Unable to sin

(Acts 2:1-11)

Pentecost is the feast of the Gift, quite simply. The language of Acts of the Apostles is quite striking and colourful: it infuses the event with symbolic prodigies that are good to decipher.

Thunder, lightning, wind and fire were the images that accompanied the revelation of the ancient law. With them Lk wants to emphasise the power of the world to come.

The rabbis claimed that at Sinai the Words of God took the form of seventy tongues of fire - saying that the entire Torah was intended for the multitudes, even the pagans.

According to traditional interpretation, the divine Words had made themselves visible ["the people saw the voices"; Hebrew text] in the form of flames that had carved the stone tablets prepared by Moses (Ex 20:18).

Against this backdrop, Lk intends to present the gift of the new Law - that of the Spirit - and employs the same biblical icons to make itself understood, not to chronicle details.

The vigorous figures suggest a powerful explosion, which throws all life into the air - that is the point.

This is to say: for a radical liberation from the old structures that masked sin and (too many) duplicities, obsessions or quietisms, the divine Spirit must come.

Only its unexpected and shattering power can change the face of the earth and bring about radical transformations.

It is impossible to achieve this authentically, generating any upheaval from the limit of our genius and muscles.

It is beyond our capabilities to bring down conditioning, atavistic barriers, and activate the multifaceted Newness of God that humanises us.

Only a founding relationship can convince us that courageous initiatives and the triumph of life pass through a form of death. Death of common thinking, of the old world, of conditionings and fashions - and of the emptiness of selfhood.

An essential work - to encounter the multiplicity of faces; our own and others'.

The "many tongues spoken" are precisely to indicate the now biting universalism of the message of Christ and his Church.

The Gift comes from a Presence 'within' us and events. But it is destined precisely for the multitudes, with no more barriers.

The disaster of Babel is redeemed both from above and from below, because here and now dissimilarities become valuable resources.

He who allows himself to be guided by the Spirit recovers the many facets, also of the [personal and non]shadow sides.

In this way it is expressed in the language that everyone understands: Communion, conviviality of differences.

It is the love that treasures everything and brings everyone together (vv.7-11), doing away with the idolatrous fixations of selective religion - that of purities with individualist or ethnic overtones; idolatries linked to cultural extraction.

All New Testament authors start from the reality of the Spirit's presence; Lk dares to 'describe' it.

The descent of the Spirit is thus placed on the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Easter.

But in Jn (20:22) Jesus communicates the Spirit that animates believers and the Church... on the very day of the Resurrection.

As the liturgy itself proposes in its signs and symbolic expressions, the Easter Mystery is One.

To put it bluntly: the Crucified One "delivered the Spirit" already from the Cross (Jn 19:30).

Lk describes the dense meaning of the one Paschal Mystery-reality in three successive 'moments'-aspects of the disciples' maturation.

They become 'apostles' [Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost] not to convey to us a chronicle of particular events, but to help us understand their significance and manifold aspects.

Jn instead places the delivery of the Spirit from the Cross and on Easter evening, to highlight it as the global Gift of the Risen Crucified.

The author of Acts emblematically places this delivery on the day of Pentecost, to emphasise the relationship and detachment from the Jewish feast.

This feast, however, provided a perfect setting: it was a pilgrimage feast that drew both Palestinian and Diaspora Jews to Jerusalem.

The "official" origins of the Community made aware of its task as "Outgoing Sender" was nourished - in addition - by a subtle reference to the Spirit of Creation.

The breath of the Ruah - divine Spirit [in Hebrew of the feminine gender] becomes the vital breath and impetuous wind that invests the "House" (v.2) regenerating and forcing the fearful followers, still seated in the Temple (Lk 24:53).

The ancient Pentecost celebrated the arrival of the people at Mount Sinai and the gift of the Law [which theologised the agricultural feast of thanksgiving for the wheat harvest, which in turn concluded the cycle of reborn nature that had begun at Passover and preceded the Feast of Tents later held at the great autumn harvest; In the tradition of the shepherds, Passover was a theologisation of the apotropaic rite of the sacrifice of a lamb to propitiate the outcome of the spring transhumance, while Pentecost was its concluding feast on the heights and preceded the return to the folds the following autumn].

Lk wants to teach that the Spirit has replaced the Torah: it has become the new norm of behaviour and the only non-external criterion of communion with God.

The author evokes the traditional Jewish feast, almost by comparison - to mark its fulfilment-fullness. But like Easter, Pentecost is also stretched towards the future.

The evangelist wants to demonstrate the breadth of the Spirit's destination over "twelve" different regions, conveyed by the fire of the Word (v.3), which empowered the Proclamation to all nations on earth.

But first of all, Lk intends to make us understand its real incisiveness.

The author of the third Gospel and of Acts realises that in order to obtain works of righteousness and love, it is not enough for men to show the right way.

It is the Eternal Himself who must become the reliable subject of history, the sole propeller of life.

Therefore, God had to change our hearts: precepts and counsels are not enough to change the deep instincts of people and peoples.

External regulation only makes us epidermic: it does not grasp the intimate, it does not convince the heart.

Every genuine action is the expression of a profound adhesion, of a desire of the soul, of a compelling intimate impulse.

The law of the Spirit is a kind of fantasy in power, but it does not stand outside, nor does it require in itself any effort against its own character - at root.

