True peace is of Christ, Not that of pacifists or pacifondists

The Spirit is "the topicality of Christ" himself, But not as a simple memory of the Lord's land life. Its actualization is the one that makes us "contemporaries of Christ" (Søren Kierkegaaard), ensure its permanent presence in the Church, As Saint Paul also states of Jesus, which remains present in our existence as a "lively spirit".

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San Girolamo, In the comment to the letter to the Galatians, It tells a perhaps legendary story, certainly ancient:

«The Blessed Giovanni Evangelista, while, up to advanced old age, He lived in Ephesus and with difficulty he was transported to the church on the hands of the disciples was more able to say many words, nothing else he used to utter in each meeting if not this: "Kids, love each other " (cf.. 1GV 3,11)».

In the Giovannei writings Love is the figure around which the evangelist condenses the Christian mystery, As in the words that are read in the Gospel of this Sunday. In them we are revealed something great and at the same time profound, Since they say that thanks to love the Trinity lives in us. The risen Lord who did not leave us, new form, spiritual, Keep living in us by bringing the love of the Trinitarian god. Let's read.

"During that time, Jesus said [his disciples]: "I know my mistress, He will observe my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and we will take home with him. Who does not love me, does not observe my words; And the word you listen to is not mine, But of the father who sent me. I told you these things while I'm still with you. But the paràclito, The Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name, He will teach you everything and remind you of everything I told you. I leave you peace, I give you my peace. Not as the world gives, I give it to you. Your heart is not troubled and is not afraid. You heard that I told you: "I'm going and I'll come back to you". You loved me, you would rejoice that I go to the Father, because the father is bigger than me. I told you now, before it happens, Why, When it happens, You believe "" (GV 14,23-29).

In the context of the last meeting between Jesus and his, Several disciples ask him questions: Pietro in the first place (GV 13,36-37), Then Tommaso (GV 14,5), then Judas Iscariota: "Man, how did it happen that you have to show yourself to us, and not in the world?» (GV 14,22). It is a question that highlights, perhaps, suffering in the disciples, so long as, After the adventure lived together with Jesus for years, He leaves and seems that nothing has truly changed in the life of the world. A small and small community understood something because Jesus manifested himself to it, But the others have not seen and see nothing. What is therefore reduced to the coming of the unigenite son in the flesh? Jesus then replies: «I know my mistress, He will observe my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and we will take home ". The Lord Jesus does not manifest himself in the world who does not believe in him, that remains hostile without being able to love him: to have, instead, The manifestation of Jesus is needed love. Those words of Jesus are surprising because they open the horizon on the unexpected new home of the Lord in us. What will this new presence of Jesus be like in the community of believers? It will be characterized by two fundamental sections.

First of all, It will be an inner presence, spiritual: through it the Lord will manifest himself to his disciples. Until then Jesus was simply "near" them (v. 25). Will start, But, without leaving them orphans, since he will return to his (v. 18), and "on that day", says Jesus, they will make a new experience: "You will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you" (v. 20). They will recognize simultaneously that Jesus is in his Father and that therefore he will not be alone to come to the disciple he loves: Jesus and His Father will come and will dwell (v. 23). Jesus will manifest himself in the mystery of his encouragement in his Father. However, says Jesus, almost like a refrain, This condition occurs if the disciple loves the Lord, according to the teaching he received from him (vv. 15.21.23.24). In this existential observance of the precept of love, The disciple will finally recognize that Jesus and the Father dwells in him.

The other fundamental trait revealed by the words of Jesus is that all this will not be possible without the action of the Holy Spirit. As a above, Jesus was "at" the disciples (v.25), So the spirit was also "near" them (v.17), because it was in Jesus. Later it will be "in" them - still the V. 17: «The spirit of truth, that the world cannot receive because it does not see it and does not know it. You know him because he remains with you and it will be in you " - because his task will be to remind the disciples all that Jesus had told them and to teach him from within: "He will teach you everything and remind you of everything I told you" (v. 26).

The teaching of Paraclito it will therefore coincide with the inner teaching of Jesus: his words will become, in the intimate of the disciples, rivers of living water that will arouse a new life for them and for the Christian community: «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). Through the internalization of the word of Jesus and through the presence of the Spirit in the disciples, Jesus himself and with him the Father, will be present again in them. But only in the Paracolito spirit will it be possible to "see" Jesus (GV 16,22-23); like this, through a new look, It will discover its mystery, As Sant’Ambrogio also states: «Not with the eyes of the body, But with those of the Spirit you see Jesus " (Expos. ev.sec. Luke: I,5).

Of this way, in an absolutely unpredictable way, The promise of the eschatological unit of God among men will be carried out (cf.. Zac 2,14: «Slowed, exult, Daughter of Zion, Why, there, I come to live in the middle of you "). So Sant'Agostino expresses itself regarding this new divine presence that is Trinitarian: "There, so, that also the Holy Spirit, Together with the Father and the Son, fix his home in the faithful, within them, like God in his temple. God Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Spirit come to us when we go to them " (Tract. and., PL 35, 1832).

We know that the three main authors of the New Testament who wrote about the Holy Spirit are Luca, Paolo and Giovanni. But only the latter says that the historical Jesus gave the Spirit. According to the fourth gospel, the activity of the spirit consists in arousing, deepen or defend, in the heart of the disciples, faith in Jesus and to give them the knowledge of the Lord. As it was rightly affirmed: It is in a revelation framework that the doctrine on the Holy Spirit is inserted in San Giovanni; And the fourth Gospel continuously makes us witness the progressive revelation of the increasingly intimate relationship between Jesus and the Spirit. If at the beginning Jesus presents himself as the one on which the spirit "remains" - of him, indeed, The Baptist says: "I contemplated the spirit descending like a dove from heaven and staying on him" (GV 1, 32) - He later gives him, rather, At the time of "his hour" he becomes the source. After the resurrection Jesus will ask the Father to send the spirit of truth (GV 14, 16-17) which will be another Paraclito. From the Spirit, the permanence and effectiveness of the revelation of Jesus is now ensured to the Church. On the contrary, for John, The Spirit is "the topicality of Christ" itself, But not as a simple memory of the Lord's land life. Its actualization is the one that makes us "contemporaries of Christ" (Søren Kierkegaaard), ensure its permanent presence in the Church, As Saint Paul also states of Jesus, which remains present in our existence as a "lively spirit" (1Color 15,45).

From the Hermitage, 24 May 2025

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