Bicentennial year: Many experiences, little learning

“D’ où venons-nous? Que sommes-nous?
Où allons-nous?”
Paul Gauguin

To wonder about the reasons to celebrate or not the existence of an alleged national soul today formally proposed by the government, perhaps it is wiser to ask about the reasons why today we can celebrate or commemorate something special for our independence. Is possible answer yes to this question if we accept that independence wasn't a revolution, but rather an endorsement of the value of tradition, which in our case is ad hoc discursive legitimacy of republican ideals with an itch reformer and a free or self-conscious development: we are all because we are nothing.

It seems that in our bicentennial year we have seen a summary of all our experience for over 500 years, 300 natives and not only 200 Republicans, which certainly defines us: earthquakes, political elections and other disasters such as the Mapuche situation or mining, as well an incomplete development in all spheres of our social life.
The starting point is geographical: We are the place where we live. Everyone agrees that we are reflected on the nature of our seismic land, we forget easily because the reconstruction has always been essential: the chilean is nothing and all at the same moment, all time we are at the tightrope, such as when accidents happen, we know that the life continues, and if there is an earthquake, doesn't matter nothing more than the restoration.

So, the resignation and too the tenacity shows the response to oblivion... the independence is the best and the worst of ourselves, because in the first place it is the declaration of our vocation for liberty, in the same lines of an earthquake, in the sense that this allows can recognize the dignity of all men, but also the hard reality is here to say us the discourse isn't so true, because exists a lot of poverty, marginality, meanness, and always we prefer bad copy of the foreign instead of create new options. On the other hand, with the independence we accepted on the words the idea of revolution, a contradiction with our good weighted effect of the reforms and our humanity.

In conclusion, we can look back and celebrate but not swallow the lies about the national soul and the united country. Chile is all because is nothing.

Ecology?

The entire world has been since ancient times only a tool for men. I am not really sure that the center of the issue is about environmental... I think that many times it is used only to win political (lato sensu) positions and not to ameliorate the conditions of life of persons; always we must take care about too popular beliefs, and even suspect of fads that are contradictory when are compared ideas and practices.
In the recent film of Cameron it's reflected a poetic view (in front) of this issue: it is better to convert to or assume yourself as an extraterrestrial than share the misery generated by human selfishness.
The limits are beyond endurance to carry a banner to be defending the rights of my dog, because if I accept that, I agree that my dog is over that millions of people worse off than my dog, and on my list of values or scale of priorities, all important places I keep to objects that revolve around me. The same when I demand a better deal for whales, because it wouldn't have anything of wrong if this was the unique that remains. So, an innocent slogan can have something else, as a perverse contradiction hidden behind a redundancy, which is at leas treat to environmental like a treat different being, yet behave as if the only thing that mattered to us were we, accepting once and other when we say it is for our children.
Well, I think that finally, as in Pandora, there isn't limits to defend in the time of true, although sometimes one to be a really son of bitch.
The only truth in Ecology today, is that environmental means retain to me and deny resources to others, the question of gentlemen: money, and, between you and me, I am not very interested there.

An incredible crucifix

The church of Ognissanti, begun in 1251 was part of the monastery complex of Umiliati, Lombard order that arrived in Florence in 1239.

Although their rule was aproved by Pope Honorius III, the order was part of poverty movements near heresy. The congregation Umiliati emerged as a secular men and women, dedicated to poverty and evangelical perfection, but especially at work, which was an integral part of religious life, primarily engaged in the production of wool and glass.

In Florence Umiliati first settled outside the city, then into the church of Santa Lucia, gradually extending their properties to understand an oratorio on the Borgo, where they build their church Omnium Sanctorum ad honorem and the convent, the complex was completed in 1260.

The Umiliati, for their dedication and probity of the lay brothers and sisters, gained a reputation in Florence and began to collect works of art in its simple church. To the high altar Giotto painted his famous Madonna and Child with angels or Madona of Ogissanti (Maestá di Ognissanti), now in the Uffizi, around 1310.

