The flesh has nothing to offer:
Life is to be in communion
with Jesus in Spirit and Life
Gospel: John, Chap 6, verses 48-63
June 2, 2024
Solemn Feast of Corpus Christi
Homily of the Pontiff Samuel
(Draft)
Great is the Feast and great is the Mystery we celebrate today, the Mystery of the living Bread come down from Heaven (Jn 6:51), a crucial Mystery of Christianity, the heart of Christianity: Christ the bread, the living Bread, the Bread that gives Life, the Bread of Life. And Christ invites us to feed on this Bread in order to live eternally. Those who feed on the Bread, Christ the bread, live forever (Jn 6:58). Those who feed on another bread, which is not Christ, are destined to perish (2Pt 2:12).
Here is the Communion and the understanding of Communion: it is to live Christ; there is no Life without Christ. There may be biological life in this world, but there can be no eternal Life in the eternal world (Mt 10:28). This is the first understanding upon which everyone should lay their eyes and lay their hearts, in order to acknowledge that Salvation is only in Christ and not in other bygone religions (2Jn 1:9), which have remained stuck at the ‘eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’, unable to grasp the essence of Love, the essence of Communion; just as indeed those Jews did not understand those words (Jn 6:52). And neither can there be salvation in philosophies that focus on death rather than love, or in others who gather in the name of God to wage war and bring death.
There can never be Salvation (1Jn 3:14) in all of them; Salvation is only in Him who made Himself Bread, giving Himself and inviting all to eat and drink of that Flesh and Blood in order to inherit Salvation (Jn 6:54). Words that must be understood in the light of all that is Spirit: ‘It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer’ (Jn 6:63); there can never be a true understanding of this speech without surrendering to the Spirit, to that Holy Spirit’s Love that gave Life. Everything began from the Breath of Life of the Spirit sent by the Father to give Life (Gen 2:7), and that same Spirit, who initially brought everything into being, will accompany us also and above all in the final part (Rev 22:17), so that all may return to the Father’s Heart from which everything originated.
Therefore, in order to understand the deep meaning of the Communion with Jesus, we must start from the relationship that Jesus had and has with His Father, a living Communion between Father and Son, between Son and Father (Jn 17:21), as Jesus Himself clearly explains in this page of the Gospel: “As the living Father sent me and I draw life from the Father” – this is the first relationship; there is a second relationship which goes from the Son to the sons – “so whoever eats of me will also draw life from me” (Jn 6:57) says Jesus. This relationship must be placed at the centre of the understanding of the sons of God who want to grasp the deeper meaning of Communion. To look at Jesus and His relationship with the Father (Jn 14:9) in order to then, in turn, put into practice what Jesus teaches us in doing the Father’s will.
Here is this first vertical action that connects the Father to the Son, the Son to the Father, and this second horizontal action, which allows us to live the relationship of brotherhood on this earth, in Communion with He who made Himself our Brother, that Son who chose to unclothe Himself of His Divinity to clothe Himself with Humanity, so that those who are human might become as He is (Heb 3:6), to be divinized and thus become many little Jesuses and many little Marys.
Mary, Mary is the key (Revelation of Jesus to Maria Giuseppina Norcia, ‘The Catechesis’, Jan 1, 1988) once again for understanding all this. Mary is She who has lived Communion with Jesus in the best way and before everyone. She was called to contain Him in Her finite Heart, which expanded up to contain the Infinite (Lk 1:35). Who has more than Mary lived in Communion with Jesus? She has contained Him from the beginning, since ever: “I know you since ever, You are in relationship with Me ever since I created you” (Revelation of Jesus to Maria Giuseppina Norcia, “You are never alone”, October 28, 1985): the relationship between Jesus and Mary is unbreakable.
Mary has always been in communion with Jesus, ever since She was in the Mind of the Father (Pr 8:23), and when the Word, God’s Word, became incarnate in the bosom of Mary and took-on flesh, that Communion became visible (Jn 1:14), and now, in these last times, all what became visible can be experienced again in the light of the Spirit. The Word became flesh and the Word is understood in the light of what is Spirit (Jn 4:23), to thus be able to understand what is Life.
Spirit and Life: here is the Word.
