This evening too — vigil of the final day of the Easter Season, the Feast of Pentecost — Jesus is in our midst and proclaims aloud: “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’” (Jn 7:37-38).

It is the Holy Spirit’s “rivers of living water”, which flow from Jesus’ heart, from his side pierced by the sword (cf. Jn 19:37), and which cleanse and make fruitful the Church, the mystical bride represented by Mary, the new Eve, at the foot of the Cross.

The Holy Spirit flows from the merciful heart of the Risen Jesus, fills our heart with mercy, in “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over” (cf. Lk 6:38), and transforms us into the Church-heart of mercy, that is, into an “open-hearted mother” for everyone! How I would like the people of Rome to recognize the Church, recognize us for this abundance of mercy — not for other things — for this abundance of humanity and of tenderness, of which there is so much need! One would feel at home, the ‘maternal home’ where one is always welcome and where one can always return. One would always feel welcome, listened to, clearly understood, helped to take a step forward in the direction of the Kingdom of God.... As a mother knows how to do, even with her grown children.

This thought of the motherhood of the Church reminds me that 75 years ago, on 11 June 1944, Pope Pius XII made a special act of thanksgiving and supplication to the Virgin, for her protection of the city of Rome. He did so in the Church of Saint Ignatius, where the venerated image of Our Lady of Divine Love had been taken. Divine Love is the Holy Spirit, which pours out of the Heart of Christ. He is the “spiritual rock” that accompanies the People of God in the desert, so that by drawing the living water they may quench their thirst along the way (cf. 1 Cor 10:4). In the burning bush that does not extinguish, the image of Mary, Virgin and Mother, there is the Risen Christ who speaks to us, conveys to us the fire of the Holy Spirit, dispatches us among the people to hear their cry, invites us to open the passage to paths of freedom that lead to God’s promised land.

We know this. Today too, as in all times, there are those who seek to build “a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens” (cf. Gen 11:4). They are human plans, even our plans, made in service to an ever greater ‘I’, toward a heaven where there is no more room for God. God lets us be for a little while, so that we may experience the extent of evil and sorrow that we are capable of reaching without him.... But the Spirit of Christ, Lord of history, cannot wait to cast everything off, to enable us to begin again! We are always a little ‘narrow’ of mind and of heart; left to ourselves we end up losing sight of the horizon; we end up convincing ourselves that we have understood everything, that we have taken all the variables into account, have foreseen what will happen and how it will happen.... They are all our constructs that give us the illusion of touching heaven. Instead the Spirit bursts into the world from on High, from the heart of God, where the Son was begotten, and makes all things new.

What are we celebrating today, all together, in Rome, this city of ours? We are celebrating the primacy of the Spirit, who silences us before the unpredictability of God’s plan, and then makes us jump for joy: ‘So this is what God had in his heart for us!’: this journey of the Church, this passage, this Exodus, this arrival in the promised land, the Jerusalem-city with its gates always open to everyone, where mankind’s various languages are arranged in the harmony of the Spirit, because the Spirit is harmony.

And if we have labour pains, we understand that our groan, that of the people who live in this city and the groan of the whole of creation are none other than the very groan of the Spirit: it is the birth of the new world. God is the Father and mother; God is the midwife; God is the groan; God is the begotten Son in the world and in us, the Church; we are at the service of this birth. Not at the service of ourselves, not at the service of our ambitions, of many dreams of power, no: at the service of God’s deeds, of these wonders that God works.

“If pride and presumed moral superiority do not dull our hearing, we will realize that beneath the cry of many people there is not but an authentic groan of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who spurs us once again not to settle, to seek to set out on the journey anew; it is the Spirit who will save us from all diocesan ‘re-arrangement’” (Address to the Diocesan Conference, 9 May 2019). The danger is this desire to confuse the newness of the Spirit with a method of ‘re-arranging’ everything. No, this is not the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God disrupts everything and helps us begin not from scratch but from a new path.

Thus let us allow the Spirit to take us by the hand and lead us into the heart of the city in order to hear its cry, its groan. God tells Moses that this hidden cry of the People has reached him. He has heard it, has seen the oppression and suffering.... And he decided to intervene by sending Moses to evoke and nourish the Israelites’ dream of freedom and to reveal to them that this dream is his very will: to make of Israel a free People, his People, bound to him by a covenant of love, called to witness to the Lord’s faithfulness before all peoples.

But in order for Moses to fulfil his mission, God wants him instead to ‘descend’ with Him among the Israelites. Moses’ heart must become like God’s, attentive and sensitive to the suffering and dreams of mankind, to their hidden cry when they raise their hands toward heaven, because they no longer have a hold on the earth. It is the groan of the Spirit, and Moses must listen, not with his ears but with his heart. Today he asks us Christians to learn how to listen with our heart. And the Teacher of this listening is the Spirit. To open our heart so he may teach us how to listen with the heart. To open it.

In order to hear the cry of the city of Rome, we too need the Lord to take us by the hand and help us ‘descend’, to descend from our positions, to go down among the brothers and sisters who inhabit our city, in order to listen to their need of salvation, the cry that reaches him, and that we oftentimes do not hear. It is not a matter of explaining intellectual, ideological things. It makes me weep when I see a Church that thinks she is faithful to the Lord, that she is keeping abreast when she seeks purely functional paths, paths that do not come from the Spirit of God. This Church does not know how to descend, and if she does not descend it is not the Spirit who commands. It is a matter of opening eyes and ears, but especially the heart, to listen with the heart. Then we will truly set out on the journey. Then we will feel within us the fire of Pentecost, which spurs us to cry out to the men and women of this city that their slavery has ended, and that Christ is the way that leads to the city of Heaven. It takes faith for this, brothers and sisters. Today let us ask for the gift of faith in order to take this path.

[Pope Francis, homily at the Vigil of Pentecost 8 June 2019]

(Jn 21:15-19)

Jesus names Simon by the attribute «of John» because He still considers Peter to be spiritually pupil of the Baptist (!).

Despite his oscillations, the Lord puts him back on his feet.

Even with us, the Son never tires of re-proposing a loving and inviting Face of God, capable of astonishing.

For let us remember that the chief apostle had been called to freedom and had chosen the condition of lackey [cf. Jn 21:9 with the «ember fire» in Jn 18:18].

Thus, at the end of a game of reproposals, in the dialogue it is Jesus himself who “settles” for a love of friendship [cf. Greek text] by modifying the double question «do you love me?» with the third: «do you care for me?».

Human love waits for a minimum of satisfaction; it cannot shape itself into pure loss. It waits for little something, at least a nod of approval and gratitude.

No recognition? Then it is the strongest who yields.

'To wait' is the infinitive of the verb to love, because it allows one to be 'born' again.

Human feeling is in a hurry: it regulates its conduct on the basis of the success or perfections of the beloved.

Divine Love recovers, helps one to become another person - it does not break the understanding.

His Calling is not tied to merit or performance.

Even through works, saying «I love you» is [unfortunately not infrequently] a fatuous statement.

Or a sincere expression, but often animated by enthusiasm without deep roots, which on a subsequent test of facts transforms the oath of allegiance into a fragile and uncertain sentiment.

It is the awareness of one's own unpresentability gratuitously redeemed and transformed into the ground of absurd confidence that transforms self-presumption into apostolate!

That is why Jesus asks Peter to start with the little ones of the flock (v.15).

And «to ‘shepherd’» (vv.15-17) means «to feed»: to nurture, to care for, to protect, to foster; to initiate, to risk personally, to defend and to put one's face on - not “to command”.

