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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD

12 MAY 2024   ASCENSION OF JESUS

WORD of the DAY 
Jesus said to his disciples: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So, then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs. (Mark 16: 15-20)

How shall I live this Word?   

Jesus trusts man, trusts those disciples whom He has just rebuked because they are still incredulous about His resurrection. Against all human logic, He entrusts to these men who abandoned Him, frightened and weak, the task of proclaiming the Gospel, His word made flesh. Proclaiming Christ, for a long time has been interpreted as proselytizing. Jesus only wanted to bring the good news of salvation to all people. Accepting or not accepting this message is the only criterion of salvation. The passage speaks of demons, snakes, poisons, and diseases. Jesus does not guarantee that we will not have difficulties, problems or critical situations. Jesus guarantees us that we will have the strength to face them because He is in us and with Him everything can be tackled. With the ascension, Jesus enters into a completely new reality with all His personal human and divine reality becoming a bridge that unites earth and heaven. But His presence remains among us: “I am with you until the end of the world.” We need always new, clear eyes to be able to recognize and discover his presence in our lives. Thus, today, the Lord acts with us. The Solemnity of the Ascension is the celebration of the presence of Jesus in all things. Jesus is not beside reality; He is inside. He’s not far away; I don’t have to go somewhere to meet Him. I have to get into the heart of all things where His presence is. The solemnity of the Ascension guards the paradox of an absence and a presence that are together. Absence becomes a mode of presence. The wound of His absence makes Him even more deeply present. He is not there and is the heart of everything. Ascension inaugurates a time of emptiness and a time that gives us an immense freedom of research, a time of mission. The Ascension opens the time of the Spirit, the time of the Church, the time that the Lord entrusts to each of us.

May our trust be in you, Lord, in the certainty that you are always close to us and that you will give us the strength to bring to completion, that for which you sent us.

The voice of Pope Benedict XVI

Our true elevation occurs when, in humbly giving ourself to others, we learn to totally lower ourself, down to the ground, down to the gesture of washing feet. It is precisely this humility that knows how to lower itself that leads us upwards; this way of going upwards wants us to learn Ascension.

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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD

11 MAY 2024   EASTER SATURDAY 6

WORD of the DAY 

“Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.” (John 16: 28b)

How shall I live this Word?   

The short verse I have chosen is inserted in a longer passage that puts the theme of prayer at the center. The new era foretold by the Lord to His followers consists in understanding the mutual relationship that exists between the Father and the Son and in the manifestation of Jesus with the gift of prayer. The disciples were not accustomed to pray in the name of Jesus, but now, through the Spirit sent by the Father, the new time has been inaugurated in which they can turn to the Father in the name of Jesus, because their Lord, by virtue of His return to heaven became the true mediator between God and humans. It is in prayer that the disciples will know the intimate relationship between Jesus and the Father and these with themselves. Each of us will then be heard because there will exist, through the Holy Spirit, an intimate knowledge and reciprocity of mutual love.

I LIVE THE WORD: “I will not leave you orphans!”

The voice of Pope St. Leo the Great

On the feast of Easter, the resurrection of the Lord was a cause of great joy for us. So now his ascension to heaven is the cause of ineffable joy. Today, in fact, we remember and celebrate the day when our poor nature was elevated in Christ to the throne of God the Father, above all the heavenly hosts, above all the angelic hierarchies, above the height of all the powers. The whole of Christian existence is founded and raised on an arcane series of divine actions for which the love of God reveals more all its wonders. Although these are mysteries that transcend human perception and inspire a deep reverential fear, faith does not fail, hope falters and charity cools. To believe without hesitation in that which escapes material sight and to fix desire where one cannot reach with one’s gaze, is the strength of truly great hearts and the light of firm souls. After all, how could charity be born in our hearts, how could man be justified by faith, if the world of salvation were to consist only in those things that fall under our senses?

Therefore, what was visible of our Redeemer has passed into the sacramental rites. For the faith to be more authentic and firmer, direct observation was followed by the magisterium, whose authority would now follow the hearts of the faithful, illuminated by the supreme light.

This faith grew with the ascension of the Lord and was made even stronger by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Neither the chains, nor the prison, nor the exile, nor the hunger or the fire, nor the bites of the beasts, nor the most refined tortures, contrived by the cruelty of the persecutors, succeeded in eliminating it with their fear. For this faith in every part of the world they have fought to the point of shedding blood, not only men, but also women; not only children, but also maidens. In fact, while remaining in Christ glorified the nature of the body, the faith of believers was conducted in that sphere in which he could touch the Only-begotten equal to the Father, no longer by physical contact, but by the contemplation of the spirit.

