Ascension of the Lord (year A)

(Mt 28:16–20)

Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 

Matthew 28:20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” 

Verses 19–20 are devoted to the mission entrusted to the apostles, who are to go out into the world clothed in the same authority as Jesus Christ. It is a mission with specific objectives and the means to achieve them. First and foremost is proselytism, as indicated by the verb ‘mathēteusate’, ‘to make disciples’ through making known. The aim of the mission is ‘to make disciples’. The Christian is a disciple, one who establishes a close and personal relationship with Christ: the disciple bonds with the person of the teacher and commits to sharing his very vision of life. The apostles must go to every people. They must leave Galilee. They must go beyond the borders of Israel. The whole world awaits them. They must teach all nations.

Thus, God’s message is not addressed to a single people, but to all nations, so that no nation may claim or assert that it is God’s chosen one. When a people thinks it has God on its side, it uses Him to dominate others. When a people feels itself to be the chosen people, it is always dangerous, because in the name of this election it believes it has a duty towards other peoples: to dominate them. On the US one-dollar bill it says “In God we trust”, as if they had mistaken God for the Federal Reserve. Their resource lies in the dollar, not in God. Make “all” peoples [my] disciples – says Jesus – so that no people may claim superiority over others.

Secondly, there is baptism, which serves as an instrument of incorporation into the new faith. Baptism is administered “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. It is, therefore, an instrument that leads the new believer into the bosom of the Trinity, placing them in close relationship with it, whose life they now share. Indeed, baptism is “in” the name; it is an entering “into the name”, entering into a relationship of fidelity. The mission is conceived as gathering the nations around the proclamation of salvation, to lead them all back into the bosom of God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At the same time, “name” in the singular (not “names”) emphasises the uniqueness of the three Persons of the Trinity.

The third aspect is teaching, expressed by the verb “didáskō”. This concerns all the things that Jesus commanded. The apostles must not limit themselves to baptising. They must teach those who have been baptised how to fulfil God’s will. Their teaching must be twofold, in every respect like that of Jesus: through word and deed. They must show visibly – and not merely by hearing – how to observe all that Jesus commanded. If teaching lacks the visible dimension, it is no longer true teaching; rather, it is incomplete teaching. It bears no fruit. Just as Christ taught, so must they teach the whole world. This is the law of true evangelisation. All the rest is sterile theory.

Now Jesus makes them a great promise: “And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” He will be with them until the end of the ages. With this faith, the Apostles must present themselves before every person. The presence of Jesus is not merely one of companionship. It is an active presence. Jesus will work in them and through them his great works of salvation and redemption. Yesterday and today, tomorrow and always, this is how the evangelisation of the nations must be carried out.

The Gospel of Matthew ends as it began. At the beginning, the name of Emmanuel, God with us, was announced to us, as had been foretold by the prophet Isaiah (Mt 1:23). Now he assures us that that prophecy has become a permanent reality: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” In other words, Jesus continues to be Emmanuel, God with us. History is made up of many ‘days’ and every day Jesus is with us. It is not every other day, or days in between: every day, in the everyday reality of life. What a tragedy it is to have relegated the Lord to heaven and not to have realised that the Lord is with us every day, a Lord whom we believe has not fallen silent with time, but who continues to speak even if he is not heard.

In concluding his Gospel, Matthew formulated Jesus’ final words to his disciples on the model of the closing words of the Hebrew Bible, which ends with the Second Book of Chronicles, with the words of Cyrus, King of Persia, the one who granted freedom to the Jews deported to Babylon: 

2 Chronicles 36:23 ‘Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has commanded me to build him a temple in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever among you belongs to his people, may his God be with him, and let him go!’

By Cyrus’ decree, the Israelites were invited to leave Babylon, the land of captivity, and go to Judea, the land of freedom; with Jesus, the disciples must go out from Judea to all nations. Cyrus’ decree was to go and build a temple; through the apostles, Jesus will build a new temple – the Church – and this is the extraordinary conclusion of this Gospel.

Furthermore, the Gospel of Matthew begins with the words: “Biblos geneseōs Iēsou Christou” (Mt 1:1), “The Book of the Genealogy of Jesus Christ”. In other words, it begins with the words of the first book of the Bible (Genesis), and concludes with those of the last book of the Hebrew Bible (2 Chronicles): it is a way of encapsulating the entire history of the people of Israel in Jesus. From the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible, everything is encapsulated in Jesus, and now it is not over; we must roll up our sleeves – and, conscious that he is present, go out to all people.

Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, True God and True Man in the Trinitarian Mystery

The Prophetic Discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24–25)

All Generations Will Call Me Blessed

 Catholics and Protestants Compared – In Defence of the Faith

 The Church and Israel According to St Paul – Romans 9–11

(Available on Amazon)

6th Easter Sunday (year A)

(John 14:15-21)

John 14:15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

John 14:16 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever,

John 14:17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

John 14:18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

John 14:19 A little while longer and the world will no longer see me; but you will see me, because I live and you will live.

John 14:20 On that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.

John 14:21 Whoever receives my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and reveal myself to him.

Love comes first, and then the keeping of the commandments. One loves Christ, and for this reason one keeps the commandments. Love for Christ is an overwhelming force. When this force is in the heart, one is even capable of martyrdom. If we allow ourselves to be taken by the love of Christ, in this love we will rediscover love for ourselves, and in rediscovering love for ourselves we will also rediscover the right love for others. Whoever does not allow themselves to be won over by the love of Christ will never be able to keep his commandments. The commandments in themselves are an obligation, a duty, a burden. But through the love of Jesus, the commandments are transformed into a desire, into a will. We give our lives to Jesus so that Jesus may love through us. But who can create in us the love for Christ and thus the love to fulfil his will?

If we wish to love Jesus, if we ask him to become our very life, he comes to our aid and fulfils our desire. How? Jesus will pray to the Father, and the Father will give us another Paraclete, so that he may remain with us always. The Paraclete is the Advocate, but also the Teacher, the Helper, the Support, the Inspirer, the Guide, the One who takes us by the hand and leads us to Christ, so that in Christ, with Christ, through Christ, we may have access to the Father. The Paraclete is the ‘fruit’ of the prayer of Jesus Christ. The Father gives him to all who love Christ and keep his commandments. 