The 'new heart' is the very Life of God that enters into us to transform us, not in moralistic or model terms - but by expanding existence in a genuine way, starting from the seed, from our core.

When the Life of the Eternal pulsates in anyone's soul, it spontaneously manifests God in human history.

And it produces its vital works - with an unthinkable action, transmuting us from brambles into fruitful trees.

With no more artifice and duplicity, our uncertain desert becomes a garden.

We even begin to love with God's own quality of love - sometimes without even the purpose or discipline, or the very knowledge that we want to do so.

Since the Spirit takes up residence in any woman or man, they no longer need to be taught by the opinion of others: they can finally be themselves.

"And this is the Promise that He has made to us: the Life of the Eternal. This I have written to you concerning those who seek to deceive you. And as for you, the anointing you have received from Him remains in you and you do not need anyone to instruct you. But just as His anointing teaches you all things and is true and does not lie, so now abide in Him as He has instructed you" (1 John 2:25-27).

All that remains external or distant vanishes, and effortlessly loses consistency.

This is because there is no longer any law or cerebral thought that holds, nor any obligation of any kind.

We become 'incapable of sin': we have passed from the religious sense that intimidated and made us prone, to the full dignity of Faith.

"Whoever is born of God does not commit sin, because a divine seed dwells in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (1Jn 3:9).

Gathered this morning in this house of prayer consecrated to the Lord, how can we not evoke the other fine image that Saint Paul uses in speaking of the Church, the image of the building whose stones are closely fitted together to form a single structure, and whose cornerstone, on which everything else rests, is Christ? He is the source of the new life given us by the Father in the Holy Spirit. The Gospel of Saint John has just proclaimed it: “out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water”. This gushing water, this living water which Jesus promised to the Samaritan woman, was seen by the prophets Zechariah and Ezechiel issuing forth from the side of the Temple, so that it could make fruitful the waters of the Dead Sea: a marvellous image of the promise of life that God has always made to his people and that Jesus came to fulfil. In a world where men are so loath to share the earth’s goods and there is a dramatic shortage of water, this good so precious for the life of the body, the Church discovers that she possesses an even greater treasure. As the Body of Christ, she has been charged to proclaim his Gospel to the ends of the earth (cf. Mt28:19), transmitting to the men and women of our time the Good News which not only illuminates but overturns their lives, even to the point of conquering death itself. This Good News is not just a word, but a person, Christ himself, risen and alive! By the grace of the sacraments, the water flowing from his open side on the Cross has become an overflowing spring, “rivers of living water”, a flood that no one can halt, a gift that restores life. How could Christians keep for themselves alone what they have received? How could they hoard this treasure and bury this spring? The Church’s mission is not to preserve power, or to gain wealth; her mission is to offer Christ, to give a share in Christ’s own life, man’s most precious good, which God himself gives us in his Son.

[Pope Benedict, homily in Istanbul, 1 December 2006]

The Spirit and the "seeds of truth" in human thought

1. Repeating a statement in the book of Wisdom (1:7), the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council teaches us that “the Spirit of the Lord”, who bestows his gifts upon the People of God on pilgrimage through history, “replet orbem terrarum”, fills the whole universe (cf. Gaudium et spes, n. 11). He ceaselessly guides people to the fullness of truth and love which God the Father revealed in Jesus Christ.

This profound awareness of the Holy Spirit’s presence and action has always illumined the Church’s consciousness, guaranteeing that whatever is genuinely human finds an echo in the hearts of Christ's disciples (cf. ibid., n. 1).

Already in the first half of the second century, the philosopher St Justin could write: “Everything that has always been affirmed in an excellent way and has been discovered by those who study philosophy or make laws has been accomplished by seeking or contemplating a part of the Word” (Apologia II, 10, 1-3).

2. The opening of the human spirit to truth and goodness always takes place in the perspective of the “true light that enlightens every man” (Jn 1:9). This light is Christ the Lord himself, who has enlightened man’s steps from the very beginning and has entered his “heart”. With the Incarnation, in the fullness of time, the Light appeared in this world in its full brilliance, shining in the sight of man as the splendour of the truth (cf. Jn 14:6).

Already foretold in the Old Testament, the gradual manifestation of the fullness of truth which is Jesus Christ takes place down the centuries by the work of the Holy Spirit. This particular action of the “Spirit of truth” (cf. Jn 14:17; 15:26; 16:13) concerns not only believers, but in a mysterious way all men and women who, though not knowing the Gospel through no fault of their own, sincerely seek the truth and try to live an upright life (cf. Lumen gentium, n. 16).

In the footsteps of the Fathers of the Church, St Thomas Aquinas can maintain that no spirit can be “so darkened as not to participate in some way in the divine light. In fact, every known truth from any source is totally due to this 'light which shines in the darkness', since every truth, no matter who utters it, comes from the Holy Spirit” (Super Ioannem, 1, 5 lect. 3, n. 103).

3. For this reason, the Church supports every authentic quest of the human mind and sincerely esteems the patrimony of wisdom built up and transmitted by the various cultures. It expresses the inexhaustible creativity of the human spirit, directed towards the fullness of truth by the Spirit of God.

