Meditation

Today, we see Jesus walking “about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon” (Jn 10,23), during the Feast of Dedication, in Jerusalem. It was then when the Jews ask Him: “If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly”, and Jesus answers: “I told you and you do not believe” (Jn 10,24-25).
 

Today, we keep mulling over one of the most beautiful and well known images of Jesus' preaching: the Good Shepherd, his sheep and the gate. We all keep in our memory the figure of that good Shepherd we were able to look at, as children. An icon well beloved by the first fold, that already belongs to the Christian sacred art at the time of the catacombs. How many memories can be aroused in us that young shepherd with the wounded sheep on his shoulders!...
 

Today we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday. First and foremost, the attitude of the sheep must be to listen to the shepherd’s voice and follow him. To listen carefully, to be docile to his word, to follow him with a decision that engages the whole existence: understanding, heart, all strength and all action, following in His footsteps.
 

Today, we have just read in the Gospel Jesus' speech about the Bread of Life, which is Himself, offering us His body as nourishment for our souls and for our Christian life. And, as it usually happens, we have to contemplate two different —if not opposite— reactions, from those who are listening to Him.
 

Today, Jesus makes three key avowals: we are to eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood; if we do not take the Holy Communion we cannot have life; and this life is the eternal life and the condition for resurrection (cf. Jn 6,53-58). There is nothing in the Gospel so clear, so emphatic and so definite as these statements of Jesus.
 

Today, we sing to the Lord from whom we receive the glory and the triumph. The Risen Lord presents Himself to His Church with that “I am whom I am” that identifies Him as a source of salvation: “I am the bread of life” (Jn 6, 48). The community gathered around Him who is Alive, by way of thanks, lovingly recognizes Him and accepts God's instruction, now known as the Father's teachings.
 

Today we see how much our hunger and our thirst concern God! How can we continue to think that God is indifferent to our sufferings? And yet, so often, we “refuse to believe” in the tender love that God has for each one of us. In hiding Himself in the Eucharist, God manifests the incredible lengths He will go to in order to satiate our thirst and our hunger.
 

Today in Jesus' words we can verify the confronts and the complementarity between the Old and the New Testaments: the Old Testament was an expectation of the New Testament and in the New Testament, God's promises to the fathers of the Old Testament are being fulfilled. Thus, the manna the Israelis ate in the desert was not the authentic bread from Heaven, but an anticipated image of the true bread that God, our Father, has given us in the person of Jesus Christ,...

Today, after the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, the people went looking for Jesus as far as Capernaum. Then as now, people are seeking the divine. Isn't the proliferation of religious sects and esotericism proof of this thirst for all things divine?
 

Today, the Gospel still places us in Easter Sunday, when the two disciples from Emmaus return to Jerusalem and, there, while everyone recounts that the Lord has appeared to them, the same Risen One presents Himself to them. But His presence is disconcerting. On the one hand, it causes fear, to the point that they "thought that they were seeing a ghost" (Lk 24, 37)...
 

Today, Jesus unsettles us. We were used to a Redeemer who, attentive to all kinds of human destitution, would not doubt have recourse to His divine power. In fact, this happens just after the multiplication of the loaves and fishes to feed a large hungry crowd. But now, instead, He unsettles us with a miracle —to walk over the waters— that looks very much like Jesus was just playing to the gallery. 

Today, the Gospel reminds us of a miracle in front of five thousand men when “Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted” (Jn 6, 11). This miracle was not merely a need to show off but held a much deeper meaning. Jesus was driven by God’s love for those people. We talk about faith and love every time we try to understand what propels Jesus towards action.
 

Today, the Gospel invites us to cease being so “worldly”, to stop being men who can only speak about mundane things, to speak and behave instead as “The one who comes from above”(Jn 3, 31), who is Jesus. In this text we see —once more— that in evangelic radicalism there is no happy medium. We must always strive to follow God's thinking, endeavor to share Christ's feelings and aim at seeing men and their circumstances with the same spirit of the Word made flesh. 

Today's gospel passage identifies Christ to be “the way and the truth and the life” (Jn 14, 6). Separate from Christ, there is only desolation, falsehood and death. There is one and only one road to heaven and it is called Jesus Christ.
 