The Holy Spirit is given through the sacraments. He acts in the sacraments. He regenerates us and makes us children in the Son. He makes us witnesses of Christ. He consecrates us and makes us priests of Christ. Through the Holy Spirit acting within him, the priest forgives sins and transforms a piece of bread and a few drops of wine into the Body and Blood of Christ the Lord. The Holy Spirit acts – as was once taught – “Ex opere operato non ex opera operantis”. This teaching is true. Otherwise, we would have no certainty regarding the validity of any sacrament. One thing that is rarely taught, however, is this: conversion, the drawing to Christ, and the sanctification of people take place through the Holy Spirit acting within the Christian, whoever they may be – a lay faithful or a priest. The love of Christ living within the Christian becomes and is transformed in them into the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit draws them to Christ, converts them to Him, conforms them to Him, and makes them like Him. The stronger the love of Christ within us, the greater is the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us.

The Paraclete Spirit is the Spirit of truth. In the Spirit we know the truth of the Father and the truth of the Son. The Spirit is also our truth. If we are in the Holy Spirit, we know one another. If we are not in the Spirit, we will never be able to know one another. But why can the world not receive the Spirit of truth? Because the world is under the power of the prince of this world, who is a spirit of deception and falsehood. Those who live in the world must first leave the world behind. Having abandoned the world and allowed themselves to be seized by Christ, they love Christ, observe his commandments, and receive the Spirit of truth. What happened on the day of Pentecost must happen every day.

For us, receiving the Holy Spirit does not require leaving the world. A mere two or three years of attending catechism classes is enough. A rational education in the truths of our holy faith is enough. This is utter folly. If one does not leave the world, one does not receive the Spirit! The Spirit does not work in those who remain in the world; He works in those who leave the world. The Christian is called to leave the world, that is, to leave sin, lies, falsehood and idols. Conversion from idols to God is an indispensable condition for the Holy Spirit to act and work in us and through us.

Being in darkness, the world neither sees nor knows the Spirit of truth. The disciples will know the Holy Spirit because the Spirit will remain with them and be within them. The Holy Spirit will be the soul of their soul, the heart of their heart, the spirit of their spirit, the feeling of their feelings, the will of their will, the thought of their thoughts. They will know Him because He will dwell within them, abide in them, and make Himself known to them. Knowledge of the Holy Spirit does not come about through rational means. Rather, it comes through the spiritual transformation of our entire life. Only He can bring about this transformation. 

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, True God and True Man in the Trinitarian Mystery

The Prophetic Discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24–25)

All Generations Will Call Me Blessed

Catholics and Protestants Compared – In Defence of the Faith

The Church and Israel According to St Paul – Romans 9–11

(Available on Amazon)

5th Easter Sunday (year A)

(John 14:1-12)

John 14:1 ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

John 14:2 In my Father’s house there are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you;

John 14:3 and when I have gone and prepared a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, so that where I am, you may be too.

John 14:4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.’

John 14:5 Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?’

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus is about to leave his disciples. His death on the cross will surely trouble their hearts, shake their faith, and purify it of all the imperfections that had accumulated upon it over the years. Faith must be shaken from time to time; otherwise, the dust of the superstructures that the minds and thoughts of men constantly add to it becomes too great. The death on the cross of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, must shake the faith of the people of the Covenant in order to give it its proper and true heavenly dimension. Every earthly thought must be measured against faith in the crucified and risen Messiah. It is a grace when our faith is shaken by God. A faith that is not pure, not aligned with God’s thoughts, always produces turmoil. If Jesus’ disciples wish to have a purified faith, they must begin to believe in the crucified Messiah. This is where the true journey of faith begins for every person.

Jesus presents his death as a round-trip journey. But where is Jesus going, and why is he going? He is going to his Father’s house. He is going to prepare a place for his disciples. In his Father’s house there are many mansions, many places. No one can count them. These places, however, must be prepared and assigned. Jesus goes, prepares the places, and assigns a specific place to each of his own. Everyone in Heaven can have their own home or dwelling. Heaven has no limit of space.

Jesus does not merely leave, does not merely go, does not merely prepare a place for each of his own, but he returns. He returns to take all his disciples with him. Where he is, they too must be. Where he dwells, they must dwell. This is the truth of love: eternal communion; being one with the beloved for all eternity. A love that divides, separates, or fades away is not love. Love is endless. Only Jesus can bestow eternity and truth upon our love. Those without Christ will never know the truth and eternity of his love. They cannot, because only Christ is eternity and truth. Our society has lost the truth and eternity of love. This means it has lost Christ.

The disciples already know – or at least ought to know – where Jesus is about to go and also the path he must take. The place is the Father’s house, his Heaven. The path is the cross. It is the cross that is the ladder by which Jesus ascends to his Father. Jesus had pointed to this path both as his own path and as the path of every one of his disciples. However, this path was impossible for them to accept, as their faith had not yet been shaken by the death on the cross.

Thomas says with extreme clarity and simplicity that they do not know where Jesus is going. If one does not know where the other is about to go, how can one know the path he must take? To Thomas, Jesus replies with equal simplicity: “I am the way, the truth and the life”. “I am the way”: In the Old Testament, the way was the Law, but Jesus is the way that brings to fulfilment every other path previously laid out. It is the perfect, complete way, to which nothing can be added and nothing taken away. Whoever wishes to go to the Father must walk in his Word.

“I am the truth”: Truth is the very essence of God, which is the essence of Christ Jesus. It is the essence of both his divinity and his humanity. Jesus is the truth that makes us conform to him. No one else is the truth. Whoever wishes to be true, to become true, must be made a partaker of this one and only truth that makes every person true.

“I am the life”: Jesus’ life is eternal life; it is the life of God, which must be shared with all who believe in his name. Jesus is the new tree of life. Whoever feeds on him becomes eternal life, just as Christ is eternal life. Whoever does not feed on him will never become eternal life. They will remain in their falsehood and in their death.

Now Jesus speaks a thought that deserves our full attention: “No one comes to the Father except through me.” This statement allows for no exceptions. Whoever wishes to go to God must do so through Christ, through his way, his truth, his life. Whoever does not wish to go to God through Jesus Christ simply does not go to God. Jesus Christ is not one of many paths leading to the Father. He is the only way. There are no others. This means that no religion possesses the way, the truth, and the life to reach the Father. Only Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. All religions, at best, are impure, imperfect, and unfulfilled ways, truths, and lives—not brought to their fulfilment—or they are even false and deceitful ways, truths, and lives. Not even the Old Testament is the way, the truth and the life. It is an incomplete way. It lacks the truth and eternal life. Truth and eternal life are given by Christ.

