience that reminds us of the Blessed Apostle Paul who, addressing to the people of Corinth, clarifies in a few short words the foundation of our faith:

"If Christ had not risen indeed, in vain would be our faith and our hope in vain " (The Cor, 15).

Before the empty tomb of the risen Christ, the link between reason and faith, more than narrow, it is inseparable. Because with reason we arrive at the overturned stone of the tomb of Christ God, with faith we enter the eternal mystery of the Risen One.

On the words of the Apostle Paul Blessed, which in the resurrection of Christ shows us the mystery of mysteries on which our faith can stand or die, is a rational demand: but what is faith? And do not use some coincidence that the word "rational", because the relationship between ratio e fides, reason and faith, it is highlighted by three Holy Fathers and doctors of the Church who constitute the pillars of theological speculation: Saint Augustine, bishop of Hippo, St. Anselm of Aosta first Abbot of Le Bec and then Archbishop of Canterbury, San Tommaso Aquino.

The dogmatic constitution of Vatican II, God's word, takes up the text of the constitution almost verbatim the son of God the First Vatican Council, reiterating in a line of continuity with the previous magisterium and with the Council of Trent the «Relationship between faith and reason» expressed with these words:

"The same Holy Mother Church professes and teaches that God, beginning and end of all things, It can be known with certainty to the natural light of human reason through created things; indeed, the invisible things of Him are known by the intelligence of the human being through the things that were done (cf. RM 1,20) [1]».

A distance of approximately a century from Vatican I, following the teaching of Aquinas, the Holy Pontiff John Paul II gave us his encyclical on faith and reason, the Faith and Reason.

The big question "What is faith", that in us resonates with the divine gift of reason, the Author of the Letter to the Hebrews provides an answer by saying:

«faith is the certainty of things hoped for and demonstration of realities that are not seen» (EB 11, 1).

To open up to faith, which it is both "certainty" and "hope", you need to project ourselves in a dimension of eternity, because the source of faith is the Lord.

The Servant of God Anastasio Ballastrero he used to say that «The present life is a space of bliss to the extent that eternity is rooted in it».

This story of the resurrection of Christ, with which concludes the entire Gospel of John the Apostle Blessed, is placed in the Eternal as an open door on the way toἔσχατον, the glorious day when Christ will return in glory to judge the living and the dead. And all this is a challenge to human reason to induce the man to the big step of faith.

Blessed Evangelist continues to narrate that while the two disciples returning home, Mary remained crying outside the tomb:

«The first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb in the morning, when it was still dark, and he saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. He then ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, what Jesus loved, and told them: “They took the Lord away from the tomb and we don't know where they placed him!”. Maria was outside, the tomb, and crying. she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white, sitting, the one at the head and one at the feet, where it had laid the body of Jesus. And they told her: “Donna, why are you crying?” He answered them: "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid". Said this, She turned around and saw Jesus, standing; and he knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus told her: «Donna, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?». Her, thinking it was the gardener, he told him: “man, if you have carried him away, tell me where you put it and I'll go get it”. Jesus told her: “Maria!”. She turned and said to him in Hebrew: “Rabbuni!”, what does it mean: “Maestro!”. Jesus told her: “Don't hold me back, because I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and tell them: "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, My God and your God". Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples: “I saw the Lord!” and what he had told her (GV 20,1-2 e 11-18).

During the sacred rites of the Passover of resurrection we sing an ancient sequence of rare beauty the Gregorian, of which a verse reads: Mors et vita conflixere duel aiming ... (death and life will face in a tremendous duel). And from this duel is something out defeat death, because the resurrection of Christ is an explosion of vital love without beginning and without end that takes us back to the eternal dimension of our existence in the ancient original Garden of Eden, because with Christ we are dead to sin and with Him we are all resurrected. For as we have all been involved in the sin of Adam, we have all been involved and made sharers in Christ's redemptive resurrection.

Death touches us more painfully, especially when it deprives us of precious suffering, He proves this Mary Magdalene with her tender lamentation. But however painful, death does not affect us forever, It takes us to a moment of passage to eternity, as we proclaim in our profession of faith:

"... I believe in the resurrection of the dead and in the life of the world to come".

It's still, so different but similar, we proclaim it during the Holy Mass on the Most Holy Eucharistic Species of Christ present alive and true with His body, His blood His soul and His divinity, cheering:

"We announce your death, Lord, We proclaim your resurrection until you come again ".