Today, Jesus explains to us the difficulty of foreseeing and understanding the action of the Holy Spirit: indeed, "it blows where it wishes" (Jn 3, 8). He relates this to the testimony He Himself is giving and to the need to be born from above. The Lord says clearly: "You must be born from above" (Jn 3, 7); a new life is necessary to enter into eternal life. It's not enough to just get by to reach the Kingdom of Heaven; a new life regenerated by the action of God’s Spirit is required. 

Today, in the “Hail, full of grace!” (Lk 1, 28) we hear for the first time the name of the Mother of God: Mary (Archangel Gabriel’s second phrase). She has the fullness of grace and the gifts. It is said like this: "keharitoméne", “full of grace” (Angel’s greeting).
 

Today, on the Second Sunday of Easter, we complete the octave of this liturgical season, one of the two octaves —together with Christmas— that remain in the liturgy renewed by the Vatican Council II. For eight days, we contemplate the same mystery and try to deepen our understanding of it in the light of the Holy Spirit.
 

Today, relying on the risen Jesus, we must rediscover the Gospel as the "Good News". The Gospel is not a law that tyrannizes us. Occasionally, we may have fallen into the temptation of thinking that non-Christians are more relaxed than us and do what they want, whereas we have to abide by a list of commandments. This is a merely superficial view of things.
 

Today, for the third time, Jesus reveals Himself to his disciples after His rising. Peter has gone back to his old fisherman job and the others have decided to join him. It stands to reason that, if he was a fisherman before following Jesus, afterwards, he gets back to his old job; and there still are those who are surprised to see that it is not necessary to leave one's honest work to follow Christ.
 

Today, the risen Christ meets His disciples again, with His desire of peace: “Peace be with you.” (Lk 24,36). This is how He makes the fears and forebodings the Apostles had accumulated during their days of passion and loneliness disappear.
 

Today we are reassured by the Gospel that Jesus is alive and continues to be the center around which the disciples' community is built. The gathering of the community, the dialog with brothers and sisters who share the same faith, the reading of the Word of God, the love shared and expressed through fraternity and service, is precisely the ecclesial context in which the disciples can encounter the Resurrected.
 

Today, in the figure of Mary Magdalene we may contemplate two levels of acceptance of our Savior: the first one, imperfect; the second one, complete. According to the first one, Mary appears as the most sincere of Jesus' disciples. She follows Him, unmatched Master; heroically, she sticks to Jesus, crucified because of His love; she looks for Him, beyond death, buried and missing. 

Today, the joy of the Resurrection makes the women who had gone to the tomb brave messengers of Christ. "A great joy" fills their hearts upon hearing the angel's announcement of the Master's Resurrection. They run out of the tomb to announce it to the Apostles. They cannot remain inactive, and their hearts would burst if they did not communicate this to all the disciples...

Today, “is the day the LORD has made”: this is the expression of Psalm 118, 24 that we shall be singing throughout Easter time and fills out the celebration of our Christian faith. The Father has resurrected Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, in whom He delights, because He has loved to the point of giving his life for all of us.
 

Today, we do not consider any particular Gospel, inasmuch it is a day with no liturgy. But, with Mary, the only one who stayed firm in faith and hope after the tragic death of her Son, we shall prepare ourselves, in silence and in prayer, to celebrate the feast of our liberation in Christ, that is, the fulfillment of the Gospel.
 

Today we celebrate the first day of the Paschal Triduum. It is therefore the day of the Victorious Cross, where Jesus Christ left us the best of Him: the Virgin Mary as mother, the forgiveness —for his executioners too— and the total trust in God Father.
 

Today, we remember the first Holy Thursday of history, when Jesus Christ gathers his disciples to celebrate the Passover. He inaugurates the new Passover of the new Covenant when his sacrifice is offered for our salvation.
 

We want to stop here at the Paschal Supper, where Jesus Christ manifests that His body will be given and His blood shed. His words: “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me” (Mt 26, 20) invite each of the Twelve, and especially Judas, to an examination of conscience. These words are extended to all of us, who have also been called by Jesus. 
 

Today, Holy Tuesday, the liturgy emphasizes the scene about to be unleashed and that will end with the crucifixion on Good Friday. “So Judas took the morsel and left at once. And it was night” (Jn 13, 30). It is always night when we move away from He who is “Light from Light, true God from true God” (Symbol of Faith: Nicene Creed).
 

Today, the Gospel summarizes two different attitudes about dealing with God, Jesus-Christ and life itself. We see the attitude of Judas criticizing Mary for anointing Jesus' feet: “Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said, “Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages and given to the poor?” (Jn 12,4-5).