But the Madonna di Ognissanti isn't the unique oeuvre of Giotto, for example there is the Dormitio Virginis della Gemäldegalerie di Berlino, and the crucifix which today remains in his home in Florence and was painted with the collaboration of the unknown personality "Parente di Giotto".

Paola Bracco has worked since 2002 on the restoration of Giotto's Crucifix of the Church of Ognissanti, Florence, one of the works of the artist who was accused by Dante of outshine to Cimabue with his Maestá. Started in 2002, the majestic tempera on panel realised by Giotto and his workshop around 1310-1320 has been came to the light again. First on the tramezzo (partition) of the church and then kept in the sacristy of the church of Ognissanti becoming invisible to most, its many precious details on the pictorial surface were also hidden from centuries of bad restorations, smoke of candles and dust. After years of hard working, the bright colors are appearing, show us how Giotto embodied of majesty and extraordinary beauty.

Giotto's crucifix "torna a casa" next week. The inauguration will be on 6 November. The crucifix will be placed in the transept of the church, and no longer in the sacristy, so that everyone will be able to appreciate its beauty and its incredible expressive values.

More info: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/oct/24/british-restorer-lost-giotto-masterpiece

Crucifixus, Maestà degli Uffizi, Dormitio Virginis(dettaglio).

Mapuche

Mapuche means in mapudungun "people of the land", and together with the numbers is almost unique words I know in this language, but also some places I visited, as Pichilemu and Bucalemu (Little forest and Big forest), Nirivilo (Snakepit), Curicó (Black river), and many others of South of the country. Here, in Santiago, we have some municipalities with names of tokis (war leaders) as Vitacura and Tobalaba, or hills as Manquehue (Place of condors).

Otherwise it is little what we preserve the culture of a people that despite its efforts to maintain its roots it is becoming increasingly overshadowed by a national state that recognized since the late nineteenth century nominally cultural pluralism via ratification of Convention 169 ILO, but in practice only distinguishes one type of subject: the Chilean.

The people of this ethnic group, according to the last census of 2002, represents the 4 percent of the total population of Chile, and corresponds to 23,4 percent in the region of Araucanía.

4.6 percent of national total recognizes to belong to an ethnic , or the same 692,192 people are indigenous in Chile.

Mapuche issue? They haven't any problem except us; we are responsible for a highly inadequate recognition of their dignity. Is the question that when we come to the conclusion that some are more equal than others, is better cut heads than count them.

The miners

The miners... yesterday I felt a bit of hapiness but also much of anger cause them and the circus mounted by the media. When I arrived to my house I started to watch the program Who wants be millionaire? presented by the never properly weighted TV driver Sergio Lagos, with a special edition dedicated to the participation of the miners of the misadventure, accompained by diverse figures of the creole show, as Américo, Joaquín Lavín, Juan Falcón and others. Unheard not only that the current minister of education of government proved to be as qualified as a freshly graduated from middle school but hired by a government that insists in a meritocratic discourse, but also by the injustice of put to compete the miners to earn money represented by persons with varying success...

For disgrace, Falcón didn't play with more luck than Lavín, and his represented, Frank Lobos, a really intelligent miner that put some points on the ies , finished earning the most low prize. I really hope that the companies involved in the sponsorship of the program will give each the same award as it is not fair to expose them and profit from the suffering of others without respecting basic ethical standards: no one can recognize in this case rules of fair discrimination.

Best places in Santiago

In the first place, I think that it doesn't matter where dou you can go, if you are with your friends.

Althoug never is bad if you and your guys enjoy something more, as a good plan, food, music, talk, some place or whatever it's possible.

Well, in Santiago there are many nice places where you could have fun or have a wonderful view.

First, the sites of any populated town capital of a country, as fast food restaurants, bowling, cinema, bookshops, gift stores, you can find all of this in the mall centers of Santiago.