The encounter between the word of truth preached by the Church and the wisdom expressed in cultures and elaborated by philosophies calls on the latter to be open to and to find their own fulfilment in the revelation which comes from God. As the Second Vatican Council stresses, this encounter enriches the Church, enabling her to penetrate the truth ever more deeply, to express it in the languages of the different cultural traditions and to present it — unchanged in its substance — in the form most suited to the changing times (cf. Gaudium et spes, n. 44).

Trust in the presence and action of the Holy Spirit, even in the travail of the culture of our time, can serve as a starting point, at the dawn of the third millennium, for a new encounter between the truth of Christ and human thought.

4. In view of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, it is necessary to look more closely at the Council’s teaching on this ever fresh and fruitful encounter between revealed truth, preserved and transmitted by the Church, and the many different forms of human thought and culture. Unfortunately, Paul VI’s observation in the Encyclical Letter Evangelii nuntiandi that “the division between the Gospel and culture is without a doubt the tragedy of our time” (n. 20) is still valid.

To prevent this division which has serious consequences for consciences and behaviour, it is necessary to reawaken in Christ’s disciples that vision of faith which can discover the “seeds of truth” scattered by the Holy Spirit among our contemporaries. This can also contribute to their purification and maturation through the patient art of dialogue, whose particular goal is to present Christ’s face in all its splendour.

It is particularly necessary to keep well in mind the great principle formulated by the last Council, which I wanted to recall in the Encyclical Dives in misericordia: “While the various currents of human thought both in the past and at the present have tended and still tend to separate theocentrism and anthropocentrism, and even to set them in opposition to each other, the Church, following Christ, seeks to link them up in human history, in a deep and organic way” (n. 1).

5. This principle proves fruitful not only for philosophy and humanistic culture but also for the areas of scientific research and art. In fact, the “humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are” (Gaudium et spes, n. 36b).

On the other hand, the true artist has the gift of perceiving and expressing the luminous and infinite horizon in which the existence of man and the world is immersed. If he is faithful to the inspiration that dwells within him and transcends him, he acquires a hidden connaturality with the beauty with which the Holy Spirit clothes Creation.

May the Holy Spirit, the Light that enlightens minds and the divine “artist of the world” (S. Bulgakov, Il Paraclito, Bologna 1971, p. 311), guide the Church and contemporary humanity on the paths of a new and surprising encounter with the splendour of the Truth!

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 16 September 1998]

Today that the Square is open, we are able to return. It is a pleasure!

Today we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost, in memory of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the first Christian community. Today’s Gospel (cf. Jn 20:19-23) takes us back to the evening of Easter and shows us the Risen Jesus who appears in the Upper Room, where the disciples have taken refuge. They were afraid. He “stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you!’” (v. 19). These first words pronounced by the Risen One — “Peace be with you” — are to be considered as more than a greeting: they express forgiveness, the forgiveness granted to the disciples who, to tell the truth, had abandoned him. They are words of reconciliation and forgiveness. And when we wish peace to others, we too are granting forgiveness, and asking for forgiveness as well. Jesus offers his peace precisely to these disciples who are afraid, who find it hard to believe what they have seen, that is, the empty tomb, and they underestimate the witness of Mary of Magdala and of the other women. Jesus forgives; he always forgives, and offers his peace to his friends. Do not forget: Jesus never tires of forgiving. It is we who tire of asking for forgiveness. 

By forgiving and gathering his disciples around him, Jesus makes them a Church, his Church, which is a community reconciled and ready for mission. Reconciled and ready for mission. When a community is not reconciled, it is not ready for mission: it is ready for discussions within it; it is ready for internal [discussions]. The encounter with the Risen Lord upends the lives of the Apostles and transforms them into courageous witnesses. Indeed, immediately afterwards he says, “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (v. 21). These words help us understand that the Apostles are sent to continue the same mission that the Father entrusted to Jesus. “I send you”: it is not time to stay locked up, nor to regret: to regret the ‘good times’, those times spent with the Master. The joy of the Resurrection is great, but it is an expansive joy, which should not be kept to oneself: it is to be given. On the Sundays of the Easter Season we first heard this same episode, then the encounter with the disciples of Emmaus, then the Good Shepherd, the farewell discourses and the promise of the Holy Spirit: all this is directed toward strengthening the disciples’ faith — and ours as well — in view of the mission.

And precisely to inspire mission, Jesus gives his Spirit to the Apostles. The Gospel states: “he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (v. 22). The Holy Spirit is fire that burns away sins and creates new men and women; he is the fire of love with which the disciples can ‘set the world on fire’, that tender love that favours the little ones, the poor, the excluded... In the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation we received the Holy Spirit with his gifts: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of God. This last gift — fear of God — is the very opposite of the fear that first paralyzed the disciples: it is love for the Lord; it is the certainty of his mercy and his goodness; it is the confidence that we are able to move in the direction he indicates, without ever lacking his presence and support.

The feast of Pentecost renews the awareness that the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit abides in us. He also gives us the courage to go outside the protective walls of our “Upper Rooms”, of our little groups, without easing into a quiet life or withdrawing into sterile habits. Let us now raise our thoughts to Mary: when the Holy Spirit came, she was there, with the Apostles, a protagonist with the first Community that experienced the wonders of Pentecost, and let us pray that she obtain for the Church the ardent missionary spirit.

