Christian Virtues (Continuation)
--------------------------------
[30] And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the days of redemption. [31] Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice, [32] And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Purity of Life
--------------
[1] Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. [2] And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
***********************************************************************
Commentary:
30. The Holy Spirit, who is the bond of unity in Christ's mystical body (cf. Eph 4:3-4), is "grieved" by anything which might cause disunity among the faithful.
The Holy Spirit dwells in the souls of believers from Baptism onwards, and his presence is reinforced when they receive Confirmation and the other sacraments. As the Council of Florence teaches, in Confirmation "we are given the Holy Spirit to strengthen us, as happened to the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, enabling the Christian boldly to confess the name of Christ" (Pro Armeniis, Dz-Sch, 1319). St Ambrose, commenting on the effects of Confirmation, says that the soul receives from the Holy Spirit "the spiritual seal, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge and piety, the Spirit of holy fear. God the Father has sealed you, Christ the Lord has strengthened you, the mark of the Spirit has been impressed on your heart" (De Mysteries, 7, 42). Since Confirmation is one of the three sacraments which imprints a character on the soul, this seal remains forever.
When the time came for Israel's redemption from slavery in Egypt, the blood of the passover lamb, which had been smeared on the doors of the Israelites' houses, acted as the mark which identified those to be saved. In a parallel way, the seal of the Holy Spirit which is given at Baptism is the permanent sign engraved on the souls of those who are called to salvation by dirge of the Redemption worked by Christ.
"The Apostle is speaking here of the configuration in virtue of which an individual is deputed to future glory, and this takes place through grace. Now grace is attributed to the Holy Spirit inasmuch as it is from love that God freely imparts something to us, and this belongs to the meaning of grace. And it is the Holy Spirit that is love" (Summa Theologiae, III, q. 63, a 3, ad 1).
32. Forgiveness is one of the virtues which characterize the "new nature", for it leads a person to treat his neighbor as Jesus taught: "If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother" (Mt 5:23-24). Our Lord has shown by his own example what really forgiving one's neighbor involves. Even in the midst of his suffering on the cross he asked his father to forgive those who condemned him and those who nailed him to the wood so violently and sadistically.
"Force yourself, if necessary, always to forgive those who offend you, from the very first moment. For the greatest injury or offense that you can suffer from them is as nothing compared with what God has pardoned you" (St J. Escriva, The Way, 452).
1. A good child tries to please his parents and to follow their good example. Christians are adopted children of God and therefore should be guided in their behavior by the way God treats people (cf. Mt 6:12; etc.); we have in fact a very accessible way to follow--that given us by Jesus.
If we wish our actions to be very pleasing to God our Father, we should learn from his Son made man. However, it "is not enough to have a general idea of Jesus; we have to learn the details of his life and, through them, his attitudes. And, especially, we must contemplate his life, to derive from it strength, light, serenity, peace.
"When you love someone, you want to know all about his life and character, so as to become like him. That is why we have to meditate on the life of Jesus, from his birth in a stable right up to his death and resurrection" (St J. Escriva, Christ Is Passing By, 107).
2. Christ gave himself up to death of his own free will, out of love for man. The words "a fragrant offering and sacrifice", recalling the sacrifices of the Old Law, underline the sacrificial character of Christ's death and emphasize that his obedience was pleasing to God the Father.
Jesus Christ "came to show us the immense love of his heart, and he gave himself to us entirely," St Alphonsus teaches, "submitting himself first to all the hardships of this life, then to the scourging, the crowning with towns and all the pain and ignominy of his passion; finally he ended his life forsaken by all on the infamous wood of the cross" (Shorter Sermons, 37, 1, 1).
The founder of Opus Dei says in this connection: "Reflect on the example that Christ gave us, from the crib in Bethlehem to his throne on Calvary. Think of his self-denial and of all he went through--hunger, thirst, weariness; heat, tiredness, ill-treatment, misunderstandings, tears [...]. But at the same time think of his joy at being able to save all mankind. And now I would like you to engrave deeply on your mind and on your heart--so that you can meditate on it often and draw your own practical conclusions--the summary St Paul made for the Ephesians when he invited them to follow resolutely in our Lord's footsteps: [Eph 5:1-2 follows]" (Friends of God, 128).
The Discourse on the Bread of Life (Continuation)
-------------------------------------------------
[41] The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, "I am the bread of life which came down from heaven." [42] They said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" [43] Jesus answered them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. [44] "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. [45] It is written in the prophets, `And they shall all be taught by God.' Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. [46] Not that any one has seen the Father except Him who is from God; He has seen the Father. [47] Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. [48] I am the bread of life. [49] Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. [50] This is the bread which comes down from Heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. [51] I am the living bread which came down from Heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh."