Second, the sites where you'll look and you'll stay surprised, as parks of center and other more!

Well, I prefer South...

Too, exist places more cosmopolitan, as restaurants of international food, including the Rishtedar, where Ram Singh, the indian chef of the local, serve dishes such as chicken varieties called Murgh (Murgh kali Mirch, that is a chicken in white sauce with chestnuts of cajun and pepper; Goa Murgh cafreal, a chicken in mint sauce marinated in wine; Murgh mitha masala, a chicken marinated in a delicious cream of coconuts, almonds and masala; and a lot of other more), cheese (Paneer), lamb and indian rice (with schrimb, lamb or chicken, or maybe vegetables or fruit!), inter alia flavores.

The prices are reasonable (considering some ingredients are brought from Argentina) and don't forget that Indian cuisine is often spicy... enjoy it with a good wine, and then take to test a good indian frozen dessert!

Last but not least this welcome attention, also offers a warm atmosphere and music.
Make your reservations to 231 32 57, location Holanda 160, Providencia.

Monday-Saturday: 19:00 to 23:30

Sunday: 12:00 to 16:00

The Young Victoria

Under direction of Jean Marc-Vallée, an extraordinary cast of actors: Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend and Paul Bettany give life to a story of the nineteenth century writed by Julian Fellowes, about the first years of the most important Queen of United Kingdom maybe since Elizabeth I of England: Victoria, first empress of India and the longest of any female monarch in History.

Was born in 1837 in Kensington, and reigned almost 64 years, until 1901.

The movie is about the most sentimental and romantic side of Victoria (Emily Blunt), a girl who before ascending to the throne had a childhood "rather melancholy" and has been constantly manipulated by his mother, duchess of Kent (Miranda Richardson), and her lord protector, Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong), a real villain.
Given this, her noble cousin and suitor, Albert (Rupert Friend) of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha -nephew of the King Leopold of the Belgians-, suggests that, like in chess, learns the rules of the game to she moves herself freely. The sincere and loving support of Leopold, with his pragmatic social sense, captive slowly to Victoria, specially in the days that discovers the cold side of politics, inclusive with the distinguished first minister, Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany), political liberal on who had placed their trust.

The growing distrust of anyone who wanted to win interfere with their duties will be faced by Alberto's soft breaths of its most difficult moments... her decision will change the life of a Kingdom. Is the problem of always, between the prison marriage and happy marriage... difference is of grades...

In conclusion, one of the best movies of fairy tales, elegance and biopic of 2009.

Music is wonderfull, specially the allusions of Ilan Eshkeri, composer of the Soundtrack, to Schubert and Donizetti. Dance is the perfect accompanying.

The Greatest Hits of Tarkan

Hüsamettin Tarkan Tevetoğlu, internationally known as Tarkan, in the beginnings because of his song Şimarik, with the time has been transformed into a multifaceted and charismatic artist.

He was born in Alzey, west Germany, cause his parents were part of the generation of turkish inmigrants that went to Deutschland during that country's economic boom.

After returning to Turkey, carrer of Tarkan began with Şimarik in the early 90's, showing an impressive young talent. His personality has earned him a number of criticisms, which only shows his great artistic potential variously updated on a lot of musical themes.

Then his first hit which caused a stir for the unique style that combined the Western and near Eastern cultures, came Şikidim or Aacayipsin (Oh - You're Something Else), name of his second album, followed by Dudu (disc counterpart) and Kuzu-kuzu.

"Hepsi Senin Mi?" (or Şikidim) incorporated shaky Turkish rhythms and lyrics of the language used today in Turkey, and in the video of the song Tarkan slanted his body to the rhythmic melody of the song while displaying a naked chest. This was considered too audacious for the rising and conservative turkish music industry. Always rebellious and erotic, the same happened with Hüp and Don Bebegim. Outside of his profession also caused a big agitation because of his nudes and semi-nudes in some turkish magazines.