«To graze the sheep» is to make oneself present, in a continuous flow of references. This is the climate that convinces, educates, nourishes and sustains, allowing to grow and flourish.

«To ‘shepherd’» is not (precisely) to dominate, but food the ideal. And to begin with the tiny flock (v.15).

Well, in order to ensure the "happy" outcome, the true believer, the friend of the Lord, the son of God, does not ally himself with people who matter - then we will see...

Nor must he “fish” proselytes, but rather expand and cheer life.

The fulness of the "result" is the Joy of every single real woman and man - as they are - not “as should be" according to opinion.

In fact, Jesus does not ask Peter: are you a good administrator? are you a good organizer? are you a skilful animator? Are you well-equipped, intelligent, cunning, smart, well-connected, introduced and versed enough to stand up to your opponents?

[A reflection for the scoutmaster  reads: «Remember, scout leader: if you slow down, they stop; if you yield, they back off; if you sit down, they lie down. If you walk ahead, they will overtake you; if you give your hand, they will give their skin»].

So God's 'enemy' is not uncertainty, but the pursuit of the “average life”. Quagmire where one does not throw oneself.

[Friday 7th wk. in Easter, June 6, 2025]

Mystery of Love and Eros

Jn 21:15-19 (1-19)

The same sign of the superabundant peach in Lk 5:1-11 does not concern the story of the Church after Easter, but is even placed in the day when Jesus invites the first disciples to follow him to become "fishers" of men.

The prodigy of the Vocation expands the believer's journey in Christ and affects every experience we can have of the Risen One in our ordinary work - and which Mission is entrusted to us in order to experience Him Alive.

The Church is not composed of phenomena, but of a stubborn and eager leader [Peter]. Some are in and out [Thomas], others remain tied to the past [Nathanael], and there is no shortage of fanatics [the sons of Zebedee]; hence the anonymous, that is, all of us.

Peter realises that before giving orders, he must do and expose himself: if so, the others, although insubordinate, will decide spontaneously (v.3), expanding their lives.

But without the torch of the Word, no results. Following Peter is not enough and does not save anyone.

Here is Jesus: on the shore of the ultimate condition he calls us and leads the way, he leads the way of activity, and he is finally Light - the Dawn.

The net must be cast from the "right side" (v.6), i.e. the good side!

In order to pull people up from the depths of polluted waters and billows of death to a possibility of respite or self-esteem and full life, one must begin and aim for the best in each one, bring out the good that is always there.

Reminder for us. Every culture possesses many qualities: let us build on them, instead of approaching women and men, ethnic groups or situations, by pointing out limitations and problems.

So the Peter - each community leader - must have no preconceived notions, but take off the cassock of group leader and gird himself in the apron of a servant [v.7: the Greek verb is that of the washing of feet].

For work that gives results according to God (love) one must wear the same garment as Christ - the only badge: the garment of one who does not give orders, but receives them.

This is the trait of the authentic Church - nothing great: it does not arrive on an ocean liner, but on a "little boat" [v.8 Greek text].

And it remains low-key: like a little leaven, to embrace all.

Despite the difficulties in believing, the disciples are constituted as heralds of the news of God favourable to humanity that intends to journey towards itself - without the baggage of overwhelming accumulations of manner.

For communion with God and one's brothers and sisters, in the journey of life and the sense of rebirth that lurks therein [e.g. after pain, travails, experiences of rejection, thoughts of failure and death...]. Jesus had brought out the transmutative capacities already in dowry to each one.

His proposal had supplanted the oppressive yoke of the external perfections preached by religion, replaced precisely with our simple family virtues, grasped from within. Not: to fight, but to welcome. Not: to obey, but to resemble. And so on.

The church was not to become an ethical communion of saints, but of sinners and unbelievers. The story of the unbelieving apostles comforts us: we are already empowered, and with aptitude for fullness. But in its reversal.

It is the resurrection that sends us among men, precisely to be regenerated; just like us. So the apostle status is not subject to the usual doctrinal, moralistic, customary, and religious rigmarole; it no longer lags behind.

Although self-belief remains fragile, we continually experience resurrection from our rubble - raising or at best regenerating the entire organism of the spirit, and the inner universe.

All this shapes a different consciousness of inadequacy: that in Faith - only positive, because it understands the brothers. He recognises them in the depths of himself, and in this way he knows how to justify the resistance to the Announcement.

For it is in the recovery of opposing sides and the synergy of contradictions that we have become - in our own - experts in difficulty. More able to grasp the discomforts; even the feeling of feeling emptied, which sooner or later will give way to the upheaval; unprecedented happy.

Then we have learnt about listening to emotions: the sense of being overwhelmed - even in ideas. And the need to grasp and lose ourselves in sorrows, absurd or unbearable. Dignified sides; faces of ourselves.

In short, for the purpose of vocational fulfilment, everyone is already 'perfect'.

In its bearer of dissimilar energies, it just has to learn to meet the reliefs of itself that it has not yet made way for.

As if within us we have a multiplicity of aspects, often all to be discovered, behind some shell that resists - which complete us and infallibly guide us to personal and social blossoming.

Thus in the exodus we move from death-resurrection experience to true witness - in the spontaneous frankness of being enabled as evangelisers.

Which surprises us. But now the Message becomes our own.It becomes a call for peace, but an explosive one - unbelievable, and one can see this more from its limits (now nothing to fear) than from its ability, or its external style, its ability to set up sententious cathedrals and showcases.

After Christ, there is no longer any need to 'improve' according to a common meaning - nor any expectation, or purpose, that looks to and drinks from the fountain of what has already been said by others [in the past, or for fashion], which then places us back in the same predictable situation as always.

For the shaky apostles, consensus, ancient or glamorous religion, identification, were self-denial at heart.

Conversely, the Calling by Name became the development of what each person was deep inside and had not given himself, manipulating himself.

Road of self-realisation, also in our contribution to our brothers. Also not intimately dissociated.

The only convincing weapon, genuineness - burning within to make us shrines, unconscious and incomplete but living.

Contemplative and in action. Only way to meet souls.

We are collaborators of the apron, to dialogue with those in need of recovery, in whatever condition of whirlwind or periphery they find themselves.

Therefore, 'to shepherd' (vv.15-17) means to precede and nourish, not to command.

Those who lead must be a sign of a God who does not get fed up or repent.

Loving and inviting face of the One who is able to amaze and set Simon on his feet. The chief apostle, who had been called to freedom and had chosen the condition of lackey [cf. Jn 21:9; with the "fire of embers" in Jn 18:18].

At the end of a game of re-proposals, in the dialogue with Simon himself - "of John" because he is still spiritually a pupil of the Baptist (!) - it is Jesus who "settles" for a love of friendship [cf. Greek text] by modifying the double question "do you love me?" with the third: "do you love me?".

Human love waits for a minimum of satisfaction, it fails to shape itself into pure loss - it waits for something, at least a nod of approval and gratitude.

No recognition? Then it is the Strongest who yields.

'To wait' is the infinitive of the verb 'to love', because it allows one to be born again.

Human feeling is in a hurry: it regulates its conduct on the basis of the success or perfections of the beloved.

Divine Love makes up for it; it helps to become another 'person', in the round - it does not break the understanding.

His Calling is not tied to merit or performance: even through works, saying 'I love you' is (unfortunately not infrequently) a fatuous declaration.

