"If the grain of wheat that has fallen to the ground does not die, it remains alone; if it dies, it produces a lot of fruit. It produces more wheat, and the wheat becomes bread, and the bread becomes Jesus, it becomes the Eucharist. Here the listeners of the evangelist John immediately vibrated. Remember when Jesus took that bread: "I am the Bread of Life". Here is a truth that Jesus reveals: one becomes nourishment for others, one becomes bread in the measure in which one dies. In concrete terms, to the extent that I do not fall back on myself and open myself up to my neighbor, here is death, the grain of wheat that has fallen into the ground and died, then one becomes nourishment, bread that feeds, and one becomes all alive; one discovers life. Jesus explains this in paradoxical terms. We have heard him say: "He who loves his life loses it, he who hates his life in this world, keeps it for eternal life". Where you understand that Jesus changes the meaning of words. Here there is truly a reversal of meaning because here to love means to hold for oneself and therefore to lose everything, and to hate means to love and to preserve for eternal life. And our personal existence means finally discovering why I live. There is a direction of travel. Jesus does not say all this with a light heart because he continues and at this point he has as a jolt: "Now my soul is troubled". In the second reading we heard tonight, the accents are even stronger. If we immediately think that these accents concern God, all this becomes scandalous. "In the days of his earthly life, Christ offered prayers and petitions with strong cries to the One who could deliver him from death" (Hebrews 5:7-9). Here are concentrated all the cries and tears of the whole world, all the cries and tears of those who die, of those who suffer, of those who see death unjustly, of those who find themselves powerless in the face of the trials of life, almost overwhelmed. Jesus did it and was the Son of God who cried out. So there is no shame in doing it ourselves. At certain moments in life all that remains is to cry out and weep for our protest and all our fear. But this cry is not addressed to anyone, this cry is not a vain cry, it does not remain a cry closed in despair, this cry is preserved for eternal life, in the sense that it enters the cry of Jesus. In the second reading we read: "And he was heard for his mercy".
"If the grain of wheat that has fallen to the ground does not die, it remains alone; if it dies, it produces a lot of fruit. It produces more wheat, and the wheat becomes bread, and the bread becomes Jesus, it becomes the Eucharist.
RispondiEliminaHere the listeners of the evangelist John immediately vibrated. Remember when Jesus took that bread: "I am the Bread of Life". Here is a truth that Jesus reveals: one becomes nourishment for others, one becomes bread in the measure in which one dies. In concrete terms, to the extent that I do not fall back on myself and open myself up to my neighbor, here is death, the grain of wheat that has fallen into the ground and died, then one becomes nourishment, bread that feeds, and one becomes all alive; one discovers life.
Jesus explains this in paradoxical terms. We have heard him say: "He who loves his life loses it, he who hates his life in this world, keeps it for eternal life". Where you understand that Jesus changes the meaning of words. Here there is truly a reversal of meaning because here to love means to hold for oneself and therefore to lose everything, and to hate means to love and to preserve for eternal life. And our personal existence means finally discovering why I live. There is a direction of travel.
Jesus does not say all this with a light heart because he continues and at this point he has as a jolt: "Now my soul is troubled". In the second reading we heard tonight, the accents are even stronger. If we immediately think that these accents concern God, all this becomes scandalous. "In the days of his earthly life, Christ offered prayers and petitions with strong cries to the One who could deliver him from death" (Hebrews 5:7-9). Here are concentrated all the cries and tears of the whole world, all the cries and tears of those who die, of those who suffer, of those who see death unjustly, of those who find themselves powerless in the face of the trials of life, almost overwhelmed.
Jesus did it and was the Son of God who cried out. So there is no shame in doing it ourselves. At certain moments in life all that remains is to cry out and weep for our protest and all our fear.
But this cry is not addressed to anyone, this cry is not a vain cry, it does not remain a cry
closed in despair, this cry is preserved for eternal life, in the sense that it enters the cry of Jesus. In the second reading we read: "And he was heard for his mercy".