But the story didn't finish there, because Tarkan is also known for the support provided to UNICEF, and other humanitarian causes, although he too has been surprised consuming drug. He has said that it was his fault.

Through commercials he has done to the Turkish television for Pepsi, Avea, and encouraging to the soccer's Turkish selection (Bir Oluruz Yoluna), the diverse music of Tarkan is really fascinating and melodic not only on lyrics wich talk about love and heartbreak and delicious melodies but also on his videos, it can be noted with, for example, Arada Bir (Once in a while), Ayrilik Zor (Hard Separation), Gul Doktum Yollarina (I covered of roses your way), Dudu (Woman), Kuzu Kuzu (Lamb), Dilli Duduk (Whistle Language), Verme (Give me nothing), Gülumse Kaderine (Smile at your fate) and recently, Öp (Kiss), which together with Sevdanin son Vuruşu (The last hit of Love), Acimayak (It will not hurt you), Kayip (Lost) and Işim olmaz (I have nothing with nobody else) is part of his last work, Adimi Kalbine Yaz (Write my name on your heart).

Finally I recommend some of his best songs of the discs Dudu, Karma and Metamorfoz, which are his early middle twenty-first century:

Dudu: Bu Şarkilar Da Olmasa (f not for these songs), Sorma Kalbim (Don't ask my heart);

Karma: Aşk (Love), Ay (Oh), Yandim (I lit), O'na Sor (Ask him), Sen Başkasin (Something Else), Taş (Stone), Her Nerdeysen (Wherever);

Metamorfoz: Hop Hop, Dedikodu (Gossip).

The question of civilization in some pictures?

Turkey

This eurasian country, ancient bridge between the two first known worlds, Europe and Asia, was many years ago (in the Neolothic an the Iron Age) home to hattians, hittites, assyrians, and a lot of other peoples, cradle of civilizations. Place of meetings and disagreements, love and rage, peace and war, was chosen by greeks tribes to stablish their colonies, that even today we remember from hearsey: Mileto, Éfeso, Esmirna y Bizancio, the last one, actual Istanbul, the largest city of Republic of Turkey (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti). Trophy of Persian, didnt take along for Alexander the Great made it his, and then the same with Republican and Imperial Rome in days of glory and misery.
In 324 AC, emperor Constantine decided to transfer capital of the Empire to Bizancio, two thousand years too known as the Pearl of Orient, that became the bastion of half of the empire that withstood a thousand years older than her Western sister, less lucky, before it felt, in 476 and 1453 respectively.
Later, after Seljuk Sultanate occupied much of Turkey, the Ottoman Empire completed their conquest of Byzantine Empire capturing Bizancio in 1453 AC, shrank only after five centuries of splendor.
Republic was established with invasion of alies of triple entent in 1922, finishing First Wold War, and today is a parliamentary representative democracy, that belongs to the European Union, with a strong tradition of pluralism and secularism, but too maintaining its beautiful and ancient traditions.

Well, Turkey doesnt offer us a unique past, cause traditions and modernity give form to a magical and no less realistic exciting world of contrasts, similarities and creations.

For example, music. There are a very powerful group of young turkish, as the band Kolpa, or artists as Teoman, Yusuf Güney, Gokhan Tepe, and specially Tarkan!

Tarkan is one of the most controversial figures of Turkey, with his captivating way of dance, his strong and unlimited personality, and a thrilling and atavistic voice.

A fantabulous experience

This semester has been a beautiful and hard craziness, maybe more than the last years...

There were a lot of new people, sensations, events, meetings, projects, challenges, and others things, but actually, this semester is still a mistery from start to finish, at least for me.

Holidays and the earthquake were the first elements that have allowed me to look back, live the present and try to project the future maybe coming my feet closer to land. After being vacationing with my family of southern and worried for the South, I met wonderful people when I arrived to Lolol (as volunteer) that gave me a incredible power to remember the energy which exists when someone is involved with the heart. We and our kids of Lolol, playing, singing, dancing, living almost as a family, made that the magic grew normally without losing its charm. One smile is enough difference to start to live a dream.