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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD

10 MAY 2024   EASTER FRIDAY 6

WORD of the DAY 

“Amen, amen, I say to you,
you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices;
you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.” (John 16: 20)

How shall I live this Word?   

In the verses that follow the pericope cited, Jesus, in order to express the passage from affliction to superabundant joy, makes use of the effective and delicate image of the woman who is about to give birth to a child. The joy of the woman is twofold.  her sufferings are over and she gave birth to a new being. Christian joy is welded to pain, but flows from the new life that is the Passover of the Lord. Then Jesus goes on to explain the comparison in a spiritual sense. The pain due to the death of the Son of God will be transformed into joy on the Easter Day of each one of us, when we will finally be where He is.

LIVING THE WORD: Pope Francis, homily on 28 May 2018

The voice of Pope St. Leo the Great

Breaking the forced laughter of ‘a joyless culture that invents everything to have a good time’, offering ‘bits of sweet life everywhere,’ the true joy of the Christian thinks about it. Which ‘is not bought at the market’ but is ‘a gift of the Spirit’, guarded by faith and always ‘in tension between memory of salvation and hope’. The homily delivered by Pope Francis during Mass on Monday 28 May in Santa Martha focused entirely on joy as the authentic “breath of the Christian.”

For this occasion, Francis suggested that we look inside ourselves, asking ourselves: “What is my heart like? Is it peaceful; is it joyful; is it in consolation?” Moreover, the Pontiff relaunched, “Even in the moment of trouble, in the moment of trial, that heart of mine is a heart not troubled with the restlessness that is not good. There is a good restlessness but there is another that is not good, that of seeking security everywhere, to seek pleasure everywhere.” Like “the young man of the Gospel: he was afraid that if he left his riches, he would not be happy.” Therefore, “joy, consolation” are ”our breath as Christians.” And so, Francis suggested, “we ask the Holy Spirit to always give us this inner peace, the joy that comes from the memory of our salvation, our regeneration, and the hope of what awaits us.” Because “only thus can one say, ‘I am a Christian’.” In fact, there cannot be “a dark Christian, saddened, like this young man who ‘at these words became dark in his face, went away saddened’.” He certainly was not a Christian. He wanted to be close to Jesus but he chose his own security, not that which Jesus gives.

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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD

9 MAY 2024   EASTER THURSDAY 6

WORD of the DAY 

Jesus said to his disciples:
“A little while and you will no longer see me,
and again a little while later and you will see me.” (John 16: 16)

How shall I live this Word?   

What do these enigmatic expressions of Jesus mean? They refer to the two times He is about to accomplish. The first concerns His earthly life, which is about to end; the second concerns His glorious life inaugurated by His resurrection. His return, then, is not limited only to His Easter apparitions, but is prolonged in the hearts of believers with His presence in Word, in the Eucharist, and in fraternal love. His words are not understood by the disciples who ask various questions, like us today. Jesus, who knows the depths of His disciples and the events that await them, tries to remove their sadness by instilling His trust in them with a new revelation; your sadness will change into joy. In this pericope, we can already taste the ‘already and not yet’ that we usually hear in Advent. The Kingdom of God is already present here but its definitive realization has yet to be accomplished.

LIVE THE WORD: “I will return to you.”

The voice of Pope St. Leo the Great

Beloved, the days between the Lord’s resurrection and His ascension have not passed unnecessarily, but in them great mysteries have been confirmed and great truths have been revealed.

The fear of a cruel death was eliminated, and not only the immortality of the soul but also that of the body was announced. During those days, by virtue of the divine breath, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon all the apostles, and St Peter the Apostle, after the handing over of the keys to the Kingdom, was entrusted with the supreme care of the Lord’s flock.

Therefore, O my loved ones, during all this time spent between the Lord’s Resurrection and His Ascension, Divine Providence has targeted this, has communicated this, has wanted to insinuate in the eyes and hearts of His own, the firm certainty that the Lord Jesus Christ had truly risen, as He was really born, had really suffered, and really died. Therefore, the holy apostles and all the disciples who had trembled at the tragedy of the cross and were doubtful about believing in the resurrection, were so comforted by the evidence of the truth that, at the moment when the Lord ascended into the high heaven, not only were they not saddened at all, but they were filled with great joy.

