‘Give us this day our daily bread’ (Mt 6:10).
Jesus invites us to naturally include the needs of our daily life in our prayer. Our daily food also comes from our heavenly Father, even if we have to work for it with the sweat of our face (cf. Gen 3:19). Ultimately, our abilities and the success of our work depend on God’s grace. Read More
Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Gol′gotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote a title and put it on the cross; it read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. The chief priests of the Jews then said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” When the soldiers had crucified Jesus they took his garments and made four parts, one for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was without seam, woven from top to bottom; so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.”
With today’s meditation I conclude this series which I began after the systematic reflections on the Gospel of St John in preparation for the great solemnity of Easter.
A brief recapitulation is in order to highlight the essentials. After this meditation, we will return to the accounts of the Lord’s death and burial in the Gospel of John.
The concept of ‘discretion’, which we have learned from the desert fathers and which means ‘discernment of spirits’ in ecclesiastical usage, has led us to look carefully at the situation in the Church and in the world and to apply it also to our spiritual life. In analysing the spiritual armour proposed in the Letter to the Ephesians, we have come to the conclusion that we must prepare ourselves for the spiritual combat, which goes beyond the personal sphere, especially when we consider the anti-Christian threats to the world and to the Church.
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10).
To do the Father’s holy Will was the food of our Lord Jesus Christ (Jn 4:34). With these words Jesus expresses the joy and naturalness with which He fulfilled the Will of the One who sent Him. This was his life!
‘Thy kingdom come’ (Mt 6:10).
The Kingdom of our Father is full of justice, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (cf. Rm 14:17). Already here, in our earthly life, these aspirations can be realised, for, as we say in the Lord’s Prayer, the Kingdom of God is to come on earth as it is in heaven.
When God exercises His dominion, He will, as the Scriptures say, “judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Is 2:4).
This Lent we have set ourselves the task of being better disciples of the Lord, especially in the face of the great confusion that the Church is currently experiencing. The disciple has the task of proclaiming and glorifying his Lord. The essential content of this proclamation is found in Sacred Scripture and in the authentic teaching of the Church. This is the criterion that guides us, for as disciples we do not act in our own name but we were sent. It is not for us, therefore, to introduce our own ideas or contents which are alien to the Gospel and which would weaken the witness of Christ. It is also important that our lives be as consistent as possible with what we proclaim, so that our witness in word is not obscured by our way of life.
With these reflections we come to the end of these Lenten meditations. In the last days before Passion Sunday, I will take up the passages of St John’s Gospel that remain to be meditated on, with the exception of the resurrection stories, to which we will return after Easter.
(Mt 6,10)
Is the establishment of the Kingdom of God here on earth only a beautiful dream or a pious wish? Is it a promise yet to be fulfilled or a mere memory of a Paradise lost? Read More
We are now in the fourth week of Lent and Passion Sunday is fast approaching. Everything is now focused on the commemoration of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of humanity.
This series of Lenten meditations has led us to look closely at the current situation in the Church and in the world, and to draw the appropriate conclusions. One of them is to consciously engage in spiritual combat, not only to guard our own spiritual life, but also to assume, beyond the personal sphere, the place God has assigned to us in the ‘army of the Lamb’ and thus to serve the Kingdom of God.
After reflecting on fasting, vigils, the desert and silence, let us continue to listen to the other suggestions of the Desert Fathers in order to protect ourselves from the wiles of the devil and to progress more quickly on the path of perfection. Another piece of advice they proposed was this: give priority to works of charity, for which the Lord has promised the Kingdom of God in return. Read More
‘Hallowed be thy name’ (Mt 6:9).
The Name of our Father must be hallowed by people on earth, as it undoubtedly is in heaven, where angels and saints worship our Father with reverence and love, as described in the Book of Revelation: And all the angels stood round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen” (Rev 7:11-12). Read More