[Pope Francis, Regina Coeli, 31 May 2020]

Comparisons no, Exceptionality yes

(Jn 21:20-25)

Once again in the fourth Gospel, the [uncertain] Petrine step and character are contrasted with that of the disciple loved by the Lord.

But the fullness of God shines through the whole Church, if genuine. Vocations are different. None in itself is sufficient.

Each one feels the Appeal to pursue their Call by Name in a direct, confidential, personal manner, and step by step, without stalling in confrontation.

No one is a superior model, or vice versa destined to be a facsimile: love erupts in a personal, always free, unprecedented way.

The opinion, affair or curiosity of others is a poison, both for realisation and for the missionary dimension.

Beware, therefore, of hearsay, conjecture, and image, even spread throughout the territory.

Especially in monopoly situations, they would lead to standardization, to “average life”, to collapse.

Beware of comparisons:

«Follow Me» [not others] (v.22) means to adhere to a Heaven that dwells in each son - and in Communion, not in a herd.

To each unique energy, history, and sensitivity, corresponds a reserved, unrepeatable way of being a disciple.

Differences and ties are recomposed in the Spirit, which knows where to go - calling each singular personality to dimensions of collected or extrovert existence - in its own Root.

He who is driven more to action [or reflection] must not linger, nor turn back; rather, immerse himself.

Each one is in the right place. He must not stray from the unique path.

In short, genuine love does not have a generic foundation, but rather an unpredictable, singular, unusual one; relevant though “incorrect”.

We must not be distracted from our natural and spiritual, innate purpose.

The mystery surrounding Christ unfolded in his People is inexhaustible, and we too are called in the first person to fearlessly ‘write’ a characteristic Gospel (v.25) [cf. Jn 20:29-30].

The difference between ancient religiosity and life of Faith? We are not photocopies of persistent conduct, but inventors and outriders.

Christ wants to be reinterpreted in the first person and in the conviviality of differences.

To each one the Master recognises his own way of acting. Consensus has nothing to do with the Vocation.

Instead, we often sit in external armour, and perhaps even measure the life project, the sign of the times, the gift, the stimulus, the Secret of the Brethren, with the same short-sightedness of commensurate programmes.

God reserves the right to point it out to each one. Beyond any 'map' and organisation chart.

Then, even “stability” is partial, awaiting fulfilment.

Whoever bets on the Way of Faith knows that they must depart from the spirit of unilaterality.

The same vigour of the path calls for a quiet pause and convergence.

Even “staying” finally throws its own balanced energy at initiatives... so on.

The ways of following Christ that resonate deep in the heart are as varied as the people, the events, the rhythms commensurate with the soul, the ages.

They embrace the same Proposal - without losing the enduring Mystery or any bond, in such many-sidedness.

Only here... real World, Person, Nature and Eternity team up.

[Saturday 7th wk. in Easter, May 23, 2026]

Comparisons no, Exceptionality yes

(Jn 21:20-25)

Once again in the Fourth Gospel, the Petrine step and character (uncertain) are confronted with that of the disciple loved by the Lord.

In him too we are called to a loose and liberal personality [more typical of the Johannine communities of Asia Minor] that reflects a less rigid and prophetically superior spirit than the official apostolic church - still Judaizing.

The early Christians looked forward to the so-called Second Coming of the Lord.

Some churches, faced with the death of followers, began to imagine that at least some of them would survive until the Parousia of Christ.

With the passage of time and the death of not only the apostles, but also the second and third generation disciples, disagreements arose over the precedence and interpretation of the Scriptures.

All this, despite John's insistence on the ever-present Presence of the Risen One, and the historicity of the Life of the Eternal [so-called 'eternal life'].

In addition to this, the Fourth Gospel reaffirms the relevance of the ultimate realities and the Judgment.

Conversely, the idea of their futurity remained widespread.

But the death of the evangelist himself shook the communities to no small degree, disconcerting many believers who imagined that disciple should - at least he - be present at the so-called 'Return' [a term that in the Gospels - in the original language - does not exist].

This is the reason for the addition of a "second conclusion" to Joh 20:30-31.

This is what we designate 'Chapter 21' - a work of the Johannine school, which attempts to clarify the Lord's Nearness, the meaning of the 'Manifestations' of the Risen One, the service of authority, the testimony of the 'beloved disciple'.

The fullness of God shines through the entire Church, if genuine. Vocations are different. None in itself is sufficient.

Each one hears the Call to carry out his own Call by Name according to a direct, confidential, personal character, and step by step, without getting bogged down in comparisons.

The opinion, the affair or curiosity of others, is a poison, both for realisation and for the missionary dimension.

Beware, therefore, of hearsay, conjecture, and image, even spread across the land.

Above all in situations of cultural, spiritual, or simply denominational monopoly [as still in Italy] such normalised convictions would lead to homologation, to 'average life', to collapse.

Beware of comparisons:

"Me, follow" (v.22 Greek text) means to adhere to a Heaven that inhabits each child - and in Communion, not in a herd.

To each energy, story, and exclusive sensitivity, corresponds a reserved, unrepeatable way of being a disciple.

No one is a superior model, or vice versa destined to be a facsimile: love erupts in a personal, always free, unprecedented way.

The path of following pointed out, remaining or remaining undetermined, are correlative and malleable characteristics or polarities: it is from them that unexpected answers to true questions arise, and the Newness of God.

