6. Pope Jesus of Nazareth Vol 1,

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: WILLIAM ....
To: Donald ....
Sent: Wed, 11 May, 2011 17:38:29
Subject: Re: John 6 - and the world of the android phone!

Dear Father Donald,

Thank you! Goodness, I was bedazzled by the Android article and links - absolutely amazing! All so new to me, wonders that have arrived since I stepped aside from IT involvement five years ago. BUT what resources are available! It first needed my dictionary ("Android - a robot in human form"!) followed by Wikipedia! The Android Market is a vast world of enterprise for a world 'on the move'. I will ask the osteopath about the general topic - he runs his life from his mobile applications!

The Gospel readings, John 6, are an ocean of revelation, and there is so much to research... Benedict XVI Vol 1 excuses himself  (page 264) from 'considering the details of this discourse, which the exegetes have discussed at length and analysed thoroughly', limiting himself 'to drawing out its principal message'. At the foot of page 269 ff 270, he gives a very fine explanatory summary of the teaching, ending with a 'brief look at one of the key sayings of John's gospel' (page 271), bringing the whole mystery into the palm of one's hands in the Eucharist: a perfect summary from which to start to burrow... and where other than your recommended Sacra Pagina!

There are three passages in Sacra Pagina, each gathering pace in revelation. I began sedately with the first of the "Interpretations" that applied to today's Gospel passage, but the pace outpaced my resolve! [Page 214-215, verses 34-40] sets the scene, [page 217-219, verses 41-51] develops the theme, [page 221-224, verses 52-59] brings the revelation to a fulfilling climax. And the joy is that, over the next two days, I can re-read these 'interpretations' again, and again (at my own pace, knowing where they are heading!).

One day - either in learned book form (or indeed via an 'Android app'!), I should like to venture into the recommended texts which are listed "for reference and further study", but for now, I will relish all that Sacra Pagina presents.

Bounding with excitement, thank you for again drawing me into the joy of shared reflection!

Meanwhile I hope Fr. Nivard's own version of 'SatNav' brings him safely home soon! I will ask him of his adventures (yet to have my own to Nunraw!).

... Our Risen Lord,

William

---

From: Donald
To: William . . .
Sent: Wednesday, 11 May, 2011 13:00:58
Subject: Android Bible

Dear William,

On Tuersday I had the Mass.

We are into John 6 and I had a nodding wave at "BREAD" in this chapter, 20 occurrences. The Ancestors said "He gave them bread from heaven". Joh 6:31. The Jews speak of bread. Jesus uses the "word" very differently. There is fine tuning - it is as very different as heaven and earth.

"I am the bread of life".6:35

In this sound bite, we might ask, "How can I hwlp others understand Jesus' presence in the Eucharist.
We can, we offer Holy Mass, we can ask ourselves how understand Jesus' presence ..."     

BREAD in Ben xvi Vol 1 digs deep again. 

But I feel that the brain  wheels are grinding slower.

Hence the easier diversion. See Attachment of Evaluation of Android Bible. http://bibleandtech.blogspot.com/2011/05/evaluation-of-android-bible-apps.html

And, after-though, Haydock Commentary on Jn 6.

.....+

Donald

 JESUS OF NAZARETH, POPE BENED1CT XVI, Part 1 

From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, pp. 263-272

Bread

We have already dealt extensively with the bread motif in connection with Jesus' temptations. We have seen that the temptation to turn the desert rocks into bread raises the whole question of the Messiah's mission, and that through the devil's distortion of this mission Jesus' positive answer can already be glimpsed; this answer then becomes explicit once and for all in the gift of his body as bread for the life of the world on the eve of his Passion. We have also encountered the bread motif in our exposition of the fourth petition of the Our Father, where we tried to survey the different dimensions of this petition, and thus to explore the full range of the bread theme. At the end of Jesus' activity in Galilee, he performs the multiplication of the loaves; on one hand, it is an unmistakable sign of Jesus' messianic mission, while on the other, it is also the crossroads of his public ministry, which from this point leads dearly to the Cross. All three Synoptic Gospels tell of a miraculous feeding of five thousand men (cf Mt 14:13-21; Mk 6:32-44; Lk 9:10b-I7); Matthew and Mark tell of an additional feeding of four thousand (cf. Mt 15:32-38; Mk 8:1-9).

The two stories have a rich theological content that we cannot enter into here. I will restrict myself to John's story of the multiplication of the loaves (cf. [n 6:1-15), not in order to study it in depth, but rather to focus upon the interpretation that Jesus gives of this event in his great bread of life discourse the following day in the synagogue on the other side of the lake. One more qualification is in order: We cannot consider the details of this discourse, which the exegetes have discussed at length and analyzed thoroughly. I would merely like to draw out its principal message and, above all, to situate it in the context of the whole tradition to which it belongs and in terms of which it has to be understood.