Or a sincere expression, but often animated by enthusiasm without a deep root, which on a subsequent test of facts transforms the oath of fidelity into a fragile and uncertain sentiment.

It is the awareness of one's own unpresentability gratuitously redeemed and transformed into the ground of absurd confidence, which transforms self-conceit into apostolate!

This is why Jesus asks Peter to begin by starting with the little ones of the flock (v.15).

And 'to pasture' (vv.15.17) or 'to shepherd' (v.16) means 'to feed': to nurture, to care for, to protect, to favour; to initiate, to risk personally, to defend and to put one's face on - not 'to command'.

To graze is to make oneself present, in a continuous of references. It is this climate that convinces, educates, feeds and sustains, allowing it to grow and flourish.

"To 'shepherd' is [precisely] not to rule, but to feed the ideal. And to begin with the little flock (v.15).

In short, in order to secure the 'happy' outcome, the true believer, the friend of the Lord, the child of God, does not ally himself with people who matter, then we shall see.

Nor must it 'fish' for proselytes, but rather dilate and cheer life.

The fullness of the 'result' is the Happiness of each and every real person - as it is - not as it 'should be' according to established opinion.

In fact, Jesus does not ask Peter: are you a good steward? Are you a good organiser? Are you a skilful animator? Are you equipped, intelligent, cunning and introduced enough to stand up to your adversaries?

So God's 'enemy' is not uncertainty or sin - obsession that breeds the unbalanced - but the pursuit of the 'average life'. They quagmire where one does not throw oneself.

[A reflection for the Scoutmaster reads: "Remember, Scoutmaster: if you slow down, they stop; if you yield, they back off; if you sit down, they lie down. If you walk ahead, they will overtake you; if you give your hand, they will give their skin'].

To internalise and live the message:

Are you an envoy or a mere admirer?

What is your personal Source?

What is the Source of your relationships?

And the root of all faithfulness and generosity that draws you, and shows you?

Total love and not

The school of faith is not a triumphal march, but a path strewn with suffering and love, trials and faithfulness to be renewed every day. Peter, who had promised absolute faithfulness, knows the bitterness and humiliation of denial: the swaggerer learns humility to his cost. Peter too must learn to be weak and in need of forgiveness. When his mask finally falls off and he realises the truth of his weak heart as a believing sinner, he bursts into a liberating cry of repentance. After this weeping he is now ready for his mission.

On a spring morning, this mission will be entrusted to him by the risen Jesus. The encounter takes place on the shores of Lake Tiberias. It is the evangelist John who relates to us the dialogue that takes place between Jesus and Peter on that occasion. There is a very significant play on verbs. In Greek, the verb "filéo" expresses the love of friendship, tender but not all-embracing, while the verb "agapáo" means love without reserve, total and unconditional. Jesus asks Peter the first time: "Simon... do you love me (agapâs-me)" with this total and unconditional love (cf. Jn 21:15)? Before the experience of betrayal, the Apostle would certainly have said: 'I love you (agapô-se) unconditionally'. Now that he has known the bitter sadness of infidelity, the drama of his own weakness, he says with humility: 'Lord, I love you (filô-se)', that is, 'I love you with my poor human love'. Christ insists: "Simon, do you love me with this total love that I want?". And Peter repeats the response of his humble human love: "Kyrie, filô-se", "Lord, I love you as I know how to love". At the third time Jesus only says to Simon: "Fileîs-me?", "do you love me?". Simon understands that Jesus needs only his poor love, the only love he is capable of, and yet he is saddened that the Lord had to say this to him. He therefore replies: 'Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you (filô-se)'. One might say that Jesus adapted himself to Peter, rather than Peter to Jesus! It is precisely this divine adaptation that gives hope to the disciple, who has known the suffering of infidelity. Hence the confidence that makes him capable of following until the end: "This he said to indicate by which death he would glorify God. And having said this he added: 'Follow me'" (Jn 21:19).

From that day on, Peter "followed" the Master with the precise awareness of his own frailty; but this awareness did not discourage him. For he knew that he could count on the presence of the Risen One beside him. From the naive enthusiasm of initial adherence, passing through the painful experience of denial and the weeping of conversion, Peter came to trust in the Jesus who adapted himself to his poor capacity for love. And so he also shows us the way, despite all our weakness. We know that Jesus adapts himself to this weakness of ours. We follow him, with our poor capacity for love, and we know that Jesus is good and accepts us.

(Pope Benedict, General Audience 24 May 2006)

The school of faith is not a triumphal march but a journey marked daily by suffering and love, trials and faithfulness. Peter, who promised absolute fidelity, knew the bitterness and humiliation of denial:  the arrogant man learns the costly lesson of humility. Peter, too, must learn that he is weak and in need of forgiveness.

Once his attitude changes and he understands the truth of his weak heart of a believing sinner, he weeps in a fit of liberating repentance. After this weeping he is finally ready for his mission.

On a spring morning, this mission will be entrusted to him by the Risen Christ. The encounter takes place on the shore of the Lake of Tiberias. John the Evangelist recounts the conversation between Jesus and Peter in that circumstance. There is a very significant play on words.

In Greek, the word "fileo" means the love of friendship, tender but not all-encompassing; instead, the word "agapao" means love without reserve, total and unconditional. Jesus asks Peter the first time:  "Simon... do you love me (agapas-me)" with this total and unconditional love (Jn 21: 15)?

Prior to the experience of betrayal, the Apostle certainly would have said:  "I love you (agapo-se) unconditionally". Now that he has known the bitter sadness of infidelity, the drama of his own weakness, he says with humility:  "Lord; you know that I love you (filo-se)", that is, "I love you with my poor human love". Christ insists:  "Simon, do you love me with this total love that I want?". And Peter repeats the response of his humble human love:  "Kyrie, filo-se", "Lord, I love you as I am able to love you". The third time Jesus only says to Simon:  "Fileis-me?", "Do you love me?".

Simon understands that his poor love is enough for Jesus, it is the only one of which he is capable, nonetheless he is grieved that the Lord spoke to him in this way. He thus replies:  "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you (filo-se)".

This is to say that Jesus has put himself on the level of Peter, rather than Peter on Jesus' level! It is exactly this divine conformity that gives hope to the Disciple, who experienced the pain of infidelity.

From here is born the trust that makes him able to follow [Christ] to the end:  "This he said to show by what death he was to glorify God. And after this he said to him, "Follow me'" (Jn 21: 19).

From that day, Peter "followed" the Master with the precise awareness of his own fragility; but this understanding did not discourage him. Indeed, he knew that he could count on the presence of the Risen One beside him.

From the naïve enthusiasm of initial acceptance, passing though the sorrowful experience of denial and the weeping of conversion, Peter succeeded in entrusting himself to that Jesus who adapted himself to his poor capacity of love. And in this way he shows us the way, notwithstanding all of our weakness. We know that Jesus adapts himself to this weakness of ours.

We follow him with our poor capacity to love and we know that Jesus is good and he accepts us.

[Pope Benedict, General Audience 24 May 2006]

1. The promise made by Jesus to Simon Peter, to make him the cornerstone of his Church, is reflected in the mandate that Christ entrusts to him after the resurrection: "Feed my lambs", "Shepherd my sheep" (John 21: 15-17). There is an objective relationship between the conferring of the mission attested by John's account, and the promise reported by Matthew (cf. Matthew 16: 18-19). In Matthew's text there was an announcement. In John's there is the fulfilment of the proclamation. The words: "Shepherd my sheep" manifest Jesus' intention to ensure the future of the Church he founded, under the leadership of a universal shepherd, namely Peter, to whom he said that, by his grace, he would be "stone" and who would have the "keys of the kingdom of heaven", with the power "to bind and loose". Jesus, after the resurrection, gives concrete form to the proclamation and promise of Caesarea Philippi, establishing Peter's authority as the pastoral ministry of the Church, on a universal scale.