Differences and bonds are recomposed in the Spirit, who knows where to go - calling each singular personality to dimensions of collected or extroverted existence - into its own Root.

Those who are driven more to action [or reflection] must not linger, nor turn back; rather, immerse themselves.

Each one is in the right place. It must not lose its unique way.

In my garden I have some big pines that provide shade, but one of them suddenly withered irreparably. It seemed like who knows what; in an instant it fell. Not to be believed. It also happens in religious life.

Among my field grass, I notice several small plants blooming - without ever having tended them - which drive away insects, offering the ground a variegated texture and a delicate colour spectacle.

If I forced the undergrowth to grow up to give shade, it would get sick. The whole thing wouldn't even become a bramble; rather, an unnatural interweaving of discomforts (imposed of my own accord) that would never fade.

Each seed corresponds to its own development and uniqueness, also in relation to the different situation around it - in the light or not.

In short, authentic love does not have a generic foundation, but rather an unpredictable, singular, unusual one; of relevance, however 'incorrect'.

It is said that St Anthony Abbot pondered the Last Judgement [who is saved and who is not?] The answer came to him peremptorily: "Antonio, look after yourself!" - To say that interest in the inclinations and preferences of others is ambiguous. Not always good; sometimes useless. Often fatal and deadly.

If someone is offered as a gift a special vocation of charity - even of blood - to others a different kind of unrepeatable witness is reserved; e.g. sapiential or critical martyrdom [of the opposed and pioneers].Rather than losing the pondus and character of one's Calling by Name, allowing oneself to be overwhelmed by the overbearing forces in the field - even in ecclesial life it is spontaneous to proclaim another kingdom than that of the single thought, of consensus, of the clever men of the quarter. 

They have nothing to do with the Vocation.

We must not be distracted from our natural and innate spiritual purpose.

The mystery surrounding Christ unfolded in his People is inexhaustible. And we too are called in the first person to fearlessly write a characteristic Gospel (v.25) [cf. Jn 20:29-30].

The difference between ancient religiosity and the life of faith? We are not photocopies of persistent conduct, but inventors and outriders.

Christ wants to be reinterpreted in the first person and in the conviviality of differences.

To each one the Master acknowledges his action.

Instead, we often sit in external armour, and perhaps even measure the life project, the sign of the times, the gift, the stimulus, the Secret of the brethren, with the same short-sightedness of commensurate programmes.

God reserves the right to point it out to each one. Beyond any 'map' and organisation chart.

Then, even the 'stabilities' are partial, they await fulfilment.

He who bets on the Way of Faith knows that he must depart from the spirit of one-sidedness.

The same vigour of the journey calls for quiet pause and convergence. 

Even 'remaining' finally throws its own quiet energy at initiatives... and so on.

The ways of following that resonate deep in the heart are as varied as the people, the events, the rhythms commensurate with the soul, the ages.

They embrace the same Proposal - without losing the enduring Mystery or any connection in such multifacetedness.

Only here, Real World, Person, Nature and Eternity come together.

"When the weaver raises one foot, the other lowers. When the movement ceases and one of the feet stops, the fabric is no longer made. His hands throw the spool that passes from one to the other; but no hand can hope to hold it. Like the weaver's gestures, it is the union of opposites that weaves our life' (Peul African Oral Tradition).

"We are absolutely lost if we lack this particular individuality, the only thing we can truly call our own - and whose loss is also a loss for the whole world. It is also precious because it is not universal' (Rabindranath Tagore).

"Truth is not at all what I have. It is not what you have at all. It is what unites us in suffering, in joy. It is the child of our Union, in pain and pleasure born. Neither I nor You. And I and You. Our common work, permanent amazement. Its name is Wisdom' (Irénée Guilane Dioh).

"The loss of all certainty and shelter is both a kind of trial and a kind of healing" (Pema Chödrön).

"When we suffer a serious disappointment, we never know if it is the conclusion of the story we are living: it could also be the beginning of a great adventure" (Pema Chödrön).

"To grow means to go beyond what you are today. Do not imitate. Do not pretend to have achieved the goal and do not try to rush things. Seek only to grow' (Svami Prajnanapada).

"True morality consists not in following the beaten path, but in finding the true path for us and following it without fear" (Gandhi).

"Truth resides in every human heart, and here one must seek it; one must be guided by the truth as one sees it. But no one has the right to force others to act according to their own view of the truth' (Gandhi).

"You must stand up to the whole world even at the cost of being alone. You must look the world in the eye, even though it may happen that the world looks at you with bloodshot eyes. Fear not. Believe in that little thing within you that resides in your heart and says: abandon friends, wife, everything; but bear witness to that for which you have lived and for which you must die" (Gandhi).

"In Benin, if you see a jar of water lying under a tree in front of a house, know that it is for you, a stranger passing through; there is no need to knock on the door to ask for a drink, you just open the jar, take the gourd, drink the water and go on your way if no one is there" (Raymond Johnson).

"We must learn to abandon our defences and our need to control, and trust totally in the guidance of the spirit" (Sobonfu Somé).

'Observing and listening are a great art. From observation and listening we learn infinitely more than from books. Books are necessary, but observation and listening sharpen your senses' (Krishnamurti).

