ECCLES.24,1-16 "Wisdom speaks her own praises, in the midst of her people she glories in herself. 2. She opens her mouth in the assembly of the Most High, she glories in herself in the presence of the Mighty One: 3. 'I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and I covered the earth like mist. 4. I had my tent in the heights, and my throne was a pillar of cloud. 5. Alone, I have made the circuit of the heavens and walked through the depths of the abyss. 6. Over the waves of the sea and over the whole earth, and over every people and nation I have held sway. 7. Among all these I searched for rest, and looked to see in whose territory I might pitch camp. 8. Then the Creator of all things instructed me and he who created me fixed a place for my tent. He said, "Pitch your tent in Jacob, make Israel your inheritance." 9. From eternity, in the beginning, he created me, and for eternity I shall remain. 10. In the holy tent I ministered before him and thus became established in Zion. 11. In the beloved city he has given me rest, and in Jerusalem I wield my authority. 12. I have taken root in a privileged people, in the Lord's property, in his inheritance." PSALM 147 "Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem, Zion, praise your God. 13. For he gives strength to the bars of your gates, he blesses your children within you, 14. he maintains the peace of your frontiers, gives you your fill of finest wheat. 15. He sends his word to the earth, his command runs quickly, 16. he spreads the snow like flax, strews hoarfrost like ashes, 17. he sends ice-crystals like breadcrumbs, and who can withstand that cold? 18. When he sends his word it thaws them, when he makes his wind blow, the waters are unstopped. 19. He reveals his word to Jacob, his statutes and judgements to Israel. 20. For no other nation has he done this, no other has known his judge"
EPHESIANS 1,3-18
Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ.
1:4 Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence,
1:5 determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ for his own kind purposes,
1:6 to make us praise the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved,
1:7 in whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins. Such is the richness of the grace
1:8 which he has showered on us in all wisdom and insight.
1:9 He has let us know the mystery of his, purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ from the beginning
1:10 to act upon when the times had run their course to the end: that he would bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth.
1:11 And it is in him that we were claimed as God’s own, chosen from the beginning, under the predetermined plan of the one who guides all things as he decides by his own will;
1:12 chosen to be, for his greater glory, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came.
1:13 Now you too, in him, have heard the message of the truth and the good news of your salvation, and have believed it; and you too have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise
1:14 the pledge of our inheritance which brings freedom for those whom God has taken for his own, to make his glory praised.
The triumph and the supremacy of Christ
1:15 That will explain why I, having once heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus, and the love that you show towards all the saints,
1:16 have never failed to remember you in my prayers and to thank God for you.
1:17 May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. EPHESIANS 1,3-18 1:18 May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit
6* A man named John was sent from God.e 7He came for testimony,* to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.f 8He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.g 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.h
10He was in the world,
and the world came to be through him,
but the world did not know him.
11He came to what was his own,
but his own people* did not accept him.
12i But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, 13* j who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.
14And the Word became flesh*
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.k
15* John testified to him and cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said,l ‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’” 16From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace,* 17because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.m 18No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God,* who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.
FAUSTI - "No one has ever seen God: the Only Begotten Son, who is God and is in the bosom of the Father, it is He who has revealed Him". No one ever saw Him because Adam turned his back on Him from the beginning. We have no image of Him, because the only image and likeness of Him is "us", if we stand in front of Him. He is our 'natural place'. Elsewhere we are out of place, sore as a dislocated bone, strangers to ourselves and to everything. Jesus Christ, the only-begotten God, Who is toward the bosom of the Father, with His Works and Words, with His life and death, has shown us God, to the point of saying: "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (14,9). It is in fact the Word, which for this reason has become "flesh". The beginning of John's Gospel takes us, with a wing stroke, over space and beyond time, beyond every creature, to show us Who is Jesus, the man fully qualified to tell us the invisible. With surprise we discover that the One who loved to call Himself the Son of Man and proclaimed Himself the Son of God is the Word that has always been with the Father and is God. It, witnessed by wise men and prophets and never known, became flesh in Jesus, to reveal and give us His very glory as the only Son of the Father, so that, in Him, we can discover that we are children of God. The prologue is like the beginning of a symphony, in which the reasons are preluded.
...It is a hymn to the Word, Light and Life of Everything, where what is said opens to the harmonies of the unspeakable. Its roots, more than in the Greek tradition, even if present to the author, are rooted in the Old Testament, in those texts that sing the Word and creative Wisdom, personifications of God at work in nature and history. Reading this hymn one has the impression of being transported by eagle flight to a very high yet domestic place, as if it were our nest, where we feel at ease, as if we were at home. In fact, it is in the Word addressed to the Father that we find our homeland: the Father Himself... What the Prologue says is clear enough. The beginning speaks of the Logos with God and His role in creation and redemption; the center of His becoming flesh in Jesus, the end of His narration of the Father to us.
Approaching this text, one has the impression of wandering around at the foot of a very high massif, which goes beyond the clouds, beyond heaven itself. It is an inaccessible mountain. It is the unknown God, the invisible Glory, the ineffable Name. There is a sense of infinite amazement, of abysmal vertigo. But we are immediately filled with joy by the fact that the mountain has descended to us, the unspeakable is the Word, the Glory has the face of the Son of Man, the name is Jesus. The whole Gospel will expose and offer the gift of Himself that God gives us in the flesh of His Son, in which we see the Glory of which we are the reflex. When we will know how we are known to Him - then we will see Him face to face; our face will shine with His light and we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is (1Jn 3:2).
