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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD 17 April 2024 EASTER WEDNESDAY 3 WORD of the DAY Jesus said to the crowds, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. But I told you that although you have seen me, you do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.” (John 6: 35-40) How shall I live this Word? I am the bread of the life; who comes to me will not be hungry and who believes in me will not thirst.” If there is anything that characterizes our human life, it is certainly precariousness. Everything in this life is always destined to end. What comes to us from the experience of faith, however, is not marked by precariousness, but by definitiveness. Hunger, the thirst that humans experience, is hunger and thirst for love, meaning, truth, and freedom. Jesus is the only one who can give us all these things definitively, not provisionally. The real question is whether... read more
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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD 16 April 2024 EASTER TUESDAY 3 WORD of the DAY The crowd said to Jesus: “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” So, Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” So they said to Jesus, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” (John 6: 30-35) How shall I live this Word? In all the great discourses that we find in the Gospel of John, reference is made to Life, with a capital letter. It is a reality that we cannot explain with words, nor enclose in human concepts. Only through symbols and metaphors can we point the way to an experience that is the only one that will lead us to discover what we are talking about. The “I am” in John is the supreme manifestation of the awareness of what Jesus was. Each of us must discover what He really is, as Jesus discovered it. “… whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst!” What does it mean to “go to... read more
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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD 15 April 2024 EASTER MONDAY 3 WORD of the DAY The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat, but only his disciples had left. Other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they had eaten the bread when the Lord gave thanks. When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” (John 6: 22-29) How shall I live this Word? Jesus does not answer the question, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” He responds to the real intentions of the people. In so doing, He separates what doesn’t matter (how I got here), what has relative importance (material food) and what has real importance (the... read more
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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD 14 April 2024 EASTER SUNDAY 3 WORD of the DAY The two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way, and how Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of bread. While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see, I have.” And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them. He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them, “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”... read more
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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD 13 April 2024 EASTER Saturday 2 WORD of the DAY When it was evening, the disciples of Jesus went down to the sea, embarked in a boat, and went across the sea to Capernaum. It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they began to be afraid. But he said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.” They wanted to take him into the boat, but the boat immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading. (John 6: 16-21) How shall I live this Word? The feeling of precariousness that sometimes invades our lives is well highlighted by the experience of the disciples who row a whole night on a rough sea. Their fatigue cannot bear the impact with the reality they are living, but just when the situation seems to be blocked, “they saw Jesus walking on the sea approaching the boat and were afraid.” His arrival, initially, does not reassure them; we do not always welcome the real changes willingly. Among them, He is the authentic and fundamental one. The reaction of the disciples teaches us to be wary of a Gospel that reassures. The Word is a provocation to our fake certainties, a destabilization that brings down the idols that spontaneously are created within us, especially that of a God “in our image and likeness”. Only in... read more
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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD 12 April 2024 EASTER FRIDAY 2 WORD of the DAY Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was near. When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people recline.” Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. So, the men reclined, about five thousand in number. (John 6: 1-15) How shall I live this Word? Philip’s experience is the same as ours when, faced with the disproportion of things that happen to us, we hear the same question asked, “And now where will I find all the strength to face this?” There is always the awareness of a big gap between our strength and what we face. If we really think about it, we experience the same disorientation that poor Philip would have experienced. Only a miracle... read more
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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD 11 April 2024 EASTER THURSDAY 2 WORD of the DAY The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things. But the one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever does accept his testimony certifies that God is trustworthy. For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God. He does not ration his gift of the Spirit. The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him. (John 3: 31-36) How shall I live this Word? It seems that the Resurrection is still difficult to explain. The disciples struggled; we struggle. Perhaps the Resurrection destabilizes us because, like death on the cross, it directly affects our image of God. It strikes us strongly to believe that our failures are not the last word about our lives; in a sense, they are a way to put ourselves at the center of our attention. Today, John addresses his disciples who are beginning to believe they have ‘the wrong objective’. It is the same disbelief of the apostles closed in the Upper Room, before the Risen One. Yet today’s announcement offers us a new perspective. John invites us to look at those who come from heaven, to raise our heads from our little-great fears. He tells us... read more
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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD 10 April 2024 EASTER WENESDAY 2 WORD of the DAY God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. (John 3: 16-21) How shall I live this Word? Shadow and light: dynamics transversal to the history of humanity, are intertwined continuously in our history. How many shadows and lights pass through us every day; how many true desires and how many masks? Sometimes we tend to project onto others the conflicts that are in our hearts, pretending we are the ones who draw the barrier between good and evil and repair ourselves here. Making light, however, means making truth by letting that which dwells in us be illuminated by a light that is neither inquisitorial nor judgmental. A light that helps us to look at ourselves fully; that knows how to cross the resistances that lurk in our shadows. There are those who do... read more
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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD 9 April 2024 EASTER TUESDAY 2 WORD of the DAY Jesus said to Nicodemus: “‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus answered and said to him, ‘How can this happen?” Jesus answered and said to him, “You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this? Amen, amen, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony. If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” (John 3: 7-15) How shall I live this Word? The dialogues in the Gospel of John have the narrative technique of misunderstanding, yet this misunderstanding that happens to us as well because Jesus does not speak about simple things. It does not arise from the fact that the topic in question is very difficult but, on the contrary, because it is extremely simple. When we cannot see a detail, it is because it is too visible. Jesus speaks of a “rebirth from above”. Certainly, there... read more
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FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD 7 April 2024 EASTER WEEK 2 DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY WORD of the DAY On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” (John 20: 19-31) How shall I live this Word? The disciples are in the Upper Room, behind closed doors, fearful and with a heart full of sadness at the death of the teacher. Jesus finds them completely unprepared for His coming. Like us, often in our daily lives, we close Him out of our lives and relationships, incredulous or unable to live in the light of the good news and fearful of the judgment of others on... read more