"Fire is related to Dreaming, to maintaining our connection to ourselves and ancestors, and to the art of keeping our visions alive" (Griot of Central Africa).

"As in life, contraries coexist everywhere: in social organisation and affective life, in exchanges between individuals. To live and realise the contradiction, that is the essential" (Alassane Ndaw).

"The trial of crimes is instructed, but what does the jury think? Who are the jurors? Who is mankind's deputy attorney general?" (Djibril Tamsir Niane).

"Man must take responsibility for the ties, both visible and invisible, which together give meaning to life" (Aminata Traoré).

"Introducing the spirit of other people into our lives gives us more eyes to see and allows us to overcome our limitations" (Sobonfu Somé).

"In the forest, when the branches quarrel, the roots embrace" (African proverb).

For even in a relationship of deep love and coexistence 'there is a need to free oneself from the obligation to be equal' (Amoris Laetitia, no. 139).

"The waves each rise to their own height, almost competing incessantly with each other, but they only reach a given point; thus they lead our minds to the great calm of the sea, of which they too are a part and to which they must return with a rhythm of marvellous beauty" (Rabindranath Tagore).

To internalise and live the message:

What gospel do you feel you have to write with your life?

Uniqueness

11. "Each to his own way", says the Council. Therefore, it is not the case to be discouraged when contemplating models of holiness that appear unattainable. There are testimonies that are useful to stimulate and motivate us, but not because we try to copy them, as this could even lead us away from the unique and specific way that the Lord has in store for us. What matters is that each believer discerns his own way and brings out the best in himself, what is so personal God has placed in him (cf. 1 Cor 12:7), and not that he exhausts himself trying to imitate something that was not meant for him. We are all called to be witnesses, but there are many existential forms of witnessing. In fact, when the great mystic St John of the Cross wrote his Spiritual Canticle, he preferred to avoid fixed rules for everyone and explained that his verses were written so that each person could benefit "in his own way". For the divine life is communicated to some in one way and to others in another.

[Pope Francis, Gaudete et Exsultate]

Let us dedicate our meeting today to remembering another very important member of the Apostolic College: John, son of Zebedee and brother of James. His typically Jewish name means: "the Lord has worked grace". He was mending his nets on the shore of Lake Tiberias when Jesus called him and his brother (cf. Mt 4: 21; Mk 1: 19).

John was always among the small group that Jesus took with him on specific occasions. He was with Peter and James when Jesus entered Peter's house in Capernaum to cure his mother-in-law (cf. Mk 1: 29); with the other two, he followed the Teacher into the house of Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue whose daughter he was to bring back to life (cf. Mk 5: 37); he followed him when he climbed the mountain for his Transfiguration (cf. Mk 9: 2).

He was beside the Lord on the Mount of Olives when, before the impressive sight of the Temple of Jerusalem, he spoke of the end of the city and of the world (cf. Mk 13: 3); and, lastly, he was close to him in the Garden of Gethsemane when he withdrew to pray to the Father before the Passion (cf. Mk 14: 33).

Shortly before the Passover, when Jesus chose two disciples to send them to prepare the room for the Supper, it was to him and to Peter that he entrusted this task (cf. Lk 22: 8).

His prominent position in the group of the Twelve makes it somewhat easier to understand the initiative taken one day by his mother: she approached Jesus to ask him if her two sons - John and James - could sit next to him in the Kingdom, one on his right and one on his left (cf. Mt 20: 20-21).

As we know, Jesus answered by asking a question in turn: he asked whether they were prepared to drink the cup that he was about to drink (cf. Mt 20: 22). The intention behind those words was to open the two disciples' eyes, to introduce them to knowledge of the mystery of his person and to suggest their future calling to be his witnesses, even to the supreme trial of blood.

A little later, in fact, Jesus explained that he had not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many (cf. Mt 20: 28).

In the days after the Resurrection, we find "the sons of Zebedee" busy with Peter and some of the other disciples on a night when they caught nothing, but that was followed, after the intervention of the Risen One, by the miraculous catch: it was to be "the disciple Jesus loved" who first recognized "the Lord" and pointed him out to Peter (cf. Jn 21: 1-13).

In the Church of Jerusalem, John occupied an important position in supervising the first group of Christians. Indeed, Paul lists him among those whom he calls the "pillars" of that community (cf. Gal 2: 9). In fact, Luke in the Acts presents him together with Peter while they are going to pray in the temple (cf. Acts 3: 1-4, 11) or appear before the Sanhedrin to witness to their faith in Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 4: 13, 19).

Together with Peter, he is sent to the Church of Jerusalem to strengthen the people in Samaria who had accepted the Gospel, praying for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 8: 14-15). In particular, we should remember what he affirmed with Peter to the Sanhedrin members who were accusing them: "We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4: 20).

It is precisely this frankness in confessing his faith that lives on as an example and a warning for all of us always to be ready to declare firmly our steadfast attachment to Christ, putting faith before any human calculation or concern.

According to tradition, John is the "disciple whom Jesus loved", who in the Fourth Gospel laid his head against the Teacher's breast at the Last Supper (cf. Jn 13: 23), stood at the foot of the Cross together with the Mother of Jesus (cf. Jn 19: 25) and lastly, witnessed both the empty tomb and the presence of the Risen One himself (cf. Jn 20: 2; 21: 7).