To understand what he was trying Maddalena in his heart at that moment, there might be help St. John of the Cross, that like all true mystics lived with his feet on the ground balances, because it is the earthly Jerusalem that we are called to project ourselves into the eternal heavenly Jerusalem. Referring to the Blessed Apostle Paul (cf.. RM 14, 3) he exhorts:

"Those who act according to reason is like one who eats nutritious foods; those who moves behind the taste of the will is like one who eats rotten fruit '[2].

Because of this, just 49 year old, now in its fullness in Christ after flying on "two wings"[3] of faith and reason, St. John of the Cross received death lowered into the spiritual coherence that a few years ago led him to write in his famous poem "Break the canvas now in the sweet encounter"[4]. And what he portrayed as a 'canvas', it was the mystical-poetic representation of the last tear through which, through the overturned stone of the empty tomb of the Risen, leads to the contemplation of the Divine Victorious Lamb who triumphs over death and that through the mystery of his resurrection involves us in eternity; and who is able to enjoy the eternal, He says together with the Blessed Apostle Paul: "For me, living is Christ and dying is a gain" (I Phil 1, 21).

Tender remains for ever the question of Mary Magdalene, that frightened before the empty tomb pained groans:

"They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we know not where they have laid!».

E, said this, shortly after she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, behind his back; but his reason did not know that it was Jesus; But it was the same reason that led her at once to make the leap of faith before the heavenly light of the Risen Body, she knew from her voice that spoke her name: «Maria!».

If we avert our fearful look the upturned stone of our empty tombs, We find out what the Lord's love goes beyond death, enough that we turn back; and day by day we will discover that 'Alpha and l 'Omega, the Word of God, It is behind us, to call us by name, because we are all in the divine heart of the great mystery of the Father, who wanted us, loved and called by name before the beginning of time.

Mary Magdalene is a woman who seeks the beloved of his heart, and to her church, in this Liturgy of the Word, He directs the words of the Book of Song of Songs in which it is revealed God's love for man and man for his God:

«… I tried my soul loves […] I found the love of my soul ".

Between the second and third century St. Hippolytus of Rome[5] It defines "the Apostle of the Apostles". She is in fact the first to see the risen Christ, according to the story of Blessed John the Evangelist. And after recognizing it she ran to tell it to the eleven Apostles, hidden and shocked by what they had seen a few days before on Golgotha. And from this episode it understands what is venerable figure of Maddalena, sent by Christ to proclaim his resurrection to those fearful that a few days before, during l'Last Supper, He had established priests of the New Covenant; the same people who a few days earlier, as recounted a dramatic passage from the Gospel: «And all the disciples, forsook him, fled» (cf.. Mt 26, 56). And the first of the Apostles, covered by Christ God for a vicarious function and he defined as uplifting rock of his Church (cf.. Mt 16, 13-20), before the stunning scenery of the capture and condemnation of the Divine Master, he didn't say, as he said on Mount Athos during the transfiguration of Christ "we stay here ...", Indeed, "let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah " (cf.. MC 9, 2-8). After Christ had sweated blood in the Garden shortly after going to meet his painful passion, Peter denied him three times. And even the abandonment of God by his apostles and priests, it's part, of always, the mystery of the Church; it's part, of always, of the mystery of faith. To take it up our cross and follow him (cf.. MC 8, 27-35), not enough reason alone, because it needs to be done through reason the leap of faith. Only in this way will we be able to recognize the Risen One who calls us by name from behind, because all, we are called to be Mary. E, like Mary, be heralds of his Resurrection.

the Island of Patmos, 22 July 2024

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NOTE

[1] First Vatican Council: Denz. -beautiful, 3004; cf 3026

[2] St. John of the Cross, it gives The soul in love prayers, n. 43.

[3] CF. Saint John Paul II, Faith and Reason, introductory preamble.

[4] St. John of the Cross, it gives O flame of love alive.

[5] Hippolytus Roman [170-235 D.C.], theologian and priest. It was the first anti-pope in Church history, He died reconciled with the legitimate Pope Pontian, together with whom he died in Sardinia after being convicted to the metals (to forced labor) by Maximinus the Thracian.