Today, many children of the Church no longer possess this faith. They do not know that salvation is to be accomplished today. It is today that salvation is found only in Christ. No one else can make the true man. Where the true man is not made, there salvation is not fulfilled. The true man must be built on earth, in history. This is the mission of the Church.  

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, True God and True Man in the Trinitarian Mystery

The Prophetic Discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24–25)

All Generations Will Call Me Blessed

Catholics and Protestants Compared – In Defence of the Faith

The Church and Israel According to St Paul – Romans 9–11

(Available on Amazon)

4th Easter Sunday (year A)

(1 Peter 2:20b–25)

(Psalm 22)

1 Peter 2:20 ... But if, whilst doing good, you endure suffering patiently, this is pleasing to God.

1 Peter 2:21 For to this you have been called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his footsteps:

1 Peter 2:22 he committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth,

1 Peter 2:23 when he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that, having died to sin, we might live for righteousness; 

1 Peter 2:25 By his wounds you have been healed. You were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

It is a grace for those who know God to suffer unjustly. It is not the suffering itself that is grace, but the opportunity that God grants, through the injustice endured, to be freed from one’s own pride. What glory would there be, in fact, in enduring suffering because we have done wrong? If one suffers because one has sinned, having transgressed the law of God and of men, this affliction or suffering is not by grace, but by fault. This suffering, if lived in conversion, in the patience of Christ, becomes and is transformed into grace. It is grace, however, insofar as it helps to redeem one’s own guilt; it also helps to free us from our pride, if all is accepted in humility. Glory does not lie in punishment, but in the redemption of punishment and in the holiness that arises from punishment redeemed and sanctified by the humility with which it is lived.

“But if, whilst doing good, you endure suffering with patience, this will be pleasing before God.” The Christian must not do evil. The Christian is one who lives in truth, in the holiness of Christ, in the imitation of Christ. He must remain in goodness, and from the goodness in which he dwells he must bear every suffering with patience. This is the path of his sanctification, as it was also for Christ.

Peter now says that this is our calling (v. 21). Suffering is intended to free us from all vainglory, pride and spiritual arrogance. “For Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you might follow in his footsteps”: There is a difference between us and Christ, and it is a great one. We suffer because of our sins and our iniquities. We suffer for ourselves. Christ, on the other hand, did not suffer for his own sins. Christ suffered for us. For our sake, he endured the Passion, the cross and death. By suffering for us, he left us an example, so that we might follow him along the Way of the Cross, carrying our own cross. Christ is our model. He suffered as a righteous man, because of the justice he proclaimed. This is the truth of Christ, and these are the footsteps we must follow.

Jesus always remained in the greatest righteousness: that of loving always, of not repaying evil with evil, or insults with insults, refraining from any threat of vengeance. He responded to evil with good, to hatred with love, to insults with prayer, to abuse with forgiveness. This is the example He has left us. Jesus “entrusted his cause to the one who judges righteously”: it will be the Father who defends his cause. God, however, defends Christ’s cause in the divine way, not in the human way. The divine way is the glorious resurrection of his body and the transformation of his body of flesh into a body of spirit, so that the risen Christ now dies no more.

Christians too are called to entrust their cause into God’s hands. The Lord will know what to do and when to do it to restore the righteous to their rightful place, the righteous who now suffer unjustly because of human sin. Whoever gives their life to God, whether in joy or in suffering, will have their life safeguarded by God. How? No one will ever know this. This knowledge belongs to God alone and to no one else.

Thus Peter continues: “He bore our sins in his body on the wood of the cross”: Jesus is not merely an example of how to endure suffering. He is also the sacrament of eternal life. Jesus did not bear his own sins on the wood of the cross. He was innocent, holy, without blemish. On the cross, in his body, he bore our sins, to remove them from the world. He removed them by hanging them on the cross, nailing them to it, and thus destroyed them forever. Whoever wishes to may now destroy their own sins. They destroy them by having them forgiven in the name of Christ, but also by bearing the root of pride and lust upon the cross of suffering. Every Christian is called to make this truth their own, “so that, no longer living for sin, we might live for righteousness”: Christ bore our sins on the cross to take them away, so that we might no longer live for sin, but for righteousness.

What is righteousness? It is the perfect fulfilment of the Father’s will in our lives. We live to fulfil the Father’s will. We live to realise the Word in our lives. We can do this thanks to Christ who bore our sins on the cross, in his body, to take them away from the world. After Christ died on the cross, anyone who wants and desires it can live without sin; they can live exclusively for righteousness. “By his wounds you have been healed”: We have been healed from the wounds of sin. If we have been healed, we can live as healthy people, and we live as healthy people by doing God’s will. If we have been healed, we can carry the cross as Christ did; we can go all the way in fulfilling God’s will. If we have been healed, we can master and submit to God’s will every impulse of pride, vainglory and arrogance. If we have been healed, we can face suffering by carrying our own cross, just as Christ did.

“You were like sheep going astray”: without Christ, one is like a stray sheep, without a shepherd, a sheep left to its own devices, exposed to every temptation and every sin. This is the condition of those who do not know the Lord. They are without a fold, without a shepherd, without pasture, without a destination, constantly exposed to being killed. Without Christ, one is already in the realm of darkness and evil. “But now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls”: By embracing the faith, by receiving the Word, Christ is welcomed as Shepherd and Guardian, guide and support of one’s soul. With Christ, Shepherd and Guardian, the Christian soul walks in safety. This is why Psalm 22 says: “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want; he leads me to green pastures; he restores my soul by still waters. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” 

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, True God and True Man in the Trinitarian Mystery

The Prophetic Discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24–25)

All Generations Will Call Me Blessed

Catholics and Protestants Compared – In Defence of the Faith

The Church and Israel According to St Paul – Romans 9–11

(Available on Amazon)

Third Easter Sunday (year A)

Psalm 15

Psalm 15:1 A Miktam. A psalm of David. Protect me, O God; in you I take refuge. 

Psalm 15:2 I said to God, ‘You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.’

Psalm 15:3 My love is for the saints who are on the earth, the noble ones.

Psalm 15:4 Let others hasten to build idols; I will not pour out their blood libations, nor will I utter their names with my lips.

Psalm 15:5 The Lord is my portion and my cup; in your hands is my life.

Psalms 15:6 For me the lot has fallen on delightful places; my inheritance is splendid.

