1. Nicodemus said to him: "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter his mother's womb a second time and be born again?" (John 3, 4).
Nicodemus' question to Jesus expresses well the restless wonder of man before the mystery of God, a mystery that he discovers in his encounter with Christ. The whole dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus reveals the extraordinary richness of meaning of every encounter, even that of man with another man. The encounter is in fact the surprising and real phenomenon by which man comes out of his original solitude to face existence. It is the normal condition through which he is led to grasp the value of reality, of the people and things that constitute it, in a word, of history. In this sense it is comparable to a new birth.
In John's Gospel, Christ's encounter with Nicodemus has as its content the birth to the definitive life, that of the Kingdom of God. But in the life of every man, is it not encounters that weave the unexpected and concrete fabric of existence? Are they not at the basis of the birth of that self-awareness capable of action, which alone allows a life worthy of the name of man?
In the encounter with the other, man discovers that he is a person and that he must recognise the equal dignity of other men. Through significant encounters, he learns to know the value of the constituent dimensions of human existence, first and foremost those of religion, family and the people to which he belongs.
2. The value of being with its universal connotations - the true, the good, the beautiful - presents itself to man sensitively incarnated in the decisive encounters of his existence.
In conjugal affection, the encounter between lover and beloved, which finds fulfilment in marriage, begins with the perceptible experience of beauty embodied in the 'form' of the other. But being, through the attraction of the beautiful, asks to express itself in the fullness of authentic goodness. That the other be, that his good be realised, that the destiny traced out for him by the providential God be fulfilled, is the living and disinterested desire of every person who truly loves. The desire for lasting good, capable of generating and regenerating itself in children, would not be possible if it did not rest on truth. The attraction of beauty cannot be given the consistency of a definitive good without the search for self-truth and the will to persevere in it.
And going on: how could one be a fully realised man without the encounter, which takes place in the depths of oneself, with one's own land, with the men who have built its history through prayer, testimony, blood, genius and poetry? In turn, the fascination for the beauty of the homeland, and the desire for truth and goodness for the people who continually 'regenerate' it, increase the desire for peace, which alone makes the unity of the human race viable. The Christian is educated to understand the urgency of the ministry of peace by his encounter with the Church, where the people of God live that my predecessor Paul VI defined '. . . an ethnic entity sui generis'.
Its history has defied time for two thousand years now, leaving unaltered, despite the miseries of the people who belong to it, its original openness to truth, goodness and beauty.
3. But sooner or later man realises, in dramatic terms, that of such multiform and unrepeatable encounters he does not yet possess the ultimate meaning, capable of making them definitively good, true, beautiful. He intuits in them the presence of being, but being as such eludes him. The good to which he feels attracted, the true that he knows how to affirm, the beautiful that he knows how to discover are in fact far from satisfying him. Structural destitution or unquenchable desire parade themselves before man even more dramatically, after the other has entered his life. Made for the infinite, man feels himself a prisoner of the finite!
What journey can he still make, what other mysterious sortie from his inner self can he attempt, who has left his original solitude to go towards the other, seeking definitive fulfilment? Man, committed with genuine seriousness to his human experience, finds himself faced with a tremendous aut aut aut: to ask an Other, with a capital A, who rises on the horizon of existence to reveal and make possible its full fulfilment, or to withdraw into himself, into an existential solitude in which the very possibility of being is denied. The cry of demand or blasphemy: that is what is left!
But the mercy with which God has loved us is stronger than any dilemma. It does not stop even in the face of blasphemy. Even from within the experience of sin, man can always and again reflect on his metaphysical frailty and come out of it. He can grasp the absolute need for that Other with a capital A, who can forever quench his thirst! Man can rediscover the path of invocation to the Author of our salvation, that he may come! Then the soul surrenders to God's merciful embrace, finally experiencing, in this decisive encounter, the joy of a hope "that does not disappoint" (Rom 5:5).
[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 16 November 1983].