ECCLES.24,1-16
RispondiElimina"Wisdom speaks her own praises, in the midst of her people she glories in herself. 2. She opens her mouth in the assembly of the Most High, she glories in herself in the presence of the Mighty One: 3. 'I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and I covered the earth like mist. 4. I had my tent in the heights, and my throne was a pillar of cloud. 5. Alone, I have made the circuit of the heavens and walked through the depths of the abyss. 6. Over the waves of the sea and over the whole earth, and over every people and nation I have held sway. 7. Among all these I searched for rest, and looked to see in whose territory I might pitch camp. 8. Then the Creator of all things instructed me and he who created me fixed a place for my tent. He said, "Pitch your tent in Jacob, make Israel your inheritance." 9. From eternity, in the beginning, he created me, and for eternity I shall remain. 10. In the holy tent I ministered before him and thus became established in Zion. 11. In the beloved city he has given me rest, and in Jerusalem I wield my authority. 12. I have taken root in a privileged people, in the Lord's property, in his inheritance."
PSALM 147
"Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem, Zion, praise your God. 13. For he gives strength to the bars of your gates, he blesses your children within you, 14. he maintains the peace of your frontiers, gives you your fill of finest wheat. 15. He sends his word to the earth, his command runs quickly, 16. he spreads the snow like flax, strews hoarfrost like ashes, 17. he sends ice-crystals like breadcrumbs, and who can withstand that cold? 18. When he sends his word it thaws them, when he makes his wind blow, the waters are unstopped. 19. He reveals his word to Jacob, his statutes and judgements to Israel. 20. For no other nation has he done this, no other has known his judge"
EPHESIANS 1,3-18
Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ.
1:4 Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence,
1:5 determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ for his own kind purposes,
1:6 to make us praise the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved,
1:7 in whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins. Such is the richness of the grace
1:8 which he has showered on us in all wisdom and insight.
1:9 He has let us know the mystery of his, purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made in Christ from the beginning
1:10 to act upon when the times had run their course to the end: that he would bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth.
1:11 And it is in him that we were claimed as God’s own, chosen from the beginning, under the predetermined plan of the one who guides all things as he decides by his own will;
1:12 chosen to be, for his greater glory, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came.
1:13 Now you too, in him, have heard the message of the truth and the good news of your salvation, and have believed it; and you too have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise
1:14 the pledge of our inheritance which brings freedom for those whom God has taken for his own, to make his glory praised.
The triumph and the supremacy of Christ
1:15 That will explain why I, having once heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus, and the love that you show towards all the saints,
1:16 have never failed to remember you in my prayers and to thank God for you.
1:17 May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him.
EPHESIANS 1,3-18
1:18 May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit
In the beginning* was the Word,
RispondiEliminaand the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.a
2He was in the beginning with God.
3* All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.b
What came to be 4through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;c
5* the light shines in the darkness,d
and the darkness has not overcome it.
6* A man named John was sent from God.e 7He came for testimony,* to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.f 8He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.g 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.h
10He was in the world,
and the world came to be through him,
but the world did not know him.
11He came to what was his own,
but his own people* did not accept him.
12i But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, 13* j who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.
14And the Word became flesh*
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.k
15* John testified to him and cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said,l ‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’” 16From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace,* 17because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.m 18No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God,* who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.
FAUSTI - "No one has ever seen God: the Only Begotten Son, who is God and is in the bosom of the Father, it is He who has revealed Him".
RispondiEliminaNo one ever saw Him because Adam turned his back on Him from the beginning. We have no image of Him, because the only image and likeness of Him is "us", if we stand in front of Him. He is our 'natural place'. Elsewhere we are out of place, sore as a dislocated bone, strangers to ourselves and to everything. Jesus Christ, the only-begotten God, Who is toward the bosom of the Father, with His Works and Words, with His life and death, has shown us God, to the point of saying: "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (14,9).
It is in fact the Word, which for this reason has become "flesh".
The beginning of John's Gospel takes us, with a wing stroke, over space and beyond time, beyond every creature, to show us Who is Jesus, the man fully qualified to tell us the invisible.
With surprise we discover that the One who loved to call Himself the Son of Man and proclaimed Himself the Son of God is the Word that has always been with the Father and is God.
It, witnessed by wise men and prophets and never known, became flesh in Jesus, to reveal and give us His very glory as the only Son of the Father, so that, in Him, we can discover that we are children of God.
The prologue is like the beginning of a symphony, in which the reasons are preluded.
...It is a hymn to the Word, Light and Life of Everything, where what is said opens to the harmonies of the unspeakable.
Its roots, more than in the Greek tradition, even if present to the author, are rooted in the Old Testament, in those texts that sing the Word and creative Wisdom, personifications of God at work in nature and history.
Reading this hymn one has the impression of being transported by eagle flight to a very high yet domestic place, as if it were our nest, where we feel at ease, as if we were at home.
In fact, it is in the Word addressed to the Father that we find our homeland: the Father Himself...
What the Prologue says is clear enough. The beginning speaks of the Logos with God and His role in creation and redemption; the center of His becoming flesh in Jesus, the end of His narration of the Father to us.
Approaching this text, one has the impression of wandering around at the foot of a very high massif, which goes beyond the clouds, beyond heaven itself.
It is an inaccessible mountain. It is the unknown God, the invisible Glory, the ineffable Name.
There is a sense of infinite amazement, of abysmal vertigo.
But we are immediately filled with joy by the fact that the mountain has descended to us, the unspeakable is the Word, the Glory has the face of the Son of Man,
the name is Jesus.
The whole Gospel will expose and offer the gift of Himself that God gives us in the flesh of His Son, in which we see the Glory of which we are the reflex. When we will know how we are known to Him - then we will see Him face to face; our face will shine with His light and we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is (1Jn 3:2).