2. Let us say at once that this pastoral mission includes the task of "confirming the brethren" in the faith, which we discussed in the previous catechesis. "Confirming the brethren" and "shepherding the sheep" jointly constitute Peter's mission: one might say the proprium of his universal ministry. As the First Vatican Council states, the constant tradition of the Church has rightly held that the apostolic primacy of Peter 'includes also the supreme power of magisterium' (cf.) Both the primacy and the power of magisterium are conferred directly by Jesus on Peter as a singular person, although both prerogatives are ordered to the Church, without however deriving from the Church, but only from Christ. The primacy is given to Peter (cf. Mt 16, 18) as - the expression is Augustine's - "totius Ecclesiae figuram gerenti" (Epist., 53, 1.2), i.e. insofar as he personally represents the whole Church; and the task and power of magisterium is conferred on him as confirmed faith so that it may be confirming for all the "brethren" (cf. Lk 22, 31 f). But everything is in the Church and for the Church, of which Peter is the foundation, claviger and pastor in its visible structure, in the name and by mandate of Christ.

3. Jesus had foretold this mission to Peter not only in Caesarea Philippi, but also in the first miraculous catch of fish, when, to Simon who recognised himself as a sinner, he had said: "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be fishers of men" (Lk 5:10). On this occasion, Jesus had reserved this proclamation for Peter personally, distinguishing him from his companions and associates, including the "sons of Zebedee", James and John (cf. Lk 5:10). Also in the second miraculous fishing, after the resurrection, the person of Peter emerges in the midst of the other Apostles, according to John's description of the event (John 21, 2 ff), almost as if to hand down the memory of it in the framework of a prophetic symbolism of the fruitfulness of the mission entrusted by Christ to those fishermen.

4. When Jesus is about to confer the mission on Peter, he addresses him with an official appellation: "Simon, son of John" (Jn 21:15), but then takes on a familiar and friendly tone: "Do you love me more than these men?". This question expresses an interest in the person of Simon Peter and is related to his election for a personal mission. Jesus formulates it three times, not without an implicit reference to the threefold denial. And Peter gives an answer that is not based on trust in his own personal strengths and abilities, on his own merits. He now knows that he must place all his trust in Christ alone: "Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you" (Jn 21:17). Evidently the task of a shepherd requires a special love for Christ. But it is he, it is God who gives everything, even the ability to respond to the vocation, to fulfil one's mission. Yes, it must be said that "everything is grace", especially at that level!

5. And having received the desired response, Jesus confers on Simon Peter the pastoral mission: "Shepherd my lambs"; "Shepherd my sheep". It is like an extension of the mission of Jesus, who said of himself: 'I am the good shepherd' (Jn 10:11). Jesus, who shared with Simon his quality of 'stone', also communicates to him his mission as 'shepherd'. It is a communication that implies an intimate communion, which also transpires from Jesus' formulation: 'Shepherd my lambs . . . my sheep'; as he had already said: 'On this rock I will build my Church' (Mt 16:18). The Church is Christ's property, not Peter's. Lambs and sheep belong to Christ, and to no-one else. They belong to him as the "good Shepherd", who "lays down his life for his sheep" (Jn 10:11). Peter must take on the pastoral ministry to men redeemed "with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Pet 1:19). On the relationship between Christ and men, who have become His property through redemption, is founded the character of service that marks the power attached to the mission conferred on Peter: service to Him who alone is "shepherd and guardian of our souls" (1 Pet 2:25), and at the same time to all those whom Christ the Good Shepherd has redeemed at the price of the sacrifice of the cross. Moreover, the content of this service is clear: just as the shepherd leads the sheep to the places where they can find food and safety, so the shepherd of souls must offer them the food of God's word and his holy will (cf. Jn 4:34), ensuring the unity of the flock and defending it from any hostile incursion.

6. Of course, mission entails power, but for Peter - and for his successors - it is a power ordered to service, a specific service, a ministerium. Peter receives it in the community of the Twelve. He is one of the community of the Apostles. But there is no doubt that Jesus, both through the proclamation (cf. Mt 16:18-19), and through the conferring of the mission after his resurrection, relates in a special way to Peter what he conveys to all the Apostles, as mission and as power. Only to him does Jesus say: 'Shepherd', repeating it three times. It follows that, in the context of the common task of the Twelve, a mission and a power are delineated for Peter, which belong to him alone.

7. Jesus addresses Peter as a single person in the midst of the Twelve, not merely as a representative of these Twelve: "Do you love me more than these?" (Jn 21:15). This subject - the you of Peter - is asked for the declaration of love and is conferred this singular mission and authority. Peter is thus distinct among the other Apostles. Even the threefold repetition of the question about Peter's love, probably in connection with his threefold denial of Christ, accentuates the fact of the conferral on him of a particular ministerium, as a decision of Christ Himself, independently of any quality or merit of the Apostle, and indeed despite his momentary infidelity.

8. The communion in the messianic mission, established by Jesus with Peter through that mandate: "Shepherd my lambs . . .", cannot but entail a participation of the Apostle-Shepherd in the sacrificial state of Christ the Good Shepherd "who lays down his life for his sheep". This is the key to the interpretation of many events in the history of the pontificate of Peter's successors. Over the whole arc of this story hovers that prediction of Jesus: "When you are old you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird your garment and take you where you will not" (Jn 21:18). It was the prediction of the confirmation that Peter would give to his pastoral ministry with his death by martyrdom. As John says, by such a death Peter would "glorify God" (Jn 21:19). The pastoral service, entrusted to Peter in the Church, would have its consummation in the participation in the sacrifice of the cross, offered by Christ for the redemption of the world. The cross, which had redeemed Peter, would thus become for him the privileged means to fully exercise his task as "Servant of the servants of God".

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 9 December 1992]

"How does Jesus look at me today?" The question suggested by Francis directly reaches and challenges every Christian with the same force as the "three looks that the Lord had for Peter". Looks that tell of "the enthusiasm of vocation, repentance and mission", the Pope explained in the Mass celebrated on Friday 22 May, in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta.

The passage that recounts the dialogue between Jesus and Peter, the Pontiff noted, "is almost at the end" of John's Gospel" (21:15-19) "We always remember," he continued, "the story of that night of fishing," when "the disciples caught no fish, nothing. And for this "they were a little angry". So "when they approached the shore" and were asked by a man if they had "something to eat", "they angrily" replied, "No!". For truly 'they had caught nothing'. But this man told him to cast the net on the other side: the disciples did so "and the net was filled with fish".

It is "John, the closest friend, who recognises the Lord". For his part, "Peter, the enthusiastic one, threw himself into the sea to get to the Lord first". This is indeed 'a miraculous catch', Francis noted, but 'when they arrived - this is where today's Gospel passage begins - they found that Jesus had prepared breakfast: there was fish on the grill'. So they ate together. Then 'after eating, the dialogue between Jesus and Peter began'.

"Today in prayer," the Pope confided, "the gaze of Jesus on Peter came to my heart". And in the Gospel, he added, 'I found three different looks of Jesus on Peter'.