The Disciples - Jesus' prayer as the source of his preaching and action

This morning, Abbot Mark took flight from Edinburgh  airport.

We prayed for blessings with him and with the community of Our Lady of the Angels of Nsugbe, Nigeria. 


Meanwhile, we continue the subject of 'Formation'  in the Community Report. The excerpt from Pope Benedict XVI, "The Disciple" gives gives a deeper NT perspective on "the formation of the community", (Disciples).

Jesus of Nazareth I From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration by Pope Benedict XVI Book Marks; p.168 listen to the most important texts that show the formation of the community of Jesus' closest disciples. p. 170 The calling of the disciples is a prayer event; it is as if they were begotten in prayer, in intimacy with the Father. The calling of the Twelve, far from being purely functional, takes on a deeply theological meaning: Their calling emerges from the Son's dialogue with the Father and is anchored there. This is also the necessary starting point for understanding Jesus' words, "Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest" (Mt 9:38): We cannot simply pick the laborers in God's harvest in the same way that an employer seeks his employees. God must always be asked for them and he himself must choose them for this service. This theological character is reinforced in Mark's phrase: "Jesus called to him those whom he desired." You cannot make yourself a disciple -it is an event of election, a free decision of the Lord's will, which in its turn is anchored in his communion of will with the Father. p.172 Let us return to our text from Mark. Jesus appoints the Twelve with a double assignment. p.175 It enables him -in the communion of the whole body of Christ- to oppose these powers, knowing that Lord's gift of faith restores the pure breath of life: the breath of the Creator, the breath of the Holy Spirit, which alone can give health to the world. p. 182 special attention to Jesus' prayer as the source of his preaching and action.