The return to the University did not be easy, and with difficulty I could get used to classes, tests and exams. Maybe we do not have enough time due to the large amount of duties that do not allow do other important things we can as persones, absorbing us without many alternatives.
Albeit all subjects have some special and each one have a singular and esential objective, as the Administrative Law and public service, or History and the senses of the history, or Criminal Law and the rights of the acussed according to principles of culpability, legality and morality, we need sometimes more experiences to put in practice the theory.

In this context, the english course has meant a chance to leave the everydays concerns and pay more attention to english, know new interesting people and enjoying learnig in a fun atmosphere; Gabriela Mistral said that work have more senses if you do it as a game. The amount of things which can implies the activities is spectacular.

Too the blog allowed me write about my feelings without many limitations (I think there is a general common point in the posts I wrote), and although either I could do the homework, it gives me the possibility of share some ideas with friends, put a little piece of my soul in those lines to the people who can read and know (a bit of) me, and know to my companions and miss.

To all them: thank you very much, the best wishes and my respect and friendship. See you soon!

Definitely a good movie

Definitely, maybe is definitely a good romantic comedy, and to me is one of my favorite movies.
Behind all the jokes, I find a lot of brilliants ideas in the scripts, cause they realize a realistic resume of our modern life and the concerns involving.

First, the problem of identity of children in the case of divorce; the lovely girl is worried about the fate of the relationship of her parents, and how stays her self in this situation. But things are not so dramatics, cause with the loving presence of the parents a child can be sure he or she is not responsible of the split up.

Second, the problem of the failure of romantic love and the posibility of try again on face of breakdown; a father affectionate show us how is essential be attentive to opportunities in the life, but it doesn`t means inconstancy, actually on the contrary the ability to recognize our mistakes, trying not to commit, and the response to the responsability of protect our ideals, make us worthy to give us other times.

Third, the problem of the hapiness in a fast world; sincerity is more important than money, politics, and others common dreams, and if we think we can escape of our misery trough of the dreams of another people, we are losing the race from the start. Really, we need love what we do for have a chance of happiness.

All I wanted was write a short comments, but in generally I must say that what I love in this movie is the idea of tender love and hopes in a better life, always a certain prospective if we have the force to fight for it.

He Ain`t Heavy He`s My Brother, a excuse to live

Today, as usual, I want to share with you a thunderbolt that struck me while thinking about something that would be important of counting.

Interestingly, this is an image that never really I saw, I remember that my mother conveyed me the impression of the simple and rather startling words of a child carrying his little brother, just a couple of years younger than him, at some remote part of africa (maybe Mozambique), where it is usual charge of younger siblings, but was different in those circumstances, when the little brother was, as the smallest, in clear conditions of malnutrition.

The photo went around the world and the truth is for me there isn`t much more pictures more beautiful, cause it reflects a powerfull love, an every day and foolproof love of brother.

I think I can meditate that many times, we can make a difference with a little sign, a smile, a hug, a caress, a glance, a word of encouragement... these expressions externalize a meaning of our will, the disposition of give without expecting anything in return more than the posibility of other heart, if we put it in service of a life in this sense.

We never must tire of trying to live as the child that was carring his brother on his back. Why? What kind of reasons exist for pay attention to this propose? The answer can be in the words of the boy with no name in Nowhere: "He Ain`t Heavy, He`s My Brother".

Sometimes, the life seems more difficult than it is really, but we don`t have idea of the the world out there waiting for us, sometimes we are more concerned about our own, and we don`t understand that life have more colours if we accept to others.

My eyes in this day

The Scotish music group Travis made a really great work called "The Boy with No Name", fifth studio album that was released in 7th may of 2007 in UK, by its members Fran Healy, Dougie Payne, Andie Dunlop and Neil Primrose.