We know that this identification is disputed by scholars today, some of whom view him merely as the prototype of a disciple of Jesus. Leaving the exegetes to settle the matter, let us be content here with learning an important lesson for our lives: the Lord wishes to make each one of us a disciple who lives in personal friendship with him.

To achieve this, it is not enough to follow him and to listen to him outwardly: it is also necessary to live with him and like him. This is only possible in the context of a relationship of deep familiarity, imbued with the warmth of total trust. This is what happens between friends; for this reason Jesus said one day: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.... No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you" (Jn 15: 13, 15).

In the apocryphal Acts of John, the Apostle is not presented as the founder of Churches nor as the guide of already established communities, but as a perpetual wayfarer, a communicator of the faith in the encounter with "souls capable of hoping and of being saved" (18: 10; 23: 8).

All is motivated by the paradoxical intention to make visible the invisible. And indeed, the Oriental Church calls him quite simply "the Theologian", that is, the one who can speak in accessible terms of the divine, revealing an arcane access to God through attachment to Jesus.

Devotion to the Apostle John spread from the city of Ephesus where, according to an ancient tradition, he worked for many years and died in the end at an extraordinarily advanced age, during the reign of the Emperor Trajan.

In Ephesus in the sixth century, the Emperor Justinian had a great basilica built in his honour, whose impressive ruins are still standing today. Precisely in the East, he enjoyed and still enjoys great veneration.

In Byzantine iconography he is often shown as very elderly - according to tradition, he died under the Emperor Trajan - in the process of intense contemplation, in the attitude, as it were, of those asking for silence.

Indeed, without sufficient recollection it is impossible to approach the supreme mystery of God and of his revelation. This explains why, years ago, Athenagoras, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the man whom Pope Paul VI embraced at a memorable encounter, said: "John is the origin of our loftiest spirituality. Like him, "the silent ones' experience that mysterious exchange of hearts, pray for John's presence, and their hearts are set on fire" (O. Clément, Dialoghi con Atenagora, Turin 1972, p. 159).

May the Lord help us to study at John's school and learn the great lesson of love, so as to feel we are loved by Christ "to the end" (Jn 13: 1), and spend our lives for him.

[Pope Benedict, General Audience 5 July 2006]

1. "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I also send you... Receive the Holy Spirit"! (Jn 20, 21-22).

On this eve of Pentecost, the Church in Rome is gathered like the Apostles in the Upper Room, after the events of the Easter triduum. They knew that the Lord had risen and had appeared to Simon. But Jesus himself came among them and offered the greeting of peace. He then showed His pierced hands and side, with the visible signs of the passion. Yes! It is indeed Him. It is the same Jesus, first crucified and now resurrected. "The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord" ( Jn 20:20 ).

As early as the evening of Easter Day, however, Jesus anticipated the event of Pentecost: "As the Father has sent me, I also send you.... Receive the Holy Spirit".

2.

Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Diocese of Rome! Through a prayer vigil, reminiscent of the Easter vigil, we have gathered here to prepare ourselves for the solemnity of the descent of the Holy Spirit.

The reading from the Acts of the Apostles, which we have just heard, recalls what happened in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost: the sudden rushing wind, the appearance of tongues of fire, the Apostles who, filled with the Holy Spirit, began to proclaim the Gospel in languages unknown to them.

People belonging to various nations, and using different languages, hear the Apostles, who were Galileans, speaking in their own languages (cf. Acts 1:11 ): "We hear them proclaiming in our tongues the great works of God" ( Acts 2:11 ).

It is the solemn beginning of the mission of the Apostles, a mission received fifty days earlier from the Risen One, who had ordered them: "I send you. Receive the Holy Spirit" ( Jn 20, 21 . 22 ).

3.

"Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur": "send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created" (cf. Ps 103:30 ).

By saying: "Receive the Holy Spirit", Christ reveals the creative power of the Spirit of God that, poured out upon every man (cf. Gl 3:1 ), restores that unity of the human race that was broken, due to sin, at the tower of Babel.

Babel became the symbol of disintegration and dispersion (cf. Gen 11:1-9 ). Pentecost, on the other hand, constitutes the full fulfilment of the unity that, through the power of the Spirit of truth, is reconstructed precisely from the multiplicity of human existence and experience.

Christ is placed at the head of the people of the New Covenant: He is the awaited great Prophet. Around Him must gather "the sons and daughters" of the new Israel (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 9), who, animated by the life-giving Spirit (cf. Ez 37:14), take part personally in the salvific mission of Christ, Priest, Prophet and King, following in His footsteps, throughout the centuries and millennia.

4.

The second Christian millennium is now drawing to a close.

Aware of the "Tertio Millennio adveniente", of the Third Millennium that is approaching, we are gathered in this particular Upper Room of the Church, constituted this evening at the tomb of St Peter. We are looked upon by the almost two millennia that have passed, uniquely witnessed by this place, marked by the tombs of Martyrs and Confessors of the faith. Here we are at the relics of the Apostles, pillars of the Church that is in Rome.

And what happened on Easter evening is being repeated in our midst now. Christ, through the Eucharist, transcends space and time and makes himself present among us, as he did then with the Apostles gathered in the Upper Room. He addresses the same words to us: "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I also send you. Receive the Holy Spirit".

5.

Receive the Holy Spirit!