‘Miktām’ is a word of some debate. It derives from ‘katam’ (to engrave, to carve). It indicates something that has been carved and is therefore a permanent inscription, carved because of its importance. The Septuagint translates it as “stēlographia” (an engraved inscription); stēlē was the word for “tombstone” (referring to the inscription carved upon it). Therefore, “miktām” indicates that this type of Psalm (there are several miktām Psalms), although connected with death, points towards the hope of resurrection. This is particularly true of Psalm 15, but can also be found in the others; in any case, what is “carved” in these Psalms must be gleaned from reading the Psalm itself.

Miktām has also been understood as a psalm to be recited in a low voice, almost in silence, with great humility, because in this psalm we ask God not to leave us in the tomb of death (v. 10). St Jerome, in fact, translates “Of David” as: “Humilis et simplicis David”.

It is a psalm of trust; it is the prayer in which a man of God expresses his trust in the Lord. Protection is sought from God. One wishes to take refuge in God: “Protect me, O God: in you I take refuge”. The righteous take refuge in God and ask for his protection. Note the twofold movement: a) on the one hand, God protects the faithful (a descending movement); b) on the other, the faithful entrust themselves totally to God (ascending movement). This psalm, we might almost say, describes the concept of the Sacraments, that is, the meeting point between God’s grace descending (thus the Lord at work) and man drawing upon that grace and worshipping God.

“You are my Lord; without you I have no good.” Here is the faith of the righteous, of the God-fearing. God is his Lord. “Without you I have no good.” This man’s good lies solely in the Lord. Nothing would be good for him without the highest good, which is God, who is not only the source from which good comes, but is “the good”, is “the only good”. This is true profession of faith.

“For the saints, who are on earth, noble men, is all my love.” The “saints” and the “noble men” are the people with whom the righteous man, the one consecrated to God, associates. He recognises the value found in communion with the saints, with those whom God has set apart, and in whom His holiness is reflected.

The new CEI translation (that of 2008) renders it as: “to the idols of the land, to the mighty gods went all my favour”, rendering the text—which is already difficult in Hebrew—utterly incomprehensible. It is difficult to understand how qeḏôšîm can be translated as “idols” rather than “saints”. Yet the translations of the LXX and the Vulgate had made a very clear choice, and this is the one that emerged in the 1974 CEI translation: “For the saints, who are on earth, noble men, is all my love”.

“Let others hasten to build idols: I will not pour out their libations of blood nor utter their names with my lips.” It is a profession of faith made in reverse. The devout worshipper of the true God undertakes not to encourage idolatrous worship. One of the characteristics of idolatry is the “libation of blood”, which may also refer to human sacrifice, especially of children. There must be no communion whatsoever with idols. The distance must be absolute. Not even their name must be uttered. On the lips of the true worshipper there must be only the name of his God. Idols do not deserve the honour of being named.

“The Lord is my portion and my cup; in your hands is my life.”

Here we find priestly symbols. We know that in the division of the land of Canaan following the conquest, the tribe of Levi did not have a specific territory but only cities of residence. Those consecrated to worship were not to be involved in social structures, but were to act as intermediaries between God and the people. The priests’ land was God himself, and this concretely meant the right to receive the tithes offered by the tribes for their sustenance. The psalmist, therefore, through imagery, expresses this dedication of the priest to his God.

1.  The Lord is for him a “portion of inheritance”, that is, “a part of a territory”. 

2.  The Lord is for him his “cup”, that is, his host, his family member who welcomes him.

The “cup” is a sign of God’s hospitality towards his faithful. It is God who offers the cup, just as – from a strictly human perspective – it is the one who receives guests into his own home who offers them the cup. At the Last Supper, who offers the cup? It is Jesus, the host; he is the guest in the Latin sense (for the Romans, in fact, the guest is the one who hosts and not the one who is hosted).

For the righteous and pious man, the Lord is his portion of inheritance and his cup. The inheritance of the righteous is not the earth, nor the things of this world. His inheritance is the Lord alone. The Lord alone is his cup of salvation, of true life. This man expects nothing from the earth. It is the Lord, in the present and in the future, who is his life, his well-being, his prosperity; for this reason, his life is in the hands of his God. This is total surrender; he wishes to belong solely to God, always in his hands.

“My lot has fallen on delightful places; my inheritance is splendid.” The “lot” was the drawing of lots using sticks of varying lengths, signifying that judgement on a difficult matter was left to God. We might also understand it as: “My destiny is in Your hands.” For the psalmist, the Lord is a “delightful place”; He is the most beautiful, prosperous and precious land of all the territories obtained by the various tribes. For the psalmist, the Lord is a “magnificent inheritance”, the most important asset to be safeguarded and passed on. This is a vision of great faith. God is seen as the only true good, the one that will never fail. The concept of the land shifts from its concrete meaning to become the place of encounter with God. In a spiritual sense, it is the search for God that will last until the end of our lives.

This is also a truth of the Church, yet believed by few, lived by few. It is a faith that is simply overwhelming, for it frees us from all anxieties concerning the things of this world and gives our lives a divine breath.  

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, true God and true Man in the mystery of the Trinity

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24–25)

All generations will call me blessed

Catholics and Protestants compared – In defence of the faith

The Church and Israel according to St Paul – Romans 9–11

(Available on Amazon)

(1 Peter 1:3–9)

1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; in his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1 Peter 1:4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading. It is kept in heaven for you,

Peter knows what the new reality is that has been created in the Christian and which must be given to every person. It is grace that descends from God. To God, who has given us such a great gift, a hymn of blessing and praise must rise from our hearts. The hymn of blessing is not only gratitude for the gift God has given us; it is also an awareness of the gift. Whoever does not know the gift does not even recognise it and therefore does not bless the Lord. Failure to bless is a sign of not possessing God’s gift. Whoever does not bless the Lord does not know what the Lord has done for him and through him. Hence arises the duty to teach the truth of God, His work.

One cannot teach all this in truth unless one teaches who Christ is in truth. Every ‘diminution’ of Christ becomes a ‘diminution’ of glory and blessing in relation to the Father. Today we see a ‘diminished’ Christian precisely because of the ‘diminution’ that has been made of Christ. But the Father too is ‘diminished’ precisely because of the ‘diminution’ that is taught about the Lord Jesus. Whoever wishes to exalt the Christian must exalt the truth of Christ in all its splendour. Peter holds high the truth of Christ and consequently holds high also the truth of the Father and of the Christian.

The God whom Peter blesses is the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. He is Father by eternal generation. Before the creation of the world, the Word was with God and was God, because he was begotten by the Father in the ‘today’ of eternity. This ‘today’ is before time, it is timeless, it is eternal. From all eternity and for ever, God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father begets the Son, the Son is begotten by the Father, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. From all eternity and for ever, this is the life of God.