This Church will now bring everything back to what is Spirit (1 Jn 5:6), so that all may be fulfilled. At that time, those first friends needed tangible signs to understand that harsh language (Jn 6:60), which was not coincidentally called the ‘language of scandal’, a sign of division, even then, among the disciples of Jesus. Someone left after that speech and what did Jesus do? Did He retreat? Or did He say, “What about you, do you want to go away too?” (Jn 6:67). “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life” (Jn 6:68). And so it is now: many have turned their backs, others have remained because they have recognised the Word of eternal Life and are here to live Him and to bring everything to fulfilment.
It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer (Jn 6:63). Therefore, the act of taking communion must now be understood in the light of what is Spirit. That bread and that wine could have been consecrated as in the past: ‘Who is against us?’ (Mk 9:40), but the aim is to move forward so that each word is fulfilled. It is not about the flesh. Jesus is to be lived as true Bread and true Food, but He must be lived and received spiritually because everything must be understood and lived in the light of what is Spirit (Jn 14:17).
It could not have been done at that time because those early friends would not have been able to understand, they too needed tangible signs. It must be understood now, just as it is done for Baptism: Holy Spirit and Fire (Mt 3:11); just as is done for Communion, Spiritual Communion, just as it is said at the proclamation of the Spiritual Communion: “I believe You, my Jesus, in the Blessed Sacrament and I long for You in my soul”.
It is an intimate desire of wanting to unite our heart, spirit and soul with the Heart, Spirit and Soul of He who is (Eph 4:13). And when there is a holy readiness, Jesus comes; if there is no holy readiness, Jesus does not come, even if He is invoked. And this is what many have not understood demanding that Jesus comes anyway regardless of the holiness of the one who formulates that prayer (Gal 1:8) and regardless of the holiness of the one who receives Him (1Cor 11:27). More frequent the former, to tell the truth, than the latter: but the former is false, and the latter is false. Jesus does not come by command. Jesus comes out of love, where He finds love. It is not true that if a minister is unworthy, Jesus comes anyway. Jesus can come for a single worthy heart, but that is the exception, not the rule. And many have bent Jesus to their own rules for their own benefit.
This is not the meaning of being in communion with Jesus: we must be worthy, we must flee every temptation (Jas 1:12), cut off all ties with sin and do the Father’s will as Jesus did, as Mary did (Mk 3:35). Then we truly live the Communion.
Let us return to Mary; this Church will always return to Mary because if we understand Mary, we understand Jesus and the Mysteries of Jesus as well, if we do not understand the Mystery of Mary, we will never understand the Mystery and the Mysteries of Jesus. Mary has been called to restore a relationship that had been interrupted or ignored for too long. Thanks to prayer and the intercession of Mary, this restoration was the object of Her Mission for all the souls entrusted to Her by the Father.
This is a journey that cannot be made in groups of people, but must be made individually, one-on-one with the Lord (Revelation of Jesus to Maria Giuseppina Norcia, ‘You are never alone’, Oct. 28, 1985), just as we go individually in front of this Tabernacle. It is a sacred moment, brothers: we must not go in front of the Tabernacle talking or thinking of other things. The moment we enter the Courtyard of Love, passing through that gate, we enter another Dimension, where Heaven prevails, and therefore we prepare ourselves to receive Jesus (Heb 4:16), to worthily receive Jesus (Heb 10:22). Otherwise Jesus will not come.
Here is the daily Communion of the sons of God: the moment we call on Jesus and we are worthy, in the grace of God, as it is commonly said, Jesus comes, takes part, and we become one with Him. Just as Jesus is One with the Father and with the Spirit (Jn 10:30) and just as among brothers we become one (1Cor 12:27), just as in the Sacrament of Marriage, the spouses become one flesh (Eph 5:31). Here is the Mystery of the Sacrament that unites for ever. Here is the Communion of heart, soul and spirit that we can live with Jesus, the living Bread, He who gives Life and gives it for eternity.
All those who want to take the hands of Mary, allowing themselves to be taken by Her hands and be led into the Heart of the Father, will find Life, eternal Life (Jn 6:48) because in the Heart of the Father there is Life and there dwells He who is Life, who will lead all to that Garden which is the Immaculate Breast of Mary (Rev 21:2).
Here is Mary, who carries the Divinity in Her bosom and meets humanity, as we meditated on the Feast of the Visitation, recently celebrated; Mary, with divinity in Her Bosom, meets Elizabeth, who represents humanity who believed, and this humanity, merged with divinity, announces Salvation (Lk 1:45). Here is the Precursor and here is the task of the sons of God who, following the example of the Precursor, want to embody, receive, and welcome humanity so that Salvation may be for them all and they may live the Communion with the Bread of Life. And so be it.