Jesus of Nazareth I From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration by Pope Benedict XVI CHAPTER SIX  pp 162-182 The Disciples In all the stages of Jesus' activity that we have considered so far, it has become evident that Jesus is closely connected with the "we" of the new family that he gathers by his proclama­tion and his action. It has become evident that this "we" is in principle intended to be universal: It no longer rests on birth, but on communion with Jesus, who is himself God's living Torah. This "we" of the new family is not amorphous. Jesus calls an inner core of people specially chosen by him, who are to carryon his mission and give this family order and shape. That was why Jesus formed the group of the Twelve. The title "apostle" originally extended beyond this group, but was later restricted more and more to the Twelve. In Luke, for example, who always speaks of the twelve Apostles, this word is practically synonymous with the Twelve. There is no need here to inquire into the widely discussed issues concerning the development of the use of the word apostle; let us simply listen to the most important texts that show the formation of the community of Jesus' closest disciples. 169 ~ POPE BENEDICT XVI The central text for this is Mark 3:13-19. It begins by say­ing that Jesus "went up on the mountain, and called to him those whom he desired; and they came to him" (Mk P3). The events leading up to this had taken place by the lake, and now Jesus ascends "the mountain;' which signifies the place of his communion with God-the place on the heights, above the works and deeds of everyday life. Luke underscores this point even more vigorously in his parallel account: "In these days he went out to the mountain to pray; and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called his disciples, and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles"(Lk 6:12f.). The calling of the disciples is a prayer event; it is as if they were begotten in prayer, in intimacy with the Father. The calling of the Twelve, far from being purely functional, takes on a deeply theological meaning: Their calling emerges from the Son's dialogue with the Father and is anchored there. This is also the necessary starting point for understanding Jesus' words, "Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest" (Mt 9:38): We cannot simply pick the laborers in God's harvest in the same way that an employer seeks his employees. God must always be asked for them and he himself must choose them for this service. This theological character is reinforced in Mark's phrase: "Jesus called to him those whom he desired." You cannot make yourself a disciple -it is an event of election, a free decision of the Lord's will, which in its turn is anchored in his communion of will with the Father. The text then continues: "And he appointed [literally: "made"] twelve, whom he also called apostles, to be with 170 ~ JESUS OF NAZARETH him, and to be sent out to preach" (Mk 3:14). The first thing to ponder is the expression "he made twelve," which sounds strange to us. In reality, these words of the Evangelist take up the Old Testament terminology for appointment to the priesthood (c£ 1 Kings 12:31; 13-33) and thus characterize the apostolic office as a priestly ministry. Moreover, the fact that the ones chosen are then individually named links them with the Prophets of Israel, whom God calls by name. Mark thus presents the apostolic ministry as a fusion of the priestly and prophetic missions (Feuillet, Etudes, p. 178). "He made twelve": Twelve was the symbolic number of Israel-the number of the sons of Jacob. From them the twelve tribes of Israel were descended, though of these practically only the tribe of Judah remained after the Exile. In this sense, the number twelve is a return to the origins of Israel, and yet at the same time it is a symbol of hope: The whole of Israel is restored and the twelve tribes are newly assembled. Twelve-the number of the tribes-is at the same time a cosmic number that expresses the comprehensiveness of the newly reborn People of God. The Twelve stand as the patri­archs of this universal people founded on the Apostles. In the vision of the New Jerusalem found in the Apocalypse, the symbolism of the Twelve is elaborated into an image of splen­dor (cf Rev 21:9-14) that helps the pilgrim People of God understand its present in the light of its future and illumines it with the spirit of hope: Past, present, and future intermin­gle when viewed in terms of the Twelve. This is also the right context for the prophecy in which Jesus gives Nathanael a glimpse of his true nature: "You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and 171 ~ POPE OENEDICT XVI descending upon the Son of Man" (Jn 1:51). Jesus reveals himself here as the new Jacob. The patriarch dreamed that he saw a ladder set up beside his head, which reached up to heaven and on which God's angels were ascending and descending. This dream has become a reality with Jesus. He himself is the "gate of heaven" (Gen 28:10-22); he is the true Jacob, the "Son of Man," the patriarch of the definitive Israel. Let us return to our text from Mark. Jesus appoints the Twelve with a double assignment: "to be with him, and to be sent out to preach." They must be with him in order to get to know him; in order to attain that intimate acquaintance with him that could not be given to the "people"-who saw him only from the outside and took him for a prophet, a great fig­ure in the history of religions, but were unable to perceive his uniqueness (cf Mt 16:13ff). The Twelve must be with him so as to be able to recognize his oneness with the Father and thus become witnesses to his mystery. As Peter will say before the election of Matthias, they had to be present during the time that "the Lord Jesus went in and out among us" (c£ Acts 1:8, 21). One might say that they have to pass from outward to inward communion with Jesus. At the same time, however, they are there in order to become Jesus' envoys-"apostles," no less-who bring his message to the world, first to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, but then "to the ends of the earth:' Being with Jesus and being sent by him seem at first sight mutually exclusive, but they clearly belong together. The Apostles have to learn to be with him in a way that enables them, even when they go to the ends of the earth, to be with him still. Being with him includes the missionary dynamic by its very nature, since Jesus' whole being is mission. 172 ~ JESUS OF NAZARETH What does the text say they are sent to do? "To preach and have authority to cast out demons" (Mk 3-14f). Matthew gives a somewhat more detailed description of the content of this mission: "And he gave them authority over unclean spir­its, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infir­mity" (Mt 10:1). The first task is preaching: to give people the light of the word, the message of Jesus. The Apostles are first and foremost Evangelists-like Jesus, they preach the King­dom of God and thereby gather people into God's new family. But the preaching of God's Kingdom is never just words, never just instruction. It is an event, just as Jesus himself is an event, God's Word in person. By announcing him, the Apostles lead their listeners to encounter him. Because the world is ruled by the powers of evil, this preaching is at the same time a struggle with those powers. "In following Jesus, his herald has to exorcise the world, to establish a new form of life in the Holy Spirit that brings release to those who are possessed" (Pesch, Markusevangeliurn, 1, P: 205). And, as Henri de Lubac in particular has shown, the ancient world did in fact experience the birth of Christianity as a liberation from the fear of demons that, in spite of skep­ticism and enlightenment. was all-pervasive at the time. The same thing also happens today wherever Christianity replaces old tribal religions. transforming and integrating their positive elements into itself We feel the full impact of this leap forward when Paul says: "'There is no God but one: For although there may be so -called gods in heaven or on earth­ as indeed there are many 'gods' and many 'lords' -yet for us there is one God. the Father. from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord. Jesus Christ, through whom 173 ~ POPE BENEDICT XVI are all things and through whom we exist" (1 Cor 8:4f). These words imply a great liberating power-the great exorcism that purifies the world. No matter how many gods may have been at large in the world, God is only one, and only one is Lord. If we belong to him, everything else loses its power; it loses the allure of divinity. The world is now seen as something rational: It emerges from eternal reason, and this creative reason is the only true power over the world and in the world. Faith in the one God is the only thing that truly liberates the world and makes it "rational:' When faith is absent, the world only appears to be more rational. In reality the indeterminable powers of chance now claim their due; "chaos theory" takes its place alongside insight into the rational structure of the universe, confronting man with obscurities that he cannot resolve and that set limits to the world's rationality. To "exorcise" the world -to establish it in the light of the ratio (reason) that comes from eternal creative reason and its saving goodness and refers back to it -that is a permanent, central task of the messengers of Jesus Christ. In the Letter to the Ephesians, Saint Paul once described this "exorcistic" character of Christianity from another per­spective: "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principal­ities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this pres­ent darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph 6:10-12). This portrayal of the Christ­ian struggle, which we today find surprising, or even disturb- 174 ~