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«IF IN SOME PLACE THEY DIDN'T WELCOME YOU AND DIDN'T LISTEN TO YOU, GO AND SHAKE THE DUST UNDER YOUR FEET"

No romantic idealism therefore or no legendary pauperism, but a style that allows you to look not so much at yourself as at models who need to attract attention, but rather direct it towards the only Lord, Jesus. The center is not the missionary, but the Gospel that he announces, which is: «Power of God». And a particular sign of this style is brotherhood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In the last few decades in multiple conferences, on books, in the articles churned out galore in pastoral magazines, the Church has questioned a lot about evangelization, defined as mission or even as new evangelization. A great effort has been made in the search for new languages ​​or in the study of the elements of communication and style, on how the contents of the Word are preached or can be renewed. The results of this effort to date are discouraging. It is likely that pastoral actors in the Church have focused too much on the "what", the content of the message, to the detriment of the "how", that is, leaving the testimony of life in the shadows? In any case, this Gospel page is welcome 15th Sunday for a year. Here Jesus does not dwell on the contents or on doctrinal suggestions, but rather focuses on "how" those sent to announce the Word should present themselves. Here is the evangelical pericope:

"During that time, Jesus called the Twelve to him and began sending them out two by two and gave them power over impure spirits. And he ordered them to take nothing for the journey except a staff: nor bread, nor bag, nor money in his belt; but to wear sandals and not to wear two tunics. And he told them: «Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave there. If somewhere they didn't welcome you and didn't listen to you, go away and shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony to them". And they, parties, they proclaimed that the people should convert, they cast out many demons, they anointed many sick people with oil and healed them" (MC 6,7-13).

The time is coming for which one cannot just listen or learn, but what has been received must be returned. Jesus, who had also suffered a major defeat among his fellow villagers and co-religionists (MC 6,1-6), suffering their disbelief to the point of not being able to make any sign of power, he is not afraid to entrust to the Twelve everything he has and which has characterized his mission up to that moment. Everything that is his, all its power, It now changes hands and is entrusted free of charge to the Twelve. Thus we understand Mark's insistence in saying that Jesus "began, took the initiative" (horxato di MC 6,7) to send the Twelve two by two. The novelty of what happens in today's Gospel lies precisely in this simple gesture, but very complicated, because it involves, in a certain way also for Jesus, a detachment from one's exclusive power.

Is the first time that Jesus involves some of his people in the mission, charging them with important responsibilities. He called the disciples to become fishers of men (Mc 1,16ss.), he traveled with them various roads in Galilee; he defended them before the Pharisees who accused them (MC 2,23-28) and finally among these he chose Twelve so that "they would be with him and also to send them to preach and so that they would have the power to cast out demons" (MC 3,13-19). They have heard many of his teachings, especially the parables about the Kingdom that Jesus announced and which saw many acts of power performed by him. They have not yet shown great faith (cf.. MC 4,40), but Jesus must still have considered them ready for the mission.

And He entrusts them with three specific tasks. The first is to announce the conversion, or the Gospel of the Kingdom. The disciples are thus entrusted with the same task that Jesus carried out immediately after speaking. The Twelve "preached that people should convert" (MC 6,12); in fact like Jesus said at the beginning of his ministry: «The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near; convert and believe in the Gospel" (MC 1,15). The second task of the disciples is the exercise of authority over impure spirits. And even in this case we witness the same pattern as the beginning of the Messiah's mission. Jesus, as soon as the conversion to the Kingdom was announced and the first disciples were called, he actually performs the exorcism on an impure spirit in the synagogue of Capernaum (MC 1,23). Finally they are sent to heal the sick. Jesus did this several times at the beginning of his ministry, starting right from the circle of disciples, healing Peter's mother-in-law (MC 1,29-30). Now, even the Twelve can anoint the sick and heal them (MC 6,13).

From this it is clear that in the words and gestures of the Twelve the mission that Christ carried out up to that moment is reproduced exactly and in order. The things that Jesus said and did are now done and spoken by the Apostles. This is the mystery of continuity between the person of Jesus Christ and that of the Church founded by him. If Jesus had not wanted to communicate the gift he had or had not been able to do so, he would have been remembered as a great preacher or therapist and his figure would probably have been assimilated to that of the various itinerant prophets who traveled through Palestine at that time.. But it was not so, for all He had, the exousia (MC 6,7; cf.. 1,22.27; 2,10) to free from evil, heal and preach, since then and still today it circulates in the veins of the community that bears his name: the church.