***********************************************************************
Commentary:
42. This is the second and last time St John mentions St Joseph in his Gospel, putting on record the general, though mistaken, opinion of those who knew Jesus and regarded him as the son of Joseph (cf. Jn 1:45; Lk 3:23; 4:22; Mt 13:55). Conceived in the virginal womb of Mary by the action of the Holy Spirit, our Lord's only Father was God himself (cf. note on in 5:18). However, St Joseph acted as Jesus' father on earth, as God had planned (cf. notes on Mt 1:16, 18). Therefore, Joseph was called the father of Jesus and he certainly was extremely faithful in fulfilling his mission to look after Jesus. St Augustine explains St Joseph's fatherhood in this way: "Not only does Joseph deserve the name of father: he deserves it more than anyone else. In what way was he a father? As profoundly as his fatherhood was chaste. Some people thought that he was the father of our Lord Jesus Christ in the same way as others are fathers, begetting according to the flesh and not receiving their children as fruit of their spiritual affection. That is why St Luke says that they supposed he was the father of Jesus. Why does he say that they only supposed it? Because human thoughts and judgments are based on what normally happens. And our Lord was not born of the seed of Joseph. However, to the piety and charity of Joseph a son was born to him of the Virgin Mary, who was the Son of God" (Sermon 51, 20).
In this verse, as elsewhere (cf. Jn 7:42; 4:29), St John put on record the people's ignorance, whereas he and his readers knew the truth about Jesus. The Jews' objection is not directly refuted; it is simply reported, on the assumption that it presents no difficulty to the Christian reader, to whom the Gospel is addressed.
44-45. Seeking Jesus until one finds Him is a free gift which no one can obtain through his own efforts, although everyone should try to be well disposed to receiving it. The Magisterium of the Church has recalled this teaching in Vatican II: "Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior help of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth" (Dei Verbum, 5).
When Jesus says, "They shall all be taught by God", He is invoking Isaiah 54:13 and Jeremiah 31:33ff, where the prophets refer to the future Covenant which God will establish with His people when the Messiah comes, the Covenant which will be sealed forever with the blood of the Messiah and which God will write on their hearts (cf. Isaiah 53:10-12; Jeremiah 31:31-34).
The last sentence of verse 45 refers to God's Revelation through the prophets and especially through Jesus Christ.
46. Men can know God the Father only through Jesus Christ, because only He has seen the Father, whom He has come to reveal to us. In his prologue St. John already said: "No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known" (John 1:18). Later on Jesus will say to Philip at the Last Supper: "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9), for Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no one goes to the Father except through Him (cf. John 14:6).
In other words, in Christ God's revelation to men reaches its climax: "For He sent His Son, the eternal Word who enlightens all men, to dwell among men and to tell them about the inner life of God (cf. John 1:1-18). Hence, Jesus Christ, sent as `a man among men', `utters the words of God' (John 3:34), and accomplishes the saving work which the Father gave Him to do (cf. John 5:36; 17:4). To see Jesus is to see His Father (cf. John 14:9)" (Vatican II, Dei Verbum, 4).
48. With this solemn declaration, which He repeats because of His audience's doubts, (cf. John 6:35, 41, 48), Jesus begins the second part of His discourse, in which He explicitly reveals the great mystery of the Blessed Eucharist. Christ's words have such a tremendous realism about them that they cannot be interpreted in a figurative way: if Christ were not really present under the species of bread and wine, this discourse would make absolutely no sense. But if His real presence in the Eucharist is accepted on faith, then His meaning is quite clear and we can see how infinite and tender His love for us is.
This is so great a mystery that it has always acted as a touchstone for Christian faith: it is proclaimed as "the mystery of our faith" immediately after the Consecration of the Mass. Some of our Lord's hearers were scandalized by what He said on this occasion (cf. verses 60-66). Down through history people have tried to dilute the obvious meaning of our Lord's words. In our own day the Magisterium of the Church has explained this teaching in these words" "When Transubstantiation has taken place, there is no doubt that the appearance of the bread and the appearance of the wine take on a new expressiveness and a new purpose since they are no longer common bread and common drink, but rather the sign of something sacred and the sign of spiritual food. But they take on a new expressiveness and a new purpose for the very reason that they contain a new `reality' which we are right to call "ontological". For beneath these appearances there is no longer what was there before but something quite different [...] since on the conversion of the bread and wine's substance, or nature, into the body and blood of Christ, nothing is left of the bread and the wine but the appearances alone. Beneath these appearances Christ is present whole and entire, bodily present too, in His physical `reality', although not in the manner in which bodies are present in place.
For this reason the Fathers have had to issue frequent warnings to the faithful, when they consider this august Sacrament, not to be satisfied with the senses which announce the properties of bread and wine. They should rather assent to the words of Christ: these are of such power that they change, transform, `trans-element' the bread and the wine into His body and blood. The reason for this, as the same Fathers say more than once, is that the power which performs this action is the same power of Almighty God that created the whole universe out of nothing at the beginning of time" (Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei).
49-51. The manna during the Exodus was a figure of this bread—Christ Himself--which nourishes Christians on their pilgrimage through this world. Communion is the wonderful banquet at which Christ gives Himself to us: "the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh". These words promise the manifestation of the Eucharist at the Last Supper: "This is My body which is for you" (1 Corinthians 11:24). The words "for the life of the world" and "for you" refer to the redemptive value of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. In some sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were a figure of the sacrifice of Christ, part of the animal offered up was later used for food, signifying participation in the sacred rite (cf. Exodus 11:3-4). So, by receiving Holy Communion, we are sharing in the sacrifice of Christ: which is why the Church sings in the Liturgy of the Hours on the Feast of Corpus Christi: "O sacred feast in which we partake of Christ: His sufferings are remembered, our minds are filled with His grace and we receive a pledge of the glory that is to be ours" (Magnificat Antiphon, Evening Prayer II).