We are gathered to invoke together the gift of the Holy Spirit for the entire ecclesial community of Rome, called to fulfil a demanding mission. With this apostolic initiative, the Church that is in Rome intends to open its arms wide to every person and family in the City and to penetrate like yeast into every social sphere, work, suffering, art and culture, proclaiming and bearing witness to the Risen Lord to those near and far.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, living in this metropolis, which unfortunately does not escape the temptations of secularism, one is as if subtly threatened by fatigue, indifference, spiritual torpor and that relativism in which everything is watered down and confused. That is why the great city mission, which we solemnly inaugurate with this Vigil, is first and foremost addressed to believers. It is first and foremost an entreaty to the Holy Spirit to strengthen our faith, renew our fervour, enkindle our charity.

Let not our hearts be troubled by fears and perplexity. On the contrary, counting not on human strength but on the grace that comes from God, let us bring, as witnesses of the truth and love of Christ, the Gospel of hope to every inhabitant of Rome. In this way, we will also be able to influence the culture, the ways of life, the expectations and plans of the entire city community.

6.

Church that you are in Rome, the Lord has loved you with unconditional love. That is why you are rich in spiritual and missionary energies, and many more the Spirit, precisely through mission, will arouse in you.

I address myself first of all to you, dear brothers in the priesthood, consecrated to be the first witnesses of the Gospel and the apostles of truth and unity: be the first tireless workers of the mission, be holy in order to be docile instruments through which God works the sanctification of his people. It is from the parishes that this mission must start, and you of the parish communities are the responsible and qualified animators.

And you, dear men and women religious, called to be the prophetic sign of God's presence, give yourselves with enthusiasm, through prayer and apostolic activities, to this Church in mission. You will find in this very giving the taste of your vocation.

I think of you, dear brothers and sisters, who work patiently in parishes and form the solid fabric of daily pastoral activity, catechesis and the service of charity. Through mission you will be able to find renewed spiritual vigour to transmit the Gospel of Christ in your families and in the environments in which you work. You, dear members of the numerous movements, organisms and ecclesial associations, ensure full and faithful collaboration in the mission of the city, in close agreement with the Pastors, the parishes and the entire diocesan reality.

You, dear young people, put your fresh energies at the service of this great spiritual enterprise, overcoming any possible fear or human respect. Proclaim with boldness and courage your faith in Christ among your peers and friends. From you too, dear sick and suffering people, and from you who feel marginalised, the city's mission expects a contribution that is in a sense decisive for its success. By accepting your condition and offering it to the heavenly Father together with Christ, you can become a providential and mysterious way of salvation for Rome.

The mission belongs to you, dear members of the Roman Curia and my collaborators in the service of the universal Church, called to make your qualified contribution to the life of the Christian Community, which is in Rome, and to the preparation of the Great Jubilee of the Year Two Thousand. Your contribution will also be more important than ever for the success of this vast evangelising action.

The mission is also made for you, dear brothers and sisters who have come to Rome from the most diverse parts of the world. You are now an integral part of our diocesan community. Thank you for being here with us this evening to pray.

May the city mission, after the Diocesan Synod, mark a further step forward in the journey of spiritual growth and communion among all Christians living in our City.

7.

Our gaze, this evening, cannot fail to widen to the expectations of the universal Church, on its way towards the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. The Church seeks to become more aware of the Spirit's presence in her, for the sake of her communion and mission, through sacramental, hierarchical and charismatic gifts.

One of the gifts of the Spirit to our time is certainly the blossoming of the ecclesial movements, which since the beginning of my Pontificate I have continued to point to as a reason for hope for the Church and for mankind. They "are a sign of the freedom of forms, in which the one Church is realised, and represent a sure novelty, which still awaits to be properly understood in all its positive efficacy for the Kingdom of God at work in the present day of history" (Insegnamenti, VII 2[1984], p. 696). Within the framework of the celebrations of the Great Jubilee, especially those of the year 1998, dedicated in a special way to the Holy Spirit and his sanctifying presence within the Community of Christ's disciples (cf. Tertio millennio adveniente, n. 44), I count on the common witness and collaboration of the movements. I trust that they, in communion with the Pastors and in connection with diocesan initiatives, will want to bring to the heart of the Church their spiritual, educational and missionary richness, as a precious experience and proposal of Christian life.

8.

"Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I also send you.... Receive the Holy Spirit".

Christ, also in the sign of the Gospel Book that this evening I entrust to the Cardinal Vicar so that it may be solemnly displayed in the Basilica of St John Lateran, is present and sustains the path of the great mission that will lead the Ecclesial Community of Rome to the threshold of the third millennium.

"I also send you... ".Lord, as you did at the beginning of the Church's mission, at the dawn of the first millennium, you send us today on a new evangelising mission.

You entrust us with the task of bringing the Good News to the streets and squares of this City; you want your Church to be a pilgrim of hope and peace in the ways of the world.

Sustain our journey with the strength of your Spirit; make us courageous apostles of the Gospel and builders of a new humanity.

Mary, Salus Populi Romani, who accompany with your venerable icon the pilgrimage of this night, guide our steps; obtain for us the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

"Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur". Amen!

[Pope John Paul II, Homily for the Inauguration of the City Mission, in preparation for the Great Jubilee, 25 May 1996]

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, May 22, 2026]