Dialogo e Solstizio
Apr 18, 2025
Written by
don Giuseppe Nespeca
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Decisive encounters
don Giuseppe Nespeca
Giuseppe Nespeca è architetto e sacerdote. Cultore della Sacra scrittura è autore della raccolta "Due Fuochi due Vie - Religione e Fede, Vangeli e Tao"; coautore del libro "Dialogo e Solstizio".
Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.Jesus, the true bread of life that satisfies our hunger for meaning and for truth, cannot be “earned” with human work; he comes to us only as a gift of God’s love, as a work of God (Pope Benedict)
Gesù, vero pane di vita che sazia la nostra fame di senso, di verità, non si può «guadagnare» con il lavoro umano; viene a noi soltanto come dono dell’amore di Dio, come opera di Dio (Papa Benedetto)
Jesus, who shared his quality as a "stone" in Simon, also communicates to him his mission as a "shepherd". It is a communication that implies an intimate communion, which also transpires from the formulation of Jesus: "Feed my lambs... my sheep"; as he had already said: "On this rock I will build my Church" (Mt 16:18). The Church is property of Christ, not of Peter. Lambs and sheep belong to Christ, and to no one else (Pope John Paul II)
Gesù, che ha partecipato a Simone la sua qualità di “pietra”, gli comunica anche la sua missione di “pastore”. È una comunicazione che implica una comunione intima, che traspare anche dalla formulazione di Gesù: “Pasci i miei agnelli… le mie pecorelle”; come aveva già detto: “Su questa pietra edificherò la mia Chiesa” (Mt 16,18). La Chiesa è proprietà di Cristo, non di Pietro. Agnelli e pecorelle appartengono a Cristo, e a nessun altro (Papa Giovanni Paolo II)
Praying, celebrating, imitating Jesus: these are the three "doors" - to be opened to find «the way, to go to truth and to life» (Pope Francis)
Pregare, celebrare, imitare Gesù: sono le tre “porte” — da aprire per trovare «la via, per andare alla verità e alla vita» (Papa Francesco)
In recounting the "sign" of bread, the Evangelist emphasizes that Christ, before distributing the food, blessed it with a prayer of thanksgiving (cf. v. 11). The Greek term used is eucharistein and it refers directly to the Last Supper, though, in fact, John refers here not to the institution of the Eucharist but to the washing of the feet. The Eucharist is mentioned here in anticipation of the great symbol of the Bread of Life [Pope Benedict]
Narrando il “segno” dei pani, l’Evangelista sottolinea che Cristo, prima di distribuirli, li benedisse con una preghiera di ringraziamento (cfr v. 11). Il verbo è eucharistein, e rimanda direttamente al racconto dell’Ultima Cena, nel quale, in effetti, Giovanni non riferisce l’istituzione dell’Eucaristia, bensì la lavanda dei piedi. L’Eucaristia è qui come anticipata nel grande segno del pane della vita [Papa Benedetto]
Work is part of God’s loving plan, we are called to cultivate and care for all the goods of creation and in this way share in the work of creation! Work is fundamental to the dignity of a person. Work, to use a metaphor, “anoints” us with dignity, fills us with dignity, makes us similar to God, who has worked and still works, who always acts (cf. Jn 5:17); it gives one the ability to maintain oneself, one’s family, to contribute to the growth of one’s own nation [Pope Francis]
Il lavoro fa parte del piano di amore di Dio; noi siamo chiamati a coltivare e custodire tutti i beni della creazione e in questo modo partecipiamo all’opera della creazione! Il lavoro è un elemento fondamentale per la dignità di una persona. Il lavoro, per usare un’immagine, ci “unge” di dignità, ci riempie di dignità; ci rende simili a Dio, che ha lavorato e lavora, agisce sempre (cfr Gv 5,17); dà la capacità di mantenere se stessi, la propria famiglia, di contribuire alla crescita della propria Nazione [Papa Francesco]
God loves the world and will love it to the end. The Heart of the Son of God pierced on the Cross and opened is a profound and definitive witness to God’s love (John Paul II)
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