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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD

8 MAY 2024   EASTER WEDNESDAY 6

WORD of the DAY 

When they heard about resurrection of the dead,
some began to scoff, but others said,
“We should like to hear you on this some other time.”
(Acts 18: 1)

How shall I live this Word?   

It is the answer that is given to Paul after the famous speech at the Areopagus in Athens. It’s the first encounter with pagan culture, with representatives of the cultural elite of the place and time, Stoics and Epicureans. Although Paul uses elements of the culture of the listeners, even quoting Greek authors, nevertheless he does not speak as a philosopher, but as a prophet. Prophet is a Greek word that means “to speak in the place of someone”. He proclaims a man raised from the dead, that allows overcoming the ignorance in which entire nations have fallen for centuries, that is, idolatry. The truth can be reached through a man, accredited by God with His resurrection from the dead; a man who will also be the final judge, that is, the criterion of good and evil. Faced with a somewhat ‘irrational’ announcement, the audience is divided, as always…many leave with a smile on their faces, others adhere to the announcement. Greek culture believed in the immortality of the soul but not in the resurrection of the body. This is why the Athenians distance themselves from the Pauline proclamation and ironically tell him, “on this we will listen to you another time”.

LIVING THE WORD: “Increase my faith.”

The voice of Bishop Melitone di Sardi, homily on Easter

Pay close attention, dear friends: the mystery of Easter is new and ancient, eternal and temporal, corruptible and incorruptible, mortal and immortal. Ancient according to the law, new according to the Word; temporary in the figure, eternal in grace; corruptible for the immolation of the lamb, incorruptible for the life of the Lord; mortal for His burial in the earth, immortal for His resurrection from the dead. The law is ancient, but the Word is new; temporal is the figure, eternal grace; corruptible is the lamb, incorruptible the Lord, who was sacrificed like a lamb, but rose again like God.

“As a lamb taken to the slaughter, as a sheep dumb before its shearers, and did not open its mouth” (Is 53:7). The similarity has passed and the reality expressed has found fulfilment: instead of a lamb, God, the man-Christ, who summarizes everything.

Therefore, the immolation of the lamb, the celebration of the Passover, and the writing of the law had Christ Jesus as their end. In the old law everything happened in view of Christ. In the new order everything converges to Christ in a much higher form.

The law has become the Word and from ancient it is made new, but both came out of Zion and Jerusalem. The precept was changed into grace, the figure in truth, the lamb in the Son, the sheep in man and man in God.

The Lord, being God, became man and suffered for those who suffer, was a prisoner for the prisoner, condemned for the guilty and, buried for those who are buried, rose from the dead and cried out this great word: Who is he who will condemn me? Approach me (Is 50:8). He says it, I am Christ who destroyed death; I have conquered the enemy. I have put hell under my feet. I have harnessed the strong and I have elevated humanity to the sublimity of heaven. He says, I am Christ.

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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD

7 MAY 2024   EASTER TUESDAY 6

WORD of the DAY 

He took them in at that hour of the night and bathed their wounds;
then he and all his family were baptized at once.
He brought them up into his house and provided a meal
and with his household rejoiced at having come to faith in God. (Acts 16: 34)

How shall I live this Word?   

To understand the richness of the episode that today the Word proposes to us, we must contextualize the passage. Paul and Silas are in prison for driving away a spirit of divination from a slave. The authorities accuse them of having disturbed public order because the episode had created a great clamor disturbing public order. Without making too many investigations, they order the accused to be beaten and order the prison keeper to keep them under close surveillance. During their imprisonment, Paul and Silas are miraculously released and their serene testimony, their loyalty, the series of extraordinary events, upset the jailer and makes him ask the question, “What must I do to be saved?” The answer is not a set of precepts, but the presentation of a person. “Do you believe in Jesus Christ?” How often has it happened to us too to be imprisoned by our fears in golden cages made of precepts and laws and someone presents us with a solution, Jesus. The true and only solution to our problems, the one who balances our life. This is what happens to the jailer of today’s passage.

LIVE THE WORD: Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.

The voice of Didymo of Alessandria, Desert Father

The baptismal font gives birth to our visible body for the ministry of priests. But on the spiritual level, the one who baptizes is the Holy Spirit, totally invisible. He baptizes in Himself and regenerates for the ministry of angels both body and soul.

