Mons. Francesco Follo
(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 22.08.2024).- Commentary on the Gospel of Sunday, August 25, 2024. XXI Sunday in Ordinary Time.
1) Hard words that give eternity.
During the previous Sundays of the month of August, the Liturgy proposed to our meditation the discourse on the «Bread of life», which Jesus pronounced in the synagogue of Capernaum after having fed thousands of people with five loaves and two fishes. The Gospel of the Mass of today presents the reaction of the disciples. This reaction of disbelief is not anymore only for the common people or the Jews but it also involves the circle of the disciples. They «murmur» like Israel in the desert and like the Jews, who are scandalized by Jesus, who claims to be descending from heaven and to be the salvation for the world.
What is the reason for their unbelief? Here it is: «This saying is hard! Who can listen to it? «(Jn 6:60) a phrase that we could rewrite as follows:» This discourse is difficult; how can we accept it? » The difficulty does not only concern the faith in the Eucharist, namely, in the real presence of Christ in bread and wine, a presence judged impossible. The hardness and the difficulty of the discourse refer to the whole content of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of St. John: the offering of salvation that overcomes the narrow expectations of the common people and of the leaders of the Jewish people, namely, the presence of the Son of God in the person of the carpenter’s son and the need to share his existence as a gift.
This revelation was incomprehensible even to his disciples because they understood it in a material sense. On the contrary, in those words it was announced the paschal mystery of Jesus in which he would give himself for the salvation of the world: the new presence in the Holy Eucharist.
Therefore, «from that moment many of his disciples went back» (Jn 6:66). Going backwards is precisely the opposite of the sequela, which is a forward movement reaching out towards ever deeper sharing. Faced with the unbelief that has now reached the heart of his community, Jesus does not change his words or re-explain them. Instead, he encourages reflection at the root of faith, in that mysterious depth in which the grace of the Father and the responsibility of man are called to meet.
Then Christ asks: «Do you also want to leave?» (Jn 6:67). In this case too it is Peter who answers in the name of the Twelve: «Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have words of eternal life and we have believed and known that you are the Holy One of God «(Jn 6,68-69).
Let us make ours the answer of the First of the Apostles and let us help ourselves to understand it with this comment from Saint Augustine of Hippo: «See how, by the grace of God and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter understood? Why did he understand? Because he believed. You have words of eternal life. You give us eternal life by offering us your body [resurrected] and your blood [ yourself]. And we have believed and known. He does not say: we have known and then believed, but we have believed and then known. We believed in order to know. If, in fact, we wanted to know before believing, we would not have succeeded in knowing or believing. What did we believe and what did we know? That you are the Christ Son of God, that is, you are the same eternal life and, in the flesh and in the blood, you give us what you yourself are «(Commentary on the Gospel of John, 27, 9).
2) The encounter with the Truth to eat.
How to strengthen our faith and believe in what St. Augustine reminds us in the paragraph just mentioned? First, we must have a heart that is not dull but tense. Secondly, do not listen to words but hear the Word that we encounter in silence.
The words of the Word, of the Word of God, do not just inform or narrate or instruct but give true life and nourish it for eternity.
The important thing is our adherence of faith, which has its roots in the heart. St. Paul writes: «It is with the heart that one believes to obtain justice» and adds: «and with the mouth one makes the profession to have salvation» (Rom 10:10). It is from the roots of the heart that the profession of faith arises (see St. Augustine, Comm in the Gospel of John, Om. 26, 12) and it is with the heart nourished by the true Bread that we are rooted in the community of saints, of the people who dwell in Christ and in whom Christ dwells steadily.
A community that today presents again the Person of Lord Jesus, who comes to teach every man how to listen to the Father, how to love him, how to worship him in spirit and truth, how to give one’s life to him in full so that He makes it an instrument of his love and of his truth forever (as the Gospel of the Ambrosian Rite indicates today: Matthew 10, 28-42). One can say about the Church and the Eucharist: «Sacrament of piety, sign of unity, bond of charity. Those who want to live have where to live and where to draw life from. May they let themselves be approached, may they believe, then they will be included, they will be vivified «(St. Augustine, Comm. To the Gospel of John, Om. 26, 1). In his Providence God not only supports us in being but gives us day by day a strength that makes us stay in his Love to proceed on the Way of Life.
Paul Claudel said that «the great truths are communicated only in silence». I would like to add that they are caught in adoration and are understood by eating the Bread of Heaven.
The attitude that summarizes the words of Peter is to stand before the Holy Sacrament in humble and silent adoration, cultivating in the heart not the doubt but the desire of those who desire full communion with him.
The Amen, which the Church makes us say when we receive Communion gains a profound meaning because it repeats the same profession of faith as Peter: «Not without reason you say Amen recognizing that you take the body of Christ; when you present yourself to receive it, the Bishop tells you: the body of Christ! And you answer: Amen! That is: it is true. May your soul keep what your word recognizes «(St. Ambrose).
May our Lady, who has said her yes, let us obtain the humility of heart to recognize the desire and the greatness of the divine Gift given to us in the Bread of Life.
Even St. Peter, with the answer on which we are meditating, renews his yes to Christ. How can we imitate it? Entrusting ourselves completely to Christ, renewing our yes with prayer, with Eucharistic adoration, and with communion to receive which we say: «Amen», that is, «Yes».
The basic problem is not to go and abandon the work undertaken because the words are «hard», “but it is to whom to go. From Peter’s question we understand that fidelity to God is a question of fidelity to a person with whom one binds oneself to walk together on the same path. This person is Jesus. Everything we have in the world does not satisfy our hunger for the infinite. We need Jesus, to be with him, to feed us at his table, and at his words of eternal life «(Pope Francis) To believe in Christ, the incarnate Truth, means making him the center of our life.
A particular example of how to put Christ at the center of life is given by the consecrated Virgins in the world. These women understood that the Lord is the one whose words make life alive, and with their consecrated life they bear witness that Christ is the heart of the world.
Every day, each of them says to Christ: «You have words of eternal life» (Jn 6:68) not so much with words but with their own life fully offered to the Bridegroom. In fact, their virginal life, referring to Christ, is fed by His Word of life and nourished by His Bread that does not perish.
These women show that Christ has «words of eternal life» not only because he heals the soul and body, but because Christ is the meaning of human life and its polar star. They must profess the proud conscience that Christ is the new man. His plan of life is the way and the truth of human experience because it is its life in fullness. They can say it by showing first of all that this makes them grow, hope and love. If Christ is the doctor, he is so because he is the gift of the Father for every man and every woman. If Christ is the truth, he is so because he asserts himself as an attractive truth for everyone’s heart. If Christ is the way, he is so because He has given us the Spirit of love that leads us into the heart of God. If Christ is all of this, then he is life; yes: the good and full life. In short, they witness that only Christ «word of life» gives life and peace and joy: they have given themselves to Love and receive love to be spread in everyday llife.
We can do the same in front of the Sunday Eucharist, in front of this gesture that sometimes appears harsh and distant. The temptation to suspend the practice while waiting to understand it better, indicates an illusory perspective: in fact, only by practicing the sacrament can we deepen its meaning. Only by listening to Christ and entrusting ourselves to him, who entrusts himself to us in communion, we will understand that only the Lord has words that make life alive.