As well as the bitter experience of the refusal that characterized the ministry of the Messiah. It can also happen to the Twelve, to the disciples, to find the door closed. These, which must go two by two as prescribed by the Law, which required the testimony of at least two people (cf.. Dt 17,6), they know from the beginning of their mission that someone will not receive them or listen to them. The answer will be to walk away shaking the dust from your shoes, as a testimony for them (MC 6,11). Shaking off the mud or dust from under your feet was a symbolic gesture that every Israelite made when leaving the pagan land. Now it becomes the gesture of the unwelcome disciple, not a spite or an offense, but a warning that will be testimony for the accusation on the day of judgment. The refusal, But, it does not stop the Church that announces. After Easter she will be able to bring the Word to the extreme ends of the earth, announcing not only that the Kingdom is near, but also that Christ is risen.

And as for the directions given by Jesus let's say straight away that they must not be reproduced as such. They remind us that Jesus' preaching has faith and an eschatological option as its underlying theme. In the New Testament these indications change depending on the geographical location, of the climate and culture in which the missionaries are immersed. We can imagine that the Apostle Paul had paid for his sea crossings to announce the Gospel (At 13,13) or that he kept his cloak forgotten in Troas in the house of Carpus, he asked for it, along with the books and parchments (2Tim 4,13).

No romantic idealism therefore or no legendary pauperism, but a style that allows you to look not so much at yourself as at models who need to attract attention, but rather direct it towards the only Lord, Jesus. The center is not the missionary, but the Gospel that he announces, which is: «Power of God» (RM 1,16). And a particular sign of this style is brotherhood.

Qoheleth suggested that it is "better to be two than just one" (q 4,9). Being two gives strength to the spoken word, since in the Old Testament, as already reported, a testimony, to be valid, it must be based on at least two witnesses (Nm 35,30; Dt 17,6; 19,15). Going together and not alone is important because this way you can experience the relationship, communion and charity. The community style, a relationship woven of mutual love, it is the best testimony that certifies the quality of the message you want to communicate and produces a change, both in the missionaries who announce, that perhaps they are called upon to endure, to welcome each other and respect each other, and in those who receive the message. This, at the bottom of, it was one of the most significant legacies that the Lord Jesus gave to his followers: «From this everyone will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for each other " (GV 13,35).

From the Hermitage, 13 July 2024

 

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«THE WIND WHISTLES AND THE STORM RAGES … » AND MEANWHILE JESUS ​​WAS SLEEPING

«Because you are afraid? Have you no faith?». For those who believe, there is nothing to fear, because everything works for the good, if you love God; even the storms of life. Only, fear often has the upper hand and when this happens we all discover ourselves as disheartened people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I knew a good priest that when someone, on the occasion of a death, he asked him for a phrase to carve on a tombstone or put on a memory card, he always suggested this one from today's Gospel: «Evening came, Jesus said: Let's move on to the other shore". Many remember the Pope's meditation on this evangelical passage during the pandemic, the 27 March 2020, in a deserted Rome and St. Peter's Square. Or the words of the predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, to Auschwitz:

«Where was God in those days? Because He was silent? How could he tolerate this excess of destruction, this triumph of evil?».

There are indeed moments in life of people, or history, in which God seems absent and careless about men. This is what happens in today's Gospel, When the disciples, scared by the storm, they said to Jesus: «Maestro, do we not care?» (MC 4,38). Here is the passage from this Sunday's Gospel:

«On that day, evening came, Jesus told his disciples: “Let's move on to the other shore”. E, the crowd dismissed, they took him with them, as it was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. There was a great windstorm and the waves were rolling into the boat, so much so that it was now full. He was standing in the stern, on the pillow, and slept. Then they woke him up and told him: “Maestro, you don't care that we are lost?”. He woke up, he threatened the wind and said to the sea: "Talked, take it easy!”. The wind stopped and there was a great calm. Then he said to them,: “Because you are afraid? Have you no faith?”. And they were filled with great fear and spoke to one another: “Who then is this?, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”» (MC 4,35-41).