God is blessed because of his ‘great mercy’. Mercy is the richness of divine love, of his heart rich in compassion and pity, which are directed towards man. On the one hand there is God who has everything; on the other there is man who is destitute, devoid of every good. God bends down to this man and fills him with grace.

God’s great mercy is regeneration, new birth, new life, a new calling. These divine gifts are given to us “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”. The Father raised Christ, His Son, from the dead. He gave new life to His body. This new life is granted to every Christian. Every Christian is enveloped by the newness of Christ, that is, by His resurrection to new life in Christ Jesus. The Christian has died to what he was before; he has been born into the new life lived in the Risen Jesus.

In Christ we have been begotten for a living hope: this hope is eternal life, which already begins in this world. The Christian is one who bears in his life the signs of Christ’s resurrection; he is one who can live as one who has risen together with Christ already on this earth. The Christian can free himself from sin. The Christian can live by truth, charity, justice and freedom. The Christian can be in the world without belonging to the world. This is the living hope. It is a living hope because it draws its life from the resurrection of Jesus at work within him. Where the resurrection of Christ is not at work, all hope is dead. Living hope is a green tree that bears fruit in every season. Dead hope is a dry tree, good only for being thrown into the fire.

“For an inheritance that does not corrupt, is not defiled and does not fade. It is kept in heaven for you.” The resurrection of Christ does not exhaust its fruits on this earth, and the living hope nourished within us does not end with our death. The Christian does not place hope in the things of the world for the present time. The Christian’s hope is to be called to an eternal inheritance. All the inheritances of this world are corrupted, rot, become tainted, and are swept away by time and history. It is enough to observe what is happening around us to realise that everything passes away. Man can trust in nothing, hope for nothing, expect nothing from the earth and from history. What history creates, history also destroys, and what man does, man also brings to ruin. The inheritance, however, to which the Lord calls us is eternal; it does not end, it does not diminish; indeed, it can become ever greater.

This inheritance is not preserved for us on earth, but in heaven. God awaits to hand it all over to us. For this inheritance, it is truly worth losing everything, every single thing, even our very lives. For this inheritance, we must also be willing to go to the cross, like Christ. What is the point of preserving our bodies for a few days only to then lose both body and soul in the eternal fire? What is the point of having a moment’s inheritance of the world, when the world then takes back that inheritance and our very souls? What is the point of selling Christ for thirty pieces of silver, when history then takes the thirty pieces and even our soul? This is the service history renders us. It gives us nothing for a moment: just long enough to gaze upon it with our eyes, and then robs us of our eternal good. God, however, does not! He asks us for the nothingness of history—which is, after all, His own—to give us the fullness of Himself and His eternal Kingdom. 

https://www.movimentoapostolico.org/formazione/parola-commentata/nuovo-testamento/27-prima-lettera-pietro.pdf

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, True God and True Man in the Trinitarian Mystery

The Prophetic Discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24–25)

All Generations Will Call Me Blessed

Catholics and Protestants Compared – In Defence of the Faith

The Church and Israel According to St Paul – Romans 9–11

(Available on Amazon)

Easter, «The Resurrection of the Lord»

Mt 26:14–27:66 [5 April 2026]

(Col 3:1–4)

Colossians 3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God;

Colossians 3:2 set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Colossians 3:3 For you have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God!

Colossians 3:4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Saint Paul exhorts Christians to live their new life to the full. The Christian is invited to realise in concrete terms, in daily life, the mystery that was accomplished in him on the day he was baptised into Christ. On that day, he truly rose to new life with Christ; he was truly enveloped in the glory of the Resurrection; he was truly taken up into heaven with Christ, for spiritually and sacramentally he is in heaven. The Christian is the body of Christ, and the body of Christ is in heaven, seated at the right hand of God; therefore, the Christian too is seated at the right hand of God. In the risen Christ, the Christian too has already made the crossing from this shore to the shore of heaven.

This is his new reality. If he is in heaven, if he is seated at the right hand of God, a new spirituality has been born for him: he must no longer seek the things of the earth, he must seek the things of heaven. But with his body of flesh he is still on earth. He is on earth but to seek the things of heaven, the things of God. On earth he is like a gleaner. The gleaner is in a harvested field. There is much chaff, there are few ears of corn. He must be able to gather all the ears of corn, leaving the chaff in the field. The chaff does not nourish him; the good grain, however, does nourish him. If he gathers chaff instead of ears of corn, he is doing a futile task. So it is with the Christian. He is on earth: there are things that do not belong to heaven, but there are also those that manifest and reveal heaven. He must be able to discard, leave behind, and abandon everything that does not reveal heaven—indeed, that distances one from heaven—in order to devote himself solely to the things that are of heaven, which bring heaven down to earth, for they bring truth, justice, charity, and every other heavenly virtue into this world.

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” The “things above” are the will of God; the things of the earth, on the other hand, are the will of men. The Christian must walk amidst temptation. On the one hand there are the interests of Christ, which are the building up of the kingdom of God and His righteousness. On the other hand there are the thoughts of man, diametrically opposed to the thoughts of Christ. Those who allow themselves to be overcome by human thoughts forget heaven. How can we act so as not to think of earthly things but of those above? First and foremost, we must have sound discernment between heavenly things and earthly things. Those who do not separate, discern or distinguish live in perpetual confusion. They do earthly things thinking they are heavenly, and do heavenly things as if they were earthly. Having made the necessary distinction, we must bring about the death of sin and the resurrection to the life of truth, aided in this by the grace of God, which we must draw upon daily through unceasing prayer offered up to God, in the awareness that man lives surrounded by the things of the world, and if he neglects the purpose for which he lives, he immediately allows himself to be drawn to the earth, forgetting heaven.

“For you have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God”! St Paul now gives the profound reason that must always inspire the Christian in the constant pursuit of heavenly things. The earth would belong to us if we were still alive. In reality, everything that belongs to the earth no longer belongs to the Christian, for he has truly died in the body of Christ. If he has died, if he has been transformed into a body of glory, he can no longer feed on the things of the earth. He has changed nature; he is a different man; he is no longer the one born according to Adam. Now he is born according to Christ. Just as Christ no longer belongs to the earth, so the Christian can no longer belong to the earth.