"The first glimpse," Francis noted, is encountered "at the beginning of John's Gospel, when Andrew goes to his brother Peter and says to him, 'We have found the Messiah'". And "he takes him to Jesus", who "fixes his gaze on him and says: "You are Simon, son of Jonah. You will be called Peter'". It is "the first gaze, the gaze of the mission that, later on in Caesarea Philippi, explains the mission: 'You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church': this will be your mission".

"In the meantime," the Pontiff said, "Peter had become an enthusiast of Jesus: he was following Jesus. We remember that passage in the sixth chapter of John's gospel, when Jesus speaks of eating his body, and many disciples at that moment said: 'But this is hard, this word is hard'". So much so that "they began to draw back". Then "Jesus looks at the disciples and says: 'Do you also want to leave'?". And "it is Peter's enthusiasm that replies: 'No! But where shall we go? You alone have words of eternal life!"". So, Francis explained, "there is the first glimpse: the vocation and a first announcement of the mission". And "what is Peter's soul like in that first look? Enthusiastic'. It is "the first time to go with the Lord".

Then, the Pope added, "I thought about the second look". We find it "late on the night of Holy Thursday, when Peter wants to follow Jesus and approaches where he is, in the priest's house, in prison, but is recognised: 'No, I don't know this one!'". He denies him "three times". Then "he hears the cockcrow and remembers: he has denied the Lord. He has lost everything. He has lost his love". Just "at that moment Jesus is taken into another room, across the courtyard, and fixes his gaze on Peter". Luke's gospel says that "Peter wept bitterly". So "that enthusiasm to follow Jesus has become weeping, because he has sinned, he has denied Jesus". But "that gaze changes Peter's heart, more than before". So "the first change is the change of name and also of vocation". Instead "this second gaze is a gaze that changes the heart and is a change of conversion to love".

"We do not know what the look was like in that encounter, alone, after the resurrection," Francis said. "We know that Jesus met Peter, the Gospel says, but we do not know what they said". And so the one recounted in today's liturgy "is a third look: the confirmation of the mission; but also the look in which Jesus asks for confirmation of Peter's love". In fact "three times - three times! - Peter had denied"; and now the Lord "three times asks for the manifestation of his love". And "when Peter, each time, says yes, that he loves him, he gives the mission: 'Shepherd my lambs, pasture my sheep'". Moreover, to the third question - "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" - Peter "was grieved, almost weeping". He is sorry because "for the third time" the Lord "asked him 'Do you love me?'". And he answers him: "Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you". And in return Jesus says: "Shepherd my sheep". Here is "the third gaze: the gaze of the mission".Francis then reproposed the essence of the Lord's "three gazes" on Peter: "The first, the gaze of choice, with the enthusiasm of following Jesus; the second, the gaze of repentance at the moment of that very grave sin of having denied Jesus; the third gaze is the gaze of mission: 'Shepherd my lambs, pasture my sheep'". But "it does not end there. Jesus goes further: you do all this out of love and then what? Will you be crowned king? No'. Indeed, the Lord states clearly: "I tell you, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will clothe you and take you where you do not want". As if to say: 'You too, like me, will be in that courtyard in which I have fixed my gaze on you: near the cross'.

Precisely on this the Pope proposed an examination of conscience. "We too can think: what is Jesus' gaze on me today? How does Jesus look at me? With a call? With a forgiveness? With a mission?". We can be sure that 'on the road he has taken, we are all under the gaze of Jesus: he always looks at us with love, asks us for something, forgives us something and gives us a mission'.

Before continuing the celebration - "now Jesus comes to the altar," he recalled - Francis invited us to pray: "Lord, you are here, among us. Fix your gaze on me and tell me what I must do; how I must mourn my mistakes, my sins; what courage with which I must go forward on the path that you first made". And 'during this Eucharistic sacrifice', it is appropriate 'that we have this dialogue with Jesus'. Then, he concluded, "it will do us good to think throughout the day of Jesus' gaze on me".

[Pope Francis, S. Marta homily, in L'Osservatore Romano 23/05/2015]

Priestly, different resilience

(Jn 17:20-26)

To protect his intimates from fears of reprisals, Jesus took care to make it clear to what level of realization and consideration he was leading the disciples.

The priority Unity he cares about is that which is introduced by transmitting the divine reciprocity between Father and Son.

It emerges precisely as we allow the ferment that constitutes us sisters and brothers, his Body, to act in us.

If the Church contemplates and displays the Glory of Christ, it is because it has been able to place itself where it ‘belongs’, even to the point of giving life and substance: 'judging' reality too, but from the criterion of the Cross (cf. v.24).

Thus, the experience of Unity in God - the most irrefutable sign of His Presence - was truly profound in the Johannine communities.

Without preclusion, in the assemblies of Asia Minor, the fascination of those aspects of Oneness that were valued by the customary world as imbalances and flaws was revealed.

The first communities were an environment that helped to enhance hidden sides: opportunities for personal enrichment and vocations.

Thus, at the end of the Priestly Prayer, a salient concern emerges in Jesus: the 'Eucharistic' one par excellence.

The Jewish expectation of the Messiah becomes an expectation of Unity [not psychological and trivial, but a Gift from above].

On the subject of Glory, the apostles must not be confused.

Vehicle of Glory is love and the inescapable feasting together - just like in the Eucharist: the same divine Gold coming forth and being offered again.

In prayerful form, the Lord makes a memorial of all those who throughout history will believe in Him, by the word and testimony of the disciples.

Unlike ancient religions, He wants the life of Faith to be characterised not by the “truth” one has, but by the “truth” one makes. And He does not impose a tabula rasa of dreamy eccentricities.

We do not bear witness to the Immense on earth in the coherent capacities of understanding and will according to procedure.

To formulate definitions, it is enough to bring intellectual energies to bear.

To defend, promote and rejoice in life, one must be animated by the Spirit of God himself, in His work of primary Unity.

The earthly love that reflects it is no longer capacity, but possibility.

In its specific weight, the divine Core has nothing immediately satisfying and triumphant about it; on the contrary, much that is helpful and liberating.

In short, the friendship that reveals that which is celestial and primal [not transient and causal] is not in knowing, concatenating, reproducing; in affirming, or renouncing; not even in the succeeding... in parrying blows and advancing.

Nor is a form of Justice that gives each his own sufficient. It recovers opposites.

Father «just» (v.25) refers to the distinction between the world and the small assemblies of mutual adherence in the early days, the only places where life could be perceived.

Only in the reciprocity reflection in the sourcing One was the divine Glory intensely experienced; primordial.

And also for future pilgrims in Him, Christ asks God for Communion - conviviality of differences: not in a one-sided form, but from which to make sense.

Here is the Priestly Prayer of Jesus - which genuinely passes through the centuries; contemporary without wrinkle any.

[Thursday 7th wk. in Easter, June 5, 2025]

Priestly, diverse resilience

(Jn 17:20-26)

Jn seeks to clarify our universal aspiration, and to penetrate the way the Lord makes himself present in the disciples after Easter, so that the world above may approach and inundate, burst into ours.

Heaven influences, exhorts and radically transforms practical existence. 

On earth we can have a direct and all-too-real experience of God, in the summit of discipleship and following, even if it is not immediate.

At the end of the Priestly Prayer, a salient concern emerges in Jesus: the 'Eucharistic' one par excellence.

The Jewish expectation of the Messiah becomes an expectation of Unity [not psychological and trivial, but a Gift from above].

On the subject of Glory, the apostles must not be confused.