The evangelical episode It comes at the end of a day that Jesus dedicated to preaching, while sitting on a boat just off the shore (cf.. MC 4,1-34). But when evening comes he decides to cross to the other shore of the Sea of ​​Galilee, leaving the land of Israel, to go towards a region inhabited by pagans, I GERASE. He probably wants to announce God's mercy to the people too, he wants to fight Satan and take away his ground even in that foreign and unholy land. This is the reason that moves Jesus. Many commentators have seen the similarities between this episode and the story of Jonah: called by God to go to Nineveh, city ​​symbol of the pagan people, he runs away and walks in the opposite direction (Gion 1,1-3). Jesus, instead, sent by God, he goes among the pagans. He therefore appears as a Jonah in reverse: not reluctant, but missionary towards the pagans and obedient to God. Anyhow, Jonah and Jesus are two missionaries of divine mercy, and both preach it at great cost: descending into the vortex of the waters and facing the storm (Gion 2,1-11), since only by crossing it can evil be overcome. And Jesus will say that only the sign of Jonah will be given to his generation (cf.. Mt 12,39-41; 16,4; LC 11,29-32), since the pagans were converted by listening to him. But in Him there is also "more than Jonah" (Mt 12,41), thus anticipating that after his descent into the dark and deep waters of death he would be resurrected to live forever.

The disciples, so, they begin the crossing of the lake, «taking Jesus with him». This is a strange expression, because it is usually Jesus who takes the disciples with him (cf.. MC 9,2; 10,32; 14,33). But from what we said before, it is possible that in the background there is also the situation of a Christian community to which Mark is addressing, perhaps the church of Rome itself, the small Christian community in the capital of the empire, who fears the storm and remains held back by fear, so much so as to prevent those Christians from missions to the pagans. Thus Mark invites them not to fear the missionary outing, he encourages them to understand the trials that await them as necessary; trials and persecutions in which Jesus, the Living, he doesn't sleep: "Truly I say to you: there is no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel, that he doesn't already receive now, in this time, a hundred times as much in homes and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions, and eternal life in the time to come" (MC 10, 29-30).

This is also how Jesus' sleep can be understood. We are aware that his day of preaching was long and probably tiring so much so that he felt the need to rest and fell asleep. This intention is frustrated by the abrupt awakening on the part of the disciples, not very graceful in the Marcian version, because in the meantime a storm had arisen which, by stirring up the waves that poured into the boat, risked drowning them. Plus it's evening, the hour of darkness that inspires fear. And then there is the sea which in the Bible represents the great enemy, the kingdom of the great abyss (cf.. Shall 107,23-27); only God had defeated him when he brought his people out of Egypt (cf.. Is 14,15-31).

«Maestro, You don't care that we are lost?». This way of expressing himself is already eloquent: they call him master (chucky), with blunt words they contest his inertia and his sleeping. Words that in Matthew's version will become a prayer: "Man (Kýrios) salvation, we are lost!» (Mt 8,25); and in Luca's a call: «Maestro, maestro (epistées), we are lost!» (LC 8,24).

Even of God, it may seem strange, in the Bible it is said that he sleeps: «Wake up, why are you sleeping, man? Wake up, Don't reject us forever" (Shall 44,24), are the words of the psalmist, when he finds himself in suffering and trial. Isaiah also cries out to the Lord «Wake up, wake up, coated with strength, O arm of the Lord. Wake up like in the days of old, as among past generations" (Is 51,9). How is it possible that God sleeps?

There is an ancient saying of philosophers came down to us through the formulation of Erasmus of Rotterdam: Naufragium done, you sailed well, I was shipwrecked, but I sailed well. It reminds us that the crisis, in the form of a storm, reaches anyone, any navigator going through life; and can seize unexpectedly and surprise, sometimes there is no way around it.

Returning for a moment toand similarities but also to the disparities between the evangelical episode and the story of Jonah, we notice that the hesitant prophet does not care about the inhabitants of Nineveh. Jesus, on the contrary, with a miracle he responds to the heartfelt words of the disciples: «You don't care that we die?». He cries out to the sea and saves them. There is a beautiful comment, very deep, to this evangelical episode by Saint Athanasius: «They awakened the Word, who was on the boat with them, and immediately the sea calmed down" (Letter 19.6). The world was created with the Word: «God said: «the waters that are under the sky, let them gather in one place and let the dryness appear" (Gen 1,9), and now Jesus with his word recomposes that balance between the sea and the land. He repeats the miracle narrated in the psalm: «You have divided the sea with power, you crushed the heads of the dragons on the waters" (Shall 74,13). «They awakened the Word», the one they had been hearing all day and now, in the dark hour, she seems dozing and silent. But the word of Jesus is an active power, we heard it in last Sunday's Gospel: 'Dorma o vegli, at night or during the day, the seed germinates and grows". God cares about us.