This is a mysterious reality. Our life is now hidden with Christ in God. The life we live in our body should be merely an apparent life—that is, a life that appears, but which is not the true life—because the true life of the Christian is that which he lives in his spirit. The true life of the Christian is that which is hidden with Christ in God. It is hidden because it is a life as one raised with Christ. He lives this life in his body of flesh but only as a means to clothe himself wholly in Christ, as a moment in which he strives towards heaven, until the perfect realisation of Christ is completed in him. What the Christian lives in the flesh is only a temporary life, lasting but a few moments. He lives it because something is still lacking for the full realisation of Christ in him. He must therefore act like the gleaner. He must take only what nourishes his spirit, which has been recreated and renewed in Christ Jesus. This is the Christian’s vocation, his mission on earth. But if he does not consider himself a new man in Christ, everything will ultimately be in vain. Everything will prove to be futile. It is then of no value to uphold some principle of sound morality. The Christian is not one who must live for the fulfilment of some moral principle. The Christian must live to bring to fulfilment on earth the mystery that has already been fulfilled for him in Christ. He must live his new, true life; he must abandon his outward life; indeed, he must make this outward life a ladder to reach the true life that is hidden with Christ in God. This is the true vocation of the Christian and this is the daily work he must carry out.

“When Christ, your life, is revealed, then you too will be revealed with him in glory.” The Christian now lives in the time of faith and not of vision. If he could see how much Christ has wrought in him through his Holy Spirit on the day of his baptism, he would be breathless; he would not believe his own eyes. The mystery created at baptism is so lofty, so profound, so vast, that it would leave us awestruck if the Lord were to reveal it to our eyes. But this grace is difficult to realise. We must go to God by faith. We must trust in Him; we must make His Word the sole certainty of our lives.

The Christian sees with the eyes of the flesh the falsehoods that surround and tempt him; he does not see with the eyes of his spirit the invisible truths that should instead draw him towards God. When will the Christian emerge from this world of illusion? When will the true life that he already put on on the day of his baptism—and which is now hidden with Christ in God—be revealed to him? For Saint Paul, all will be fulfilled on the day of the glorious resurrection on the last day. On that day we shall have the full vision of glory, and only then shall we understand the whole mystery of baptism. Now we must simply walk in the light of faith, trusting totally in Christ. Now is the time for obedience and for seeking the things that are of heaven. If, through faith, we seek the things above, we shall gradually taste, though without being able to see it, the mystery of our baptism. We shall contemplate it with the eyes of our spirit, we shall love it, we shall realise it. One thing must be certain: this is the world of appearances, of vanities, of darkness, of deception, of temptation. Those who have passed through this world, overcoming evil and seeking the things above, will be clothed in the glory of Christ in the kingdom of heaven. 

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, True God and True Man in the Mystery of the Trinity

The Prophetic Discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24–25)

All Generations Will Call Me Blessed

Catholics and Protestants Compared – In Defence of the Faith

The Church and Israel According to St Paul – Romans 9–11

(Available on Amazon)

 (Mt 26:14–27:66)

Matthew 26:17 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?’

Matthew 26:18 He replied, ‘Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, “The Teacher sends word to you: My time is near; I will celebrate the Passover at your house with my disciples.”’

Matthew 26:19 The disciples did as Jesus had instructed them and prepared the Passover.

Matthew 26:20 When evening came, he sat down at table with the Twelve.

Matthew 26:21 Whilst they were eating, he said, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.’

Matthew 26:22 And they were deeply distressed and began to ask him one by one, ‘Surely not I, Lord?’

Matthew 26:23 He replied, ‘The one who has dipped his hand into the dish with me—he will betray me.

Matthew 26:24 The Son of Man is going, as it is written about him, but woe to the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for that man if he had never been born!’

Matthew 26:25 Judas, the betrayer, said, ‘Rabbi, is it I?’ He replied, ‘You have said so.’

The word ‘unleavened’ is formed from the privative ‘a’, meaning ‘without’, and ‘zymos’, which is yeast. Unleavened bread is bread made without yeast. According to Jewish tradition, on the eve of Passover, the 14th of Nisan, all yeast had to be removed from the homes, and so the bread was baked without yeast.

The disciples “approached” Jesus. This collegiality among the disciples highlights the ecclesial nature of the account. The Christological aspect, on the other hand, is highlighted by the fact that they all converge upon Jesus, thereby indicating his centrality; furthermore, they ask him where to prepare his Passover: “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover for you?” Jesus also emphasises that this time is his time (v. 18). Jesus is fully aware that the decisive time (kairòs) had come for the fulfilment of the Father’s plan. Kairos is the appointed time, the time of fulfilment.

There is a profound union between Jesus and the disciples; they form a sort of new entity. This involves the disciples being assimilated into Jesus’ own Passover, so that their remembrance of the Lord’s Passover is a way of making his Passover perpetually present and relevant amongst them; indeed, they themselves become the sign of the Lord’s Passover: “The Master sends word to you [...] I will celebrate the Passover at your house with my disciples”.

Jesus’ command to prepare his Passover “at the house of this man” is significant. Not “a man”, but “this man”. The definite article, whilst leaving the man anonymous, nevertheless identifies him within a category of people among whom Jesus has ordered his Passover to be celebrated. This “one” must in fact have been a disciple of Jesus, given that Jesus presents himself to him as the “Master says”. Who is this one? It intrigues us. Behold, this one is I who am reading. The Master sends word to me through his disciples that his time is near and he wishes to eat the Passover with me; he invites me to his supper. The Gospel is written for the reader, not for that one.

“When evening came”, Jesus sat down to eat “with the Twelve” (v. 20); and they eat this Passover, which is not theirs, but the Lord’s. They are part of it nonetheless; they take it in. Even the one who is about to betray Jesus is made, right to the very end, a participant in his Master’s redemptive destiny of death. But for him there will be no salvation: “it would be better for that man if he had never been born” (v. 24).

“One of you will betray me.” Jesus knows who it is that is about to betray him, yet he does not reveal it. Jesus spoke in the future tense, not the past. Had he spoken in the past: “One of you has already betrayed me”, everyone might have suspected the others, but not themselves. Since Jesus speaks in the future, everyone suspects themselves. Everyone thinks it might be they themselves who are betraying him, and asks the Lord: “Is it I, Lord?”. Jesus answers them all, yet in such a prudent and wise manner that he allows each to know it is not they, without however being able to identify who the traitor really is: “The one who has dipped his hand into the dish with me, he will betray me”. In those days there were neither spoons nor forks, but each of the guests took what he needed from the common dish with his hands. Everyone could know it was not him because he had not yet dipped his hand into the dish with Jesus. Yet no one knew who the betrayer was, because they did not know who had already dipped his hand into the dish with Jesus.