The vehicle of Glory is love and the inescapable feasting together - just like in the Eucharist: the same divine Gold that comes to the surface and is offered again.

In prayerful form, the Lord makes memorial of all those who throughout history will believe in Him, through the word and testimony of the disciples, who become the centre of attraction and union.

Unlike ancient religions, He wants the life of Faith to be characterised not by the 'truth' one has, but by the 'truth' one makes.

The weight of the divine manifestation must no longer be traced in formulae and correct dogmas: disputes fester.

God's demonstration before humanity cannot be in an external code that makes everyone dependent, wiping the slate clean of dreamy eccentricities.

We do not bear witness to the Immense on earth in the coherent capacities of understanding and willing according to procedure.

To formulate definitions it is enough to bring intellectual energies to bear. 

To defend, promote and rejoice in life, one must be animated by the same Spirit of God, in His work of primary Unity.

The earthly love that reflects it is no longer capacity, but possibility.

In this way, the divine Nucleus in its specific weight has nothing immediately satisfying and triumphant about it; on the contrary, much that is serviceable and liberating.

If the Church contemplates and displays the Glory of Christ, it is because it has been able to place itself in its proper place, to the point of giving life and substance: 'judging' reality too, but from the criterion of the Cross (cf. v.24).

In short, the friendship that unveils what is heavenly and primal [not transient and causal] does not lie in knowing, concatenating, reproducing; in affirming, or renouncing; not even in parrying blows and advancing.

Nor is a form of 'justice' that gives each his own sufficient - for from division to division it would shatter concord: summum jus summa iniuria; jus summum saepe summa est malitia.

This would crumble any firm polyhedral understanding - and if carried through to the end, would lead to the worst injustices.

Even for future pilgrims in Him, Christ asks God for Communion - conviviality of differences: not in the unilateral form, but from which to take meaning.

The priority Unity he cares about is that which is introduced by transmitting the divine reciprocity between Father and Son.

It emerges precisely as we allow the ferment that constitutes us brothers, His Body, to act in us.

For the world to believe that Jesus is the Envoy, friends must be in the Son and in the Father - as the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son. 

From such a relationship, cemented with intimate immanence, all our unions take their true meaning; weight, transparency, passage, and development.

Fraternities that realise Redemption in history, thanks to a tolerant synergy.

Each person can be in the other, only in the sharing of 'crafted' love.

This is the manifestation [glory] of the divine: a mutual indwelling, which makes us One Body - otherwise one is not credible. Just as the incarnation of God in Christ would not be credible.

Faith is the transmission of authentic glory: Faith and Glory commensurate such concatenation of participation.

And Father "just" (v.25) refers to the distinction between the world and the small assemblies of mutual adherence in the early days, the only places where life could be perceived.

Only in the reciprocity reflected in the One arisen can one live intensely.

The experience of Oneness in God - the most irrefutable sign of His Presence - was indeed profound in the Johannine communities.

Those authentic assemblies were an environment that helped to bring out the hidden sides.

In such churches without preclusion, the fascination of those sides of the Oneness that the customary world valued as imbalances and defects, instead of opportunities for special enrichment: human, cultural, spiritual - and personal callings - was revealed.

The note that makes the assembly of the sons recognisable is precisely the becoming One in the Source of being - not the remaining uniform.

Glory of the beginnings.A different Glory, one that recovers opposites and does not pursue duplicity (perhaps using God's name as a screen and turncoat).

To protect his own from fears of organised and even sacred reprisals [a litmus test of the goodness of values and choices] Jesus took care to make it clear to what level of realisation and consideration he was leading the disciples.

The Trinity is a unique gushing Source; motive, energy, and motor - a true strength, which gives stimulus, form, colour, to the most diverse situations and even to rejection.

It is to be expected that dislikes, attempts at derision and worse will arise towards those who extend the horizon.

Superficial and vain installed do not deserve any credibility. But they are not willing to be unmasked. And they certainly do not renounce counterfeit positions, on which instead they willingly insist.

It also applies to artfully constructed fences over centuries of strife, even between Christian denominations.

Comparing their history of absurd conflicts, this Gospel seems to say: none of them has really experienced the Father.

None of them has seen and understood the face of the other, except for the setting up of a contrived do-nothing identity, built on the most trivial opposition.

As Pope Francis has suggested, this is all to cover up venal interests and fatuous superstitions; nothing else.

On the other hand, men today as they did then - seeing a non-confrontational, servant and poor Church - would contemplate the Crucified One.

They would experience divine glory.

Here is the priestly prayer of Jesus - genuinely transcending the centuries; contemporary without a wrinkle.

To internalise and live the message:

What do you think of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue? Does it enrich or demoralise you?

Do you think it is the opaque and triumphant Church that makes us contemplate the Crucified One, or the transparent and poor one?

Unity in the Church was the focus of Pope Francis' reflection during the Mass celebrated at Santa Marta on Thursday 21 May. Rereading the passage from the Gospel of John (17:20-26) proposed by the liturgy of the day, the Pontiff first of all underlined how "it consoles everyone to hear this word: 'Father, I pray not only for these but also for those who will believe in me through their word'". This is what Jesus said in taking leave of the apostles. At that moment Jesus prayed to the Father for the disciples and "he also prays for us".

Francis pointed out that 'Jesus prayed for us at that time and continues to do so'. We read in the Gospel: 'Father, I pray for these but for many others who will come'. A not insignificant detail to which, perhaps, not enough attention is paid. Yet, the Pope reiterated, "Jesus prayed for me" and this "is indeed a source of trust". We could imagine 'Jesus before the Father, in heaven', praying for us. And "what does the Father see? The wounds', that is, the price that Jesus 'paid for us'.

With this image, the Pontiff entered into the heart of his reflection. Indeed, he wondered, 'what does Jesus ask of the Father in this prayer?' Does he say, "I pray for them that life may be good, that they may have money, that they may all be happy, that they may lack nothing?...". No, Jesus "prays that all may be one: 'As you are in me and I in you'". At that moment he prays "for our unity. For the unity of his people, for the unity of his Church'.

Jesus, Francis explained, knows well that "the spirit of the world, which is precisely the spirit of the father of division, is a spirit of division, of war, of envy, of jealousies", and that this is present "even in families, even in religious families, even in dioceses, even in the whole Church: it is the great temptation". Therefore "the great prayer of Jesus" is to "resemble" the Father: that is, "as you Father are in me and I in you", in the "unity that he has with the Father".

Someone might then ask: "But, Father, with this prayer of Jesus, if we want to be faithful, can we not chatter against one another?" Or: "Can't we label this one ..., this one is like this, this one is ...?". And "that other one, who has been branded a revolutionary...?". The Pope's answer was clear: 'No'. Because, he added, "we must be one, one thing, as Jesus and the Father are one". And this is precisely 'the challenge for all of us Christians: not to leave room for division among us, not to let the spirit of division, the father of lies, enter into us'. We must, the Pope insisted, 'always seek unity'. Everyone of course 'is as he is', but he must try to live in unity: 'Has Jesus forgiven you? Forgive us all'.

The Lord prays that we will succeed in this. The Pontiff explained: 'The Church is in great need, so much, of this prayer of unity, not only that of Jesus; we too must join in this prayer'. After all, from the very beginning the Church has manifested this need: 'If we start reading the book of the Acts of the Apostles from the beginning,' Francis said, 'we will see that there the quarrels begin, even the swindles. One wants to cheat the other, think Ananias and Sapphira...". Already in those early years, divisions, self-interest, selfishness were encountered. Making unity was and is a real "struggle".