The scene ends with Jesus' invitation to faith: «Because you are afraid? Have you no faith?». For those who believe, there is nothing to fear, because everything works for the good, if you love God; even the storms of life (RM 8,28). Only, fear often has the upper hand and when this happens we all discover ourselves as disheartened people. But amazement prevails over the danger that has been escaped and the disciples ask themselves who Jesus is. The words he has said so far in the gospel of Mark, the miracles he performed by healing and freeing the possessed, I am nothing compared to such a great miracle involving nature, creation itself. We'll have to wait, But, the end of the Gospel to know who Jesus is. But we also know by now that He is the risen and glorious Christ who speaks to us through the Gospel. Why then fear? Saint Augustine wrote:

«If there is faith in us, Christ is in us […] The presence of Christ in your heart is linked to the faith you have in him. This is the meaning of his sleeping in the boat: the disciples being in danger, now on the verge of sinking, they approached him and woke him up. Christ arose, he commanded the winds and the waves, and there was great calm. E’ what happens inside you: while you browse, as you cross the stormy and dangerous sea of ​​this life, the winds penetrate you; the winds blow, the waves rise and rock the boat. Which winds? You received an insult and you became angry; the insult is the wind, anger is the wave; you are in danger because you are about to react, you are about to return injury for injury and the boat is about to sink. Awaken Christ who sleeps… Awaken Christ who sleeps in the boat is, so, shake faith..." (St. Augustine, Commentary on the Gospel of John, 49/19).

It is then a question of reawakening that faith which allows us to make the words of the psalmist our own: «The Lord is my light and my salvation, who will I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life, who will I be afraid of??» (Shall 27,1); not to succumb to fear: «In the hour of fear I trust in you» (Shall 56,4).

«In danger I cried out to the Lord: he answered me, the Sir, and saved me. The Lord is for me, I'm not afraid: what can a man do to me? The Lord is for me, he is my help, and I will look down on my enemies" (Shall 118, 5-7); not to fear any evil: «Even if I go through a dark valley, I fear no evil, because you are with me" (Shall 23,4).

From the Hermitage, 23 June 2024

 

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THE PENTECOST OF THE «CALLED ALONGSIDE» AS THE DEFENDER, RESCUER, COMFORTER

The Synoptic Gospels say that Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit, descended upon him in baptism, he then promised it as a gift to the disciples, in particular for the hour of persecution, when the Spirit will be their true defense: speaking into them and teaching them what needs to be said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The lectionary of the Italian Church presents per this Pentecost Sunday two passages taken from the Fourth Gospel which in truth are somewhat artificial constructions, as they are made up of verses belonging to different contexts. In this year B the text is composed of two verses where Jesus promises the disciples the Holy Spirit (GV 15,26-27) and by four others in which he specifies the action of the same Spirit in the days of the Church (GV 16,12-15). Jesus pronounces these words while he is still at the table with his disciples after the washing of their feet (cf.. GV 13,1-20) and communicates words of farewell, because "the hour has come to pass from this world to the Father" (GV 13,1). Here is the evangelical passage of the Solemnity:

"During that time, Jesus told his disciples: «When the Paraclete comes, which I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me; and you too bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. I have much more to say to you, but by the time you are not able to bear them. When he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all the truth, because he will not speak for himself, but he will speak everything he hears, and he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything the Father has is mine; this is why I said that he will take from what is mine and announce it to you" (GV 15,26-27; 16,12-15).

The Synoptic Gospels they say that Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit, descended upon him in baptism (cf.. MC 1,10), he then promised it as a gift to the disciples, in particular for the hour of persecution (cf.. MC 13,11 e par.), when the Spirit will be their true defense: speaking into them and teaching them what needs to be said. We find the same promise in the Gospel according to John (cf.. GV 14,26-27). It will come Parakletos (supplicant) a term that is not immediately understandable, the meaning of which is: «the one called next» as defender, rescuer and comforter. The sanctifying Spirit that Jesus, ascended to the Father, will send. Then the Spirit will bear witness to Jesus, just as the disciples themselves will do, who have been with him since the beginning of his mission. This is the decisive function of the Holy Spirit who, how he was "Jesus' inseparable companion" (Basil of Caesarea), after Jesus sent him from his glory to the Father, becomes the inseparable companion of every Christian.

