{"id":1950,"date":"2015-10-12T09:50:23","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T09:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/equipes.nelsoncardeira.com\/?p=1950"},"modified":"2015-10-12T09:50:23","modified_gmt":"2015-10-12T09:50:23","slug":"lettre-doctobre-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/equipes-notre-dame.com\/en\/letter-of-october-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter of October, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"
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P\u00e9re Jacinto Farias<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

My very dear Team Members,<\/p>\n

“This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”<\/em>\u00a0(Jn 6:60).\u00a0 Many disciples had this reaction to Jesus’ words after the multiplication of bread.\u00a0 In a clear allusion to the Eucharist, Jesus said that his body is true nourishment and that his blood is a true drink. According to the logic of St John’s Gospel, this speech of Jesus about the bread of life is more understandable if we remember that Jesus is the Word of God incarnate (Jn 1:14), the unique and definitive Word of God that God spoke to humanity.\u00a0 The disciples reacted in this manner because they did not succeed in understanding that the Word of God is the very person of Jesus, who spoke to his community of disciples.\u00a0 He himself, in the community of disciples, is the Word of God that man needs more than food that perishes:\u00a0 man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.\u00a0 The Jews knew that very well already; they bore the first commandment,\u00a0“Listen, Israel”<\/em>\u00a0(Dt 6:4), before their eyes, like a light and as a tefillin on their arm.\u00a0 But when Jesus said that the Word that nourishes was no longer the Law, nor the Prophets, but He himself in person; that the place for listening was in the community of his disciples, such words were “hard” to hear, because they demanded a complete conversion: now, loving God more than everything meant and continues to mean following Jesus, who leads us to God.\u00a0 He in person is the visible face of God.\u00a0 Even if we can adore God in Spirit and in Truth everywhere, it is in the community of his disciples, the Church, that we find the place where He is present, even if he sleeps through the great storms of history and of each person’s personal life.\u00a0 All that sounded too strange to the ears of many disciples and it is why they moved away and no longer were with Him.\u00a0 It was then that Jesus asked the twelve who remained,\u00a0“Do you also want to go away?”\u00a0 Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall go?\u00a0 You have the words of eternal life.”<\/em>\u00a0(Jn 6,67-68).<\/p>\n

These words are also hard today, just as they were in those times.\u00a0 Jesus himself, at the hour of his passion said,\u00a0“Abba, Father, all things are possible for You.\u00a0 Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.”<\/em>\u00a0(Mk 14:36)\u00a0 Hard too are Jesus’ words “\u2026so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.”<\/em>\u00a0(Mk 10:8), when they are taken over by St Paul with reference to marriage between the disciples of Christ, a text that is the foundation of Scripture for the affirmation of the indissolubility of sacramental marriage (cf. Eph 5: 31-32).\u00a0 According to the apostle and illuminated by the mystery of Christ and the Church, the wife is, through marriage, the husband’s body and the husband is the wife’s head.\u00a0 This means that the wife thinks in her relationship with the husband and the husband feels with the heart of the wife; the husband is the head of the wife; the wife is the heart of the husband, living in reciprocal submission, because reciprocal obedience, which is the essence of the relationship between Christians (cf Eph 5:21), is only possible between people who love each other.\u00a0 Loving means being able to give of oneself in the perfection of love, which is pardon or forgiveness.\u00a0 Loving and suffering are identical.\u00a0 Human love, even when transfigured by grace, is a crucified love.\u00a0 These words are truly hard, but they contain the gentleness of love.<\/p>\n

In as far as is possible and moved by the action of God’s grace, let us take to heart St Peter’s words, ““Lord, to whom shall go?\u00a0 You have the words of eternal life.”<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Do not forget them in your married prayer and above all in your Sit-Down.\u00a0 Pray for me; I do likewise for you.<\/p>\n

P. Jos\u00e9 Jacinto Ferreira de Farias, scj.<\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/strong>Conseiller Spirituel de l\u2019ERI.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAnnounce, give witness and communicate<\/em>\u201d, our couples and family vocation…\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
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From To et Ze Moura Soares.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” (Jn 6:60). Many disciples had this reaction to Jesus’ words after the multiplication of bread. In a clear allusion to the Eucharist, Jesus said that his body is true nourishment and that his blood is a true drink.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2296,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.12.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fr","pt","es","it","en"],"languages":{"fr":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":true},"pt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":true},"es":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":true},"it":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":true},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":true}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/equipes-notre-dame.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/equipes-notre-dame.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/equipes-notre-dame.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equipes-notre-dame.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equipes-notre-dame.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/equipes-notre-dame.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equipes-notre-dame.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/equipes-notre-dame.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equipes-notre-dame.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equipes-notre-dame.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}