However, we must realise that 'alone we cannot' achieve unity: this in fact 'is a grace'. Therefore, the Pontiff reiterated, 'Jesus prays, he prayed at that time, he prayed for the Church, he prayed for me, for the Church, for me to go on this path'.

Unity is so important that, the Pope noted, "in the passage we read" this word is repeated "four times in six verses". A unity that "is not made with glue". There is in fact no such thing as "the Church made with glue": the Church is made one by the Spirit. This is why "we must make room for the Spirit, so that he may transform us as the Father is in the Son, into one".

To achieve this, Francis added, there is a piece of advice given by Jesus himself: "Remain in me. This too is a grace. In his prayer Jesus asks: "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am" so that "they may contemplate my glory".

From this meditation came a piece of advice: to reread verses 20-26 of chapter 17 of John's Gospel and think: "Jesus prays, prays for me, has prayed and prays for me still. He prays with his wounds, before the Father". And he does so 'so that we may all be one, as he is with the Father, for the sake of unity'. This "should urge us not to make judgements", not to do "things that go against unity", and to follow Jesus' advice "to remain in him in this life so that we may remain with him in eternity".These teachings, the Pope concluded, are found in Jesus' discourse during the Last Supper. In the Mass "we relive" that supper and Jesus repeats those words to us. During the Eucharist, therefore, "let us make room for Jesus' words to enter our hearts and all of us to be witnesses of unity in the Church and of joy in the hope of the contemplation of Jesus' glory".

[Pope Francis, S. Marta homily, in L'Osservatore Romano 22/05/2015]

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! For the feast of the Ascension, the first reading and the psalm are common to years A, B, C, while the second reading and the gospel change 

*First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles (1:1-11)

These first verses of the Acts of the Apostles recall the conclusion of Luke's gospel, also addressed to a certain Theophilus, and it is interesting to note that one begins where the other ends, that is, with the account of Jesus' Ascension, even though the two narratives do not match perfectly as we can see when reading the texts of Year C. The gospel narrates the mission and preaching of Jesus, the Acts of the Apostles focuses on the missionary activity of the apostles, hence the title. Luke's gospel begins and ends in Jerusalem, the heart of the Jewish world and of the First Covenant; Acts begins in Jerusalem, because the New Covenant continues the First, but ends in Rome, the crossroads of all the world's roads, and the New Covenant goes beyond the borders of Israel. For Luke it is clear that this expansion is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the inspirer of the apostles since Pentecost, so much so that Acts is often called 'the gospel of the Spirit'. Jesus, after his baptism, prepared himself for his mission with forty days of desert, so he prepares the Church for this new missionary phase by appearing to the apostles for forty days and "speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God". In fact, "while he was at table with them", thus during a last supper, he gives the apostles some instructions that can be summarised as: an order, a promise and a sending on mission.

The order: do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the fulfilment of the Father's promise that must be fulfilled in Jerusalem since all the preaching of the prophets, especially Isaiah, attributes to Jerusalem a central role in God's plan (cf. Is 60:1-3; 62:1-2). The promise: "John baptised with water, you on the other hand will be baptised in the Holy Spirit not many days from now". This too was known to the apostles, who remembered the prophecy of Joel: "I will pour out my spirit on every creature" (Joel 3:1), and the prophecies of Zechariah: (Zechariah 13:1; 12:10), and of Ezekiel: "I will pour out cleansing water on you and you will be purified... I will put a new spirit in you... I will put my spirit in you" (Ezek 36:25-27). When the apostles ask "whether this is the time when he will rebuild the kingdom for Israel", they show that they have understood that "the Day of the Lord" has dawned and God's plan now demands man's cooperation: with Christ, in fact, the promised Saviour has come, now it is up to human freedom to accept him, and for this the apostles' announcement is necessary. Hence the responsible mission of the apostles who receive the Holy Spirit: "You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit who will come upon you, and you will be my witnesses... to the ends of the earth". The plan that the book of Acts follows is in fact this: first the proclamation in Jerusalem, then throughout Judea and Samaria, and finally it must spread to the ends of the earth. Just as on Easter morning two men in shining garments aroused the women saying: "Why do you seek the Living One among the dead? He is not here, he is risen", so, on Ascension Day, "two men in white robes" do the same to the apostles: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into the sky? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven" (1:11). Jesus will return, we are certain of it, and we proclaim it in every Eucharist when we say 'In blessed hope of the coming of Jesus Christ our Saviour'. Finally, a cloud removes Jesus from human sight: his carnal presence ceases to usher in the spiritual one. A visible sign of this presence of God is the cloud already present at the Red Sea passage (Ex 13:21) and at the Transfiguration (Lk 9:34).

NOTE: The events between the Resurrection and Ascension cannot be reconstructed exactly. In Luke's texts (Gospel and Acts) the narration is essentially identical: Jesus leaves Bethany and takes the disciples to the Mount of Olives recommending that they not leave Jerusalem until they have received the Holy Spirit. The only difference concerns the duration: in the gospel it appears that the Ascension takes place on the evening of Easter itself, whereas in Acts it is made clear that forty days elapse between Easter and Ascension - hence the feast forty days later. In the other gospels little is found about the Ascension: Matthew does not speak of it at all, reporting only the apparition to the women and the sending to Galilee (Matthew 28:18-20). John narrates several apparitions, but omits the Ascension. Mark mentions the Ascension briefly at the end (Mk 16:19). The differences show that the gospels do not aim at a precise geographical account but at emphasising theological aspects: Matthew insists on Galilee, Luke on Jerusalem. In fact, it is in Jerusalem that Jesus had ordered to wait for the Spirit: "Behold, I send upon you him whom my Father has promised; but you remain in the city until you are clothed with power from on high" (Lk 24:49).

*Responsorial Psalm (46 (47),2-3,6-7,8-9)

In this psalm Israel sings and acclaims God not only as its king, but as king of the whole earth. Before the exile in Babylon, no king of Israel had imagined that God could be the Lord of the whole universe, and therefore the psalm dates from a late period in Israel's history. God is the king of Israel and therefore in Israel the king did not hold all power because the true king was God himself. The king could not dispose of the law as he pleased and, like everyone else, had to submit to the Torah, i.e. the rules that God had given to Moses on Sinai. On the contrary, according to the book of Deuteronomy, he had to read the entire Law every day and, even sitting on the throne, he was (in principle) no more than an executor of God's orders, transmitted to him by the prophets. In the Books of Kings, kings sought the advice of the prophet in charge before embarking on a military campaign or, in the case of David, before starting the building of the Temple, so that the prophets freely intervened in the lives of kings, strongly criticising their actions. Such a conception of God's sovereignty was even an obstacle to the establishment of monarchy, as was the case when the prophet Samuel, in the time of the Judges, reacted strongly towards the tribal leaders who demanded a king to be like all other nations. To desire to be like other peoples, when one is God's chosen people and in covenant with Him, was something blasphemous, and if Samuel gave in to the pressure, he did not fail to warn of the ruin they were bringing upon themselves. When he anointed the first king, Saul, he took care to point out that he became the custodian of God's heritage because the people remained God's people, not the king's, and the king himself was only a servant of God. During the years of the monarchy, the prophets were charged with reminding the kings of this essential truth. One understands then that in honour of God, this psalm uses the vocabulary that was elsewhere reserved for kings. Even 'terrible' is an expression typical of court jargon and should be understood as follows: the king (God) does not frighten his subjects, but reassures them, and so the enemies are warned that 'our king' will be invincible. The God king of the universe, "the great king over all the earth" (v. 3), acclaimed in every verse of the psalm is precisely the God of Sinai, the "Lord" and in this feast all peoples participate: "All peoples clap your hands, acclaim God with shouts of joy!" so that the universal dimension profoundly pervades the psalm to the point of saying "God reigns over the nations" (v. 9) recognising him as the only God of the entire universe.