He is that breath of God that Jesus breathes on the disciples after the resurrection and the very life of God which is also of Jesus becomes life in the disciples and enables them to be his witnesses. A synergy will be produced between the testimony of the Spirit and that of the disciples. And this regarding Christ. Even when men feel that Christians are strangers, in the persecutions or hostilities suffered by the world, in the power of the Spirit Christians will continue to bear witness to Jesus.

Pentecost then is the fullness of Easter. With it the Church celebrates the gift of the Spirit, on the one hand it recalls what God has already done in Jesus of Nazareth and on the other it invokes what is not yet, that is, the universal and cosmic extension of the energies of life and salvation deployed by God himself in the resurrection of Jesus. Pentecost is simultaneously celebration and invocation. The first reading of today's Solemnity (At 2,1-11) it shows the Spirit in his aspect of gift from above which makes the disciples capable of communicating the great actions of God in the languages ​​of men. It is an openness to the languages ​​and communication skills of others. The Spirit is thus at the origin of a mission that is at the same time one of inculturation, to reach the other where he is; and corresponding deculturation, so as not to announce as Gospel what is simply culture. Just as the Scripture says:

«The spirit of the Lord fills the universe and, embracing everything, knows every voice" (cf.. Sap, 1,7).

The second reading presents the fruits of the Spirit. He who is invisible makes himself recognizable by the fruits he produces in man if he welcomes his presence. The Spirit with his "indwelling" makes man go from being a closed and self-referential individuality, Paul alludes to this when he speaks of "satisfying the desires of the flesh" (Gal 5, 16-21); to be open to relationships with others and with God. Paul states: «The fruit of the Spirit, however, is love, gioia, pace, magnanimity, benevolence, goodness, fidelity, mildness, self-control… Therefore if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk according to the Spirit" (Gal 5, 22.25). Thus the Spirit shapes the face of the believer in the image of the face of Christ, guiding him on the path to holiness: fruit of the Spirit is the holy man.

In the second part of today's evangelical passage Jesus says a few more words about this divine breath which is the Spirit. He is aware of being the revealer of the Father as stated in the Johannine prologue: "It gave, no one has seen him: the only Son, who is God and is at the Father, it is he who has made him known " (cf.. exegetical Of GV 1,18, the greek explainer). He did it with events and words and above all by loving his people until the end (cf.. GV 13,1), but he also knows that he could have said many more things. Jesus warns us that there is a progressive initiation into the knowledge of God, a growth in this same knowledge, which cannot be given once and for all. In this way the disciple learns to know the Lord every day of his life, «from beginning to beginning, for beginnings that never end" (cf.. Gregory of Nyssa). The life of the disciple opens up to ever greater understanding and everything that a person experiences, thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit, acquires a new meaning in God. Each of us experiences it; the more we progress in personal life and in responding to the Lord's call in history, the more we know him: «In the illumination of the Spirit, we will see the true light that illuminates every man who comes into the world" (cf.. San Basilio).

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (EB 13,8), does not change, but the Spirit will guide us to the whole truth. These, sent to the disciples, remind them of his words (cf.. GV 14,26), it deepens them and new events and realities are illuminated and understood precisely thanks to the presence of the Holy Spirit. Christ is not succeeded by the Holy Spirit, the age of the Son is not followed by that of the Spirit, because the Spirit who proceeds from the Father is also the Spirit of the Son: “All that the Father has is mine”. Where there is Christ there is the Spirit and where there is the Spirit there is Christ. He is the perennial source of the Spirit who never runs out and always renews the Church, as John himself reminds us: «On the last day, the big day of the party, Jesus, pillow block feet, he shouted: «If anyone is thirsty, come to me, and let him who believes in me drink. As Scripture says: From her womb rivers of living water will flow. This he said of the Spirit that those who believe in him would receive: in fact there was not yet the Spirit, because Jesus had not yet been glorified" (GV 7, 37-39).

For this reason the Church continually invokes this water, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, which is also the ever-creating breath of life, according to the words of the Psalm: «Send your Spirit, everything will be created and you will renew the face of the earth" (Shall 104, 30).

 

From the Hermitage, 19 May 2024

 

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

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

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

The evangelical text is as follows:

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

From the Hermitage, 07 March 2024

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