Even the Baptist at a particular moment in the history of salvation and in a way consonant with the expression, “with water and in the Holy Spirit” says, “He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire” (Mt 3:11; Lk 3:16).

Like a clay vessel, the human body needs first of all to be purified by water, then to be made firm and perfect by God’s spiritual fire that is a devouring fire. Then it must receive within itself the Holy Spirit, from whom it receives its perfection and from whom it is renewed. In fact, the spiritual fire is also able to irrigate and the spiritual water can also cause it to blaze.

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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD

6 MAY 2024   EASTER MONDAY 6

WORD of the DAY 

A woman named Lydia listened and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention
to what Paul was saying.         (Acts 16: 14)

How shall I live this Word?   

The community of Philippi that was catechized by Saint Paul was very small, without a place to pray, so much so that the preaching took place along a river that was used to baptize Lydia. Among the participants is Lydia, a rich merchant of purple. She is the female parallel of Cornelius. She is a believer in God, that is, a pagan who approached Judaism and became a proselyte. Lydia is immediately attracted by the Christian message; in fact, the Lord opened her heart so that she would adhere to Paul’s words… just as the Risen One had opened the minds of the disciples. It is always the Lord who accompanies His witnesses and makes their word effective, when and where He deems appropriate.

I LIVE THE WORD: “open my heart”!

The voice of Didymo of Alessandria, Desert Father

The Holy Spirit, who is God together with the Father and the Son, renews us in baptism, and from our state of imperfection brings us back to primitive beauty and fills us with His grace, so much so, that we can no longer admit anything unseemly in ourselves. He frees us from sin and death, and from the earthly nature we are, that is, made of dust and earth. He makes us spiritual, allows us to participate in the divine glory, to be children and heirs of God the Father, to conform to the image of His Son, His brothers and sisters and co-heirs, destined to one day be glorified and reign with Him. Instead of earth, He generously gives us heaven and paradise. He now makes us more honored than the angels. He extinguishes the terrible and inextinguishable flame of hell by means of the divine waters of the baptismal font.

In fact, we are conceived twice, once bodily and once by the divine Spirit. The sacred authors wrote very well about both these conceptions. He will mention their name and their doctrine.

John says, “To those who welcomed Him, He gave power to become children of God; to those who believe in His name, who were begotten, not by blood, nor by the will of the flesh, nor by the will of man, but of God” (Jn 1:13). Those who believed in Christ, received the power to become children of God, that is, of the Holy Spirit, and to thus participate in the nature of God. In fact, to demonstrate that he who generates is the Holy Spirit, God adds through the mouth of Jesus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:5).

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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD

5 MAY 2024   EASTER SUNDAY 6

WORD of the DAY 

This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.    (John 15: 17)

How shall I live this Word?   

The concern of the evangelist John for the young Church to which he addressed his gospel was that charity should reign among people and that the love of God manifested in the sending of Jesus should be known by all. In every age, this remains the fundamental condition for the Church: people will be attracted to it by the sign of fraternal love. Our communities, our assemblies must therefore be open to all: non-Christians, the unconvinced, the indifferent, those in a situation of searching… On the one hand, through their visible belonging as Christians to the Church through baptism; through their explicit profession of faith in the Lord Jesus which reaches its summit in the Eucharistic Celebration, they must show everyone the object of their search and the end of their spiritual adventure. On the other hand, believers, ‘committed’ believers must continually renew their willingness to overcome the temptation not to dialogue with those outside the Christian area, to remember that “whoever fears God and practices justice, to whatever people they belong, is acceptable to Him.” Anyone who encounters Christian assemblies should feel welcomed, at home, in a family to which they already virtually belong, until they reach full knowledge of the God of Jesus Christ. Only in this way will the invocations to the Paraclete acquire concreteness and credibility “so that we may become one body and one spirit in Christ.”

I LIVE THE WORD: “Remain in My love.”

The voice of St. Cyril of Alessandria, Desert Father

Those who have the pledge of the Spirit and possess the hope of the resurrection already has in mind what they expect and can therefore rightly say that they do not know anyone according to the flesh, that is, that they already feel themselves participants in the condition of the glorious Christ. This applies to all of us who are spiritual and alien to the corruption of the flesh. Indeed, as the Only Begotten shines upon us, we are transformed into the Word Himself who gives life to everything. When sin reigned, we were all bound by the chains of death. Now that the justice of Christ has replaced sin, we have freed ourselves from the ancient state of decadence.