There is a certain distance between Judas and the other apostles, which the evangelist Matthew points out to us in the different ways they approach Jesus. Faced with the revelation of the betrayal that is about to take place, the disciples turn to Jesus, calling him ‘Lord’ (v. 22). Judas, on the other hand, sees in Jesus only a ‘Rabbi’ (v. 25) who has let him down. There has been no spiritual growth in him. The rabbi (teacher) is the one who tells you things; you learn them and then do them without him so that you too may become a teacher. It is true that Jesus is one who teaches you things, but above all he is one who loves you and gives his life for you. This is the radical difference between Lord and teacher.

“Woe to that man through whom the Son of Man is betrayed.” The Greek expression is “ouai” and was the typical expression of a funeral lament. Jesus weeps for Judas as if he were dead.

Judas was in the Upper Room, the holiest place at that moment, as if to signify that within the holiness of Christ and the Church there will always be the presence of the sinner. Just as Jesus Christ was betrayed by one of his disciples, so the Church will always be betrayed by her children. At the moment of greatest holiness, there will always be the moment of greatest betrayal.

Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, True God and True Man in the Trinitarian Mystery

The Prophetic Discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24–25)

All Generations Will Call Me Blessed

 Catholics and Protestants Compared – In Defence of the Faith

 The Church and Israel According to St Paul – Romans 9–11

(Available on Amazon)

Fifth Lent Sunday (year A)

(Rom 8:8–11)

Romans 8:8 Those who live according to the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 8:9 But you are not under the control of the flesh, but of the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to him.

Romans 8:10 And if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of justification.

Paul does not want anyone to harbour illusions: those who live according to the flesh cannot please God. From the acceptance of this truth arises within us the possibility of a new path. If, on the other hand, we allow ourselves to be overcome by illusion, any path upwards becomes impossible, and it will always be impossible as long as man harbours the illusion of pleasing God whilst in fact God is not pleased with him, because he is guided and led by his flesh. He cannot please God because the flesh seeks self-affirmation and the nullification of God; it seeks the deification of man and consequently the removal of man from God. Whoever lives according to the flesh is in rebellion against God; indeed, God is his enemy, for He is the One who takes away man’s space because He wishes to govern his life. To assert himself in his flesh, such a person desires the death of God.

This dramatic choice became a reality with Jesus Christ. He was put to the cross, because His presence demanded the death of the flesh into which man had fallen. The flesh killed God, hung Him on the wood of the cross, and removed Him from the picture. This opposition will accompany man throughout his life, and will ultimately result either in eternal death or eternal life, either forever far from God or forever close to God.

But we can and must please God. We can and must because we are not under the dominion of the flesh, but under the dominion of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. “But you are not under the dominion of the flesh,” says St Paul. This is the truth that every Christian must make their own. Escaping the dominion of the flesh means that man has truly been redeemed, set free; the long, arduous, peril-filled journey has begun that will lead him to the heavenly homeland, in complete freedom from all bondage.

Another truth that Paul never ceases to remind us of is that the Christian is under the dominion of the Spirit, as attested by the fact that the Spirit of God dwells within him. The flesh is falsehood, selfishness, disobedience, and separation from God. The Spirit, on the other hand, creates freedom, love, communion, obedience, and submission to God. Therefore, ‘if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to him’: an obvious and banal statement, were it not for the fact that all too easily one presumes to be of Christ. If the Spirit brings about the destruction of the flesh, if the Spirit creates the new man, if the Spirit leads the believer towards the fullness of life and truth, it is also true that whoever is without the Spirit of Christ cannot belong to Christ. He does not belong to Christ because he belongs to the flesh, and even though Christ bought him at a high price by shedding his blood on the cross, if man has returned of his own will under the dominion of the flesh, this man cannot belong to Christ. Belonging to Christ is not simply a matter of belonging due to the fact that, through the sacrament of baptism, man has come out from under the dominion of the flesh to enter into that of the Spirit. This is an initial, nascent belonging. It is necessary for this belonging to be transformed into the habitual indwelling of the Spirit within us. We are Christ’s; we belong to Him because He has bought us with His most precious blood, but we can freely depart from this belonging through our surrender to sin and death.

“And if Christ is in you”: Christ is in us if His Spirit dwells in us. The Spirit dwells in you if man remains in the truth. If the believer has truly conformed his way of life to the Spirit of Christ, then “Your body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of justification”. Man’s spirit has been filled with the life of Christ, but this life is not a fruit produced from within man, just as a tree naturally produces its fruit. This life comes to him from without; it comes to him because of justification, that is, because of God’s will to make man righteous in Christ.

Justification does not occur automatically, without the participation of man’s will. It is accomplished in man through an act of faith in Christ. Justification is not without faith, for otherwise man would be deprived of his will. Now, what makes men human is precisely the will; without it, they are no longer human. God allows a man to end up in eternal darkness rather than deprive him of his very essence as a man. This is the tremendous mystery of man’s ontological constitution, and within this ontological constitution lies also the mystery of sin. Those who advocate a purely objective justification in which every man is saved and redeemed, those who propose the abolition of hell or its temporary nature, these do not realise that by advocating such theories they destroy themselves in their ontological reality, for they declare themselves not to be men, that is, beings not endowed with will and self-determination.

Unfortunately, today man no longer knows himself, and he does not know himself because he does not know God, and not knowing God, he cannot even know himself. That man does not know himself is attested precisely by the fact that he has destroyed himself in his ontological reality. But the destruction of man attests to another terrible reality. If man does not know himself, it is because the Spirit of truth does not dwell within him. If the Christian does not know himself, it is a clear sign that he has returned to the flesh, for only those who are in the flesh do not know God, and the ignorance in which he lives is to his grave detriment.

The Christian does not have a vocation to mediocrity, or simply to avoid sin. The Christian possesses a vocation to the highest holiness. He is called to develop every gift of grace and truth so that it may bear the greatest fruit. Minimalism, mediocrity and superficiality are not the Christian’s vocation. His vocation is, rather, to attain conformity to the Lord Jesus. Today we are forgetting the vocation we have received. We are living as though we had no vocation to fulfil, indeed as though our body were condemned to sin. Instead, St Paul tells us that a Christian is either one who is taken and led by the Holy Spirit, or is not a Christian.   