NOTE: The real discovery of monotheism occurred only with the Babylonian exile: until then Israel was not monotheist in the full sense of the term, but monolatrist, i.e. it recognised as its own one God - the God of the Sinai Covenant - but admitted that the neighbouring peoples each had their own god, sovereign in their own land and defender in battle. This psalm was therefore probably composed after the return from exile, not in the throne room, but in the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem, in a liturgical context evoking God's great plan for humanity, anticipating the day when God will finally be recognised as the Father of all good. We Christians make this psalm our own, and the expression "God ascends amid acclamations" seems well suited for today's celebration of Jesus' Ascension. In paying this splendid homage to Christ, King of the Universe, we anticipate the song that on the last day the children of God finally gathered together will intone: "All peoples, clap your hands! Acclaim God with shouts of joy".

*Second Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews (9:24-28 ; 10:19-23)     

In the first part of this text, the author meditates on the mystery of Christ; in the second part, he draws the consequences for the life of faith with the intention of reassuring his readers, Christians of Jewish origin, who felt a certain nostalgia for ancient worship since in Christian practice there is no longer a temple, nor blood sacrifice, and wondered if this is really what God wants. The author goes through all the rituals and realities of the Jewish religion showing that they are now outdated. He deals especially with the Temple, called the sanctuary, and makes it clear that one must distinguish the true sanctuary in which God dwells - heaven itself - from the temple built by men, which is only a pale image of it. The Jews were rightly proud of the Temple in Jerusalem, but they did not forget that every human construction, by definition, remains weak, imperfect and destined to perish. Moreover, no one in Israel claimed that one could enclose the presence of God in a building, no matter how majestic. The first builder of the Temple, King Solomon, had already said this: "Would God dwell on earth? The heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you; let alone this House that I have built!" (1 Kings 8:27).  For Christians, the true Temple - the place of encounter with God - is no longer a building, because the Incarnation of the Word has changed everything. The place of encounter between God and man is Christ, the God made man, and St John explains this when he narrates Jesus driving the money changers and animal sellers out of the Temple. To those who asked him: "What sign will you show us to do this?" (i.e. "in whose name are you making this revolution?) he replied: "Destroy this temple and in three days I will restore it". Only after the resurrection will the disciples understand that he was talking about his body (Jn 2:13-21). Here, in the Letter to the Hebrews, the same thing is affirmed: only by being grafted into Christ, nourished by his body, do we enter into the mystery of the God who "entered not into a sanctuary made by human hands, a figure of the true one, but into heaven" (Heb 9:24). This occurred with the death of Christ, making clear the centrality of the Cross in the Christian mystery, as confirmed by all New Testament authors. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews specifies later that the culmination of Christ's life-offering is his death, but his sacrifice embraces his entire existence, not just his Passion (cp10). In the passage we read today, the focus is on the sacrifice of the Passion, as opposed to that which the high priest offered each year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). He entered alone into the Holy of Holies, pronounced the unspeakable name of God (YHVH), shed the blood of a bull for his own sins and that of a goat for those of the people, thus solemnly renewing the covenant, and when he left, the people knew that their sins were forgiven. That covenant had to be renewed every year, but the new covenant established with the Father is final in Christ crucified and risen. On the cross, the true face of God is revealed, who loves us to the uttermost, the Father of each one of us, for whom there is no longer any fear of God's judgement. When we proclaim in the Creed that Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead, we know that, in God, judgement means salvation, as we read here: "Christ, having offered himself once to take away the sin of many, will appear a second time, without any relation to sin to those who wait for him for their salvation" (Heb 9:28). This certainty of faith enables us to live our relationship with God in full serenity and thanksgiving. But it is important to bear witness to it, as this text exhorts us: "Let us continue without hesitation to profess our hope, for He who promised is faithful" (Heb 10:23). Jesus Christ is "the high priest of future goods" (Heb. 9:11).

*From the Gospel according to Saint Luke (24:46-53)

The synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke differ in their account of the Lord's Ascension, 

Matthew places it on a mountain in Galilee, where Jesus had fixed his appointment with the apostles; Mark gives no geographical indication; Luke, on the contrary, places the event on the Mount of Olives towards Bethany. Thus he ends the gospel where it began, in Jerusalem: the holy city of the chosen people from which the revelation of the one God had radiated to the world; the city of the temple-sign of God's presence among men. But also the city of the fulfilment of salvation through Christ's death and resurrection, and the city of the gift of the Spirit. Finally, the city from which the final revelation is to radiate over the universe, and Luke makes Jesus' words ring in our ears: "Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things in order to enter into his glory?" (Lk 24:26). What is new here, in comparison to the three prophecies of his passion uttered by Jesus before the events and the two statements immediately after the resurrection and on the road to Emmaus, is the conclusion of the sentence, which takes the form of a missionary sending of the apostles: "Thus it is written: 'Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and in his name shall be preached to all nations repentance and forgiveness of sins, beginning at Jerusalem. Of this you are witnesses (Lk 24:46-49) For the first Christians it was difficult to explain which passage of Scripture had announced the sufferings of the Messiah and his resurrection on the third day; among the last prophets of the Old Testament the prophecies about the conversion of all nations, beginning with Jerusalem, were much more widespread, as we read in Jeremiah: "On that day they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; all nations shall flock there, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem" (3:17); and in the third Isaiah: "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples" (56:7); "From moon to moon, from Sabbath to Sabbath, every creature shall come and bow down before me" (66:23). Zechariah then develops this theme: "On that day many nations will gather to the Lord and will be a people to me" (Za 2:15), "Many peoples and mighty nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord of hosts" (8:22).Exegetes state that although these reflections are present in numerous psalms, it was above all the songs of the Servant in Deutero-Isaiah (Is 42; 49; 50; 52-53) that inspired the evangelists' meditation and clarified Jesus' expression "It was necessary that::" because in these four canticles emerges the figure of the suffering and glorified Messiah and the proclamation of good for all the nations: "I, the Lord," have called you with righteousness, I have taken you by the hand, I have formed you; I have made you a covenant of the people, a light of the nations" (Is 42:6);

"The righteous, my servant, will justify the multitudes" (Is 53:11). This conclusion of Luke's gospel thus takes on the tones of the liturgy: Jesus, the true High Priest, blesses his own and sends them out into the world, and the people worship and give thanks: "Lifting up his hands, he blessed them. And as he blessed them, he departed from them and was taken up into heaven. And they prostrated themselves before him; then they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and stood in the temple praising God" (Lk 24:50-53). Luke's gospel closes by going back to its beginning, when Zechariah, a priest of the Old Covenant, had heard the announcement of God's salvation (Lk 1:5-19), and the last image that the disciples kept of the Master is a gesture of blessing. This explains why they return to Jerusalem with great joy. In this concluding image is enclosed the mystery of the light and joy of the Ascension, a departure that is not abandonment but the certainty of a different presence, invisible but even more powerful and effective.

+Giovanni D'Ercole