From: 2 Corinthians 13: 11-13
Epilogue
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Commentary:
11. In his words of farewell, the Apostle once more shows his great affection for
the faithful of Corinth, exhorting them to practise the fraternity proper to Christians
and thus live in concord and peace (cf. 1 Cor 1:10-17). And, St John Chrysostom
comments, he tells them what this will lead to: “Live in peace, and the God of love
and peace will be with you, for God is a God of love and a God of peace, and in
these he takes his delight. It is love that will give you peace and remove every evil
from your church” (”Hom. on 2 Cor”, 30).
St Paul’s call to the faithful to be cheerful is particularly significant — “gaudete”
(rejoice) in the New Vulgate — contains a rnessage he repeats on other occasions:
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Phil 4:4; cf. 3:1). Joy is
something very characteristic of Christians because their awareness of being chil-
dren of God tells them that they are in the hands of God, who knows everything
and can do everything (cf. note on 5:10). Therefore, we should never be sad; on
the contrary: we should go out into the world, St. Escriva says, “to be sowers of
peace and joy through everything we say and do” (”Christ Is Passing By”, 168).
12. On the “holy kiss”, see the note on 1 Cor 16:20.
“The saints” who send greetings to the Corinthians are the Christians of Macedo-
nia, from where St Paul is writing. Regarding this description of Christians, see
the note on 1 Cor 1:2.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: John 3:16-18
The Visit of Nicodemus (Continuation)
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Commentary:
16-21. These words, so charged with meaning, summarize how Christ’s death
is the supreme sign of God’s love for men (cf. the section on charity in the “In-
troduction to the Gospel according to John”: pp. 31ff above). “’For God so loved
the world that He gave His only Son’ for its salvation. All our religion is a revela-
tion of God’s kindness, mercy and love for us. ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:16), that is,
love poured forth unsparingly. All is summed up in this supreme truth, which ex-
plains and illuminates everything. The story of Jesus must be seen in this light.
‘(He) loved me’, St. Paul writes. Each of us can and must repeat it for himself —
‘He loved me, and gave Himself for me’ (Galatians 2:20)” (Paul VI, “Homily on
Corpus Christi”, 13 June 1976).
Christ’s self-surrender is a pressing call to respond to His great love for us: “If
it is true that God has created us, that He has redeemed us, that He loves us
so much that He has given up His only-begotten Son for us (John 3:16), that He
waits for us—every day!—as eagerly as the father of the prodigal son did (cf.
Luke 15:11-32), how can we doubt that He wants us to respond to Him with all
our love? The strange thing would be not to talk to God, to draw away and for-
get Him, and busy ourselves in activities which are closed to the constant
promptings of His grace” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 251).
“Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for
himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encoun-
ter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not partici-
pate intimately in it. This [...] is why Christ the Redeemer ‘fully reveals man to
himself’. If we may use the expression, this is the human dimension of the mys-
tery of the Redemption. In this dimension man finds again the greatness, dignity
and value that belong to his humanity. [...] The one who wishes to understand
himself thoroughly [...] must, with his unrest and uncertainty and even his weak-
ness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to
speak, enter into Him with all his own self, he must ‘appropriate’ and assimilate
the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself.
If this profound process takes place within him, he then bears fruit not only of
adoration of God but also of deep wonder at himself.
How precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he ‘gained so great a
Redeemer’, (”Roman Missal, Exultet” at Easter Vigil), and if God ‘gave His only
Son’ in order that man ‘should not perish but have eternal life’. [...]
‘Increasingly contemplating the whole of Christ’s mystery, the Church knows with
all the certainty of faith that the Redemption that took place through the Cross
has definitively restored his dignity to man and given back meaning to his life in
the world, a meaning that was lost to a considerable extent because of sin. And
for that reason, the Redemption was accomplished in the paschal mystery, lea-
ding through the Cross and death to Resurrection” (John Paul II, “Redemptor
Hominis”, 10).
Jesus demands that we have faith in Him as a first prerequisite to sharing in His
love. Faith brings us out of darkness into the light, and sets us on the road to sal-
vation. “He who does not believe is condemned already” (verse 18).
“The words of Christ are at once words of judgment and grace, of life and death.
For it is only by putting to death that which is old that we can come to newness
of life. Now, although this refers primarily to people, it is also true of various world-
ly goods which bear the mark both of man’s sin and the blessing of God. [...] No
one is freed from sin by himself or by his own efforts, no one is raised above him-
self or completely delivered from his own weakness, solitude or slavery; all have
need of Christ, who is the model, master, liberator, savior, and giver of life. Even
in the secular history of mankind the Gospel has acted as a leaven in the inte-
rests of liberty and progress, and it always offers itself as a leaven with regard to
brotherhood, unity and peace” (Vatican II, “Ad Gentes”, 8).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.