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, True God and True Man in the Trinitarian Mystery

The Prophetic Discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24–25)

All Generations Will Call Me Blessed

Catholics and Protestants Compared – In Defence of the Faith

The Church and Israel According to St Paul – Romans 9–11

(Available on Amazon)

Fourth Lent Sunday (year A)

(Jn 9:1-41)

John 9:8 Then the neighbours and those who had seen him before, since he was a beggar, said, 'Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?

John 9:9 Some said, 'He is the man,' while others said, 'No, he looks like him. ' But he said, 'I am the man.

John 9:10 They asked him, 'How then were your eyes opened?

John 9:11 He answered, 'The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, "Go to Siloam and wash." So I went and washed, and received my sight.

John 9:12 They said to him, 'Where is this man? He answered, "I do not know."

John 9:13 Now they brought to the Pharisees the one who had been blind.

John 9:41 Jesus answered them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, 'We see,' your sin remains."

Verses 8-9, in presenting the main actors in this inquiry, the people and the blind man, question the identity of the healed blind man, who is described as a "beggar" and who "sat there".  The fact that he was sitting speaks of a condition of life that made the man incapable of any autonomy, placing him on the margins of social and religious life. To accentuate this state of affairs, it is emphasised that his miserable life depended on the generosity of passers-by. But it is his blindness that isolates and immobilises him completely, preventing him from having any normal social relationships. In essence, what is described here is the spiritual state of Israel, blinded by a religiosity based on the letter of the Law, which made it incapable of any spiritual evolution towards God, reducing its relationship to a mere physical execution of the Torah. Israel, therefore, was spiritually broken down. This state of affairs sparks debate in the form of an investigation. The actors in this investigation are 'those who had seen him before'.

We are faced with an investigation set within a confused and uncertain framework, with a succession of conflicting and convulsive opinions: 'Some said, "It is he"; others said, "No, but he looks like him." And he said, "It is I!"' (v. 9). All the verbs are in the imperfect indicative to indicate the continuity of this questioning, of this investigation, which only the healed blind man is able, at least in part, to unravel.

Verse 10 poses the fundamental question: 'Then they asked him, "How then were your eyes opened?"'. This is still a superficial inquiry because it only asks how his healing took place. But here John actually establishes a systematic principle for interpreting signs: when faced with an extraordinary and portentous event, it is necessary to question and investigate how it came about, but without stopping at appearances, rather questioning them, transcending them to arrive at what they express. A second, more profound reading is therefore necessary because miracles, even before being an expression of the irruption of divine power among men, are signs that refer to what they signify in their appearances. Precisely for this reason, the blind man will detail what happened to him, so that, by reflecting on and investigating the sign, we may discover the light that illuminated him (v. 11).

Verses 11-12 report, on the one hand, the testimony of the healed blind man, who describes what happened to him, but without going further (v. 11); on the other hand, the first question of meaning appears: 'Where is this man? (v. 12), which will push the search and investigation of Jesus further, bringing the case to the religious authorities (v. 13).

The first answer the blind man gives to his interlocutors is a generic indication: 'The man called Jesus'. Significant here is the use of the term 'anthrōpos', which indicates a man in a generic, not well-defined sense, thus denoting an still imperfect knowledge of his healer. He certainly knows his name, but only by hearsay ("his name is Jesus"); he knows that through his rituals and commands, the meaning of which he does not understand, he has brought light to his eyes and heart; but he still lacks direct experience, which alone can provide him with full knowledge, bringing his journey of enlightenment to completion. But before reaching this point, he must still face many questions and overcome many obstacles; he must give further testimony, defend and proclaim his saviour himself, and, expelled from the synagogue, come to a necessary choice, that of abandoning his previous life. Only at this point will he meet him and proclaim him "Lord" (v. 38).

But what the healed blind man attested to his interlocutors (v. 11) is still completely insufficient to define who this Jesus really is. It is therefore necessary to find him, to know where he is: 'They said to him, "Where is this man?" He replied, "I do not know."' The name of Jesus is replaced by a pronoun ("this man"), which indicates that knowledge of Jesus is still superficial and therefore needs further investigation before arriving at the name, which in ancient culture indicates the very essence of the person. The outcome of this search, in fact, is ineffective: "I do not know," literally "I have not seen" (ouk oida) and therefore I do not know. It is therefore the absence of seeing, his blindness, that prevented him from grasping "where" his saviour is. Certainly, the healed blind man met Jesus, who healed him, but he had this experience of Jesus while he was still blind, before he had arrived at the pool of Siloam and washed himself with the living water. It was therefore a salvific encounter, yes, but one that required a whole journey to fully see his saviour. That is why he still 'does not know'.

It is therefore inevitable that the search continues, now among the religious authorities, those who should be the light that illuminates Israel. The blind man is taken to the Pharisees to be evaluated by them. The note at the end of verse 13 is significant: 'the man who had been blind', to emphasise, on the one hand, the change in his state of life: from blind to sighted; from unbeliever to believer; and, on the other hand, to indicate that the one on trial here is the one who was once blind, that is, a Jew who later converted to Christianity. In fact, the position taken by this former blind man in favour of Jesus, which becomes increasingly evident as the story progresses, and his final expulsion from the synagogue indicate the break between this former blind man and Judaism.

This, then, is the context in which the trial should be read, with the Pharisees in the role of preliminary investigators and the healed blind man first as a person informed of the facts and then as a defendant. Against this backdrop, the identity of Jesus gradually emerges, culminating in the expulsion of the blind man from the synagogue, an indispensable prerequisite for meeting Jesus and recognising his divinity.

Verse 41, concluding the story, reports Jesus' response to this Judaism that considered itself enlightened by the Torah: "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, 'We see,' your sin remains." The sentence, which is in fact an implicit accusation of presumption, triggers a confrontation between the man born blind, a metaphor for an open and welcoming Judaism that has reached full enlightenment, and this pedantic Judaism, which, convinced of being enlightened by the Torah, and on whose parameters even Jesus had been judged a sinner (v. 16), had closed itself off from any possibility of access to the Mystery. There is therefore no spiritual or cultural evolution for this type of Judaism. Because of its imperviousness to the manifestation of the Christ of God, this Judaism remains in its sin, which for John is unbelief, which in the final analysis is nothing other than the rejection of God.

Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Apocalypse – exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, True God and True Man in the Trinitarian Mystery

The Prophetic Discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All Generations Will Call Me Blessed

 Catholics and Protestants Compared – In Defence of the Faith

 The Church and Israel According to St. Paul – Romans 9-11

(Available on Amazon)