When we say that no one is any longer in the flesh we mean to refer to that condition connatural to the human creature which includes, among other things, the particular transience of bodies. Saint Paul refers to it when he says, “For although we knew Christ according to the flesh, we no longer know Him that way” (2 Cor 5:16). In other words, “The Word became flesh and came to live among us” (Jn 1:14), and for the life of us all He accepted the death of the body. Our faith first makes us know that He is dead, but then no longer dead, but alive. I live with the body resurrected on the third day; I now live with the Father in a condition superior to that which is natural to the bodies that live on earth. In fact, having died only once, He never dies again, death no longer has any power over Him. As for His death, He died to sin once and for all; now instead by the fact that He lives, He lives for God (cf. Rm 6: 8-9).

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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD

4 MAY 2024   EASTER SATURDAY  5

WORD of the DAY 

Jesus said to his disciples: “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.
If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And they will do all these things to you on account of my name,
because they do not know the one who sent me.”           (John 15: 18-21)

How shall I live this Word?   

Those who love are hated. What happened to Jesus will also happen to His disciples. This is the way it is.  The world is opposed to those who do good and want the good, and we know that ‘world’ in the Gospel of John, is not so much creation, but it is a way of thinking and acting based on fear and selfishness, on the principle of evil. Those who seek truth, freedom, and love are hated, persecuted, and expelled almost as if they were the ones who unmasks the egotistical and self-interest of ‘everyone does it’. Those who unjustly suffer hostility, feel lost, but Jesus tells us that we must not fear. He has conquered the world! Jesus clearly says that He is the cause of persecution. It is His Name; it is not knowing the Father’s love. How can those who ignore the Father, love? They will find it difficult to love, both themselves and others.

We know that the verb to know must be understood, not on an intellectual level, but experiential-nuptial. To know the Father is to experience Him in His love … “to be filled by this love”. Only in this way can we also love those who hate us.

Oh, Holy Spirit fill us with Your presence; give us Your light, Your strength in order to be witnesses of Jesus among our brothers and sisters!

The voice of Pope Francis Meditation at St. Martha 4 May 2013

Jesus chose us and redeemed us. He chose us by pure grace. With His death and resurrection, He has redeemed us from the power of the world, from the power of the devil, from the power of the prince of this world. The origin of hatred is this: we are saved and the prince of the world, who does not want us to be saved, hates us and gives rise to the persecution that from the time of Jesus continues until today. Many Christian communities are persecuted in the world. In this time more than in the early times! Today, now, on this day, at this time. Why? Because the spirit of the world hates.

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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD

3 MAY 2024   EASTER FRIDAY 5

SAINTS PHILIP & JAMES APOSTLES

WORD of the DAY 

Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves.                                    (John 14: 6-11)

How shall I live this Word?   

In preaching, Jesus often makes present His union with the Father and His mission, His work which is precisely that of making us know God as Father. Already to Thomas, Jesus had reaffirmed this task of revealing the Father and from this being able to have sure knowledge, “from now on you know Him and have seen Him” (14:7). Philip then asks Jesus to show them the Father. And Jesus patiently repeats what He had just said to Thomas, “Whoever sees Me has seen the Father” (14.9). He then again emphasizes the intimate union with the Father, the reciprocal immanence between the Father and the Son, to be understood as saying that knowing and seeing the Father is equivalent to believing that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. Their mutual love makes them one dwelling of the other. The Son is the Word of the Father; He is the Word of God and His word gives what it says, because it is what He says.

Help us Jesus to enter into this relationship of Love! O Holy Spirit make us whole with Your presence!

The voice of Pope Francis Meditation at St. Martha 10 May 2020

The Father was always present in the life of Jesus, and Jesus spoke of it. Jesus prayed to the Father. And many times, Jesus spoke of the Father who cares for us, as He cares for the birds, the lilies of the field… The Father. And when the disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, Jesus taught them to pray to the Father, ‘Our Father’ (Mt 6:9). He always turns to the Father. But in this passage, it is very strong. It is as if it opened the doors of the omnipotence of prayer. “For I am with the Father: ask and I will do everything. But because the Father will do it with Me” (Jn 14:11). This trust in the Father, trust in the Father who is able to do everything.

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