Although enters 60 (low position), the song My Eyes is a precious work of art. Was composed by the vocalist, Healy, thinking in his first child not yet born, Clay, when he knew he would become to father.

Is characterized as an emotional song of welcome to his son, expressing his fears and hopes in front of a new life that come to this world... all supplemented by a beautiful melody with quiet bars.

I think if I would know that I`ll be father I would be the most happy man on the earth... it means, a child represents all in your life since the conception, then the born, a life in your hands as a gift of heaven. Try to be a good father must be so complicated, and means a hard work.

In this modern world of liquid love, maybe we need more examples of real relations of unconditional (without anything being required in return), unexpectable (anymore to want than the wonderful of unknown co-creation) and uncontrollable (you can do nothing to prevent it) love, because although always we speak about authority, there is no authority without this kind of love which I referred; it gives the bauty of parenthood that we can discover in the presence of the unconditional love that sustains life itself.

Onlly love and warm teaching is able to forming free men and women who are not afraid to believe in their hearts and give its to others!

Happy day, dad, and thanks for all your love.

My favorite tool: Cellphone

They are around the world on our modern days, on a global scale maybe surpassing in terms of market penetration products such as radios, televisions, computers and cars.

The reasons for this unlimited success are generally reduced to three: need, functionality and cost.
First an more important than others, is the necessity of them: we move constantly to many places developing various activities but also we want to maintain communication with people (persons, institutions) who arent spatially with us, for many bases or functions that come from the multifaceted world, v gr., show affection, have different roles in society. Anyway, we can recognize two elements to their proper use: Inability to face contact and intention of comunicate. The purpose is the distant communication.
Some people say they havent got one cause the hate them! Pity, they are antisocial or idiote; say phones never ends ringing, but really are excuses (of neuroticism, bitterness) or they dont know you can mute or turn off the phone. Cellphones are part of our life and have came to stay with us.
Second, the cause of their massive size: simplicity. If we cannot use them with ease and comfort, popularity would decays with technical complexity.
And third is the economic cost, circumstance element referred to market and individual persons conditions. Here may lay injustice, because more and more help to the persons protect their freedom to live decently in the chances of communication. Communication is a right not a luxury, and obviously includes the distant one.

La Pietà

This is probably one of the most famous sculptures in the world of the religious art; made in full Renaissence, 1499, by the genius, wise and artist Michelangelo, since he was 24 years old, being the first and last opus ever signed.
La Pietà, magnificent Michelangelo`s statue, give us a highly and strong landscape of human suffering, with a supernatural feeling of divine pain at human scale.
The virgin holding Jesus` lifeless body provides a majestic sadness and tranquility, bases for a mitigated pain, the hope in other things that the violence against the humankind expressed its most diverse forms, and it gives us the clue for the revolutionary betting choice: the unconditional love conscious of it self sufficiency without considering what is received in raturn.

Entonces les dijo: "Síganme, y yo los haré pescadores de hombres".
"Felices los afligidos, porque serán consolados".
"No son los que me dicen: "Señor, Señor", los que entrarán en el Reino de los Cielos, sino los que cumplen la voluntad de mi Padre que está en el cielo".

San Mateo.

We could say that the essence of Catholicism is the service. Not a theoretical but one made flesh, it's the freely available of life for the others, like Jesus gave his life for us, showing a new and radical way of life, and too changing all the old paradigms of mankind: instead wealth, power and selfishness, offers poverty, humility and service.

The big decision, follow his porpose, is totally linked to the notion of another person. The inversion of past values must be true, same that the washing of feet and many others, signs of humility, of love. As Bendict says, there are the beginings of the new priesthood of Jesus Christ, which has as a corollary the incorporation of the disciples into the Lord's priesthood.

It's an invitation to live without fears, accepting the posibility of hurts in the process of the meeting with others.

To this are called all people on the world, and specially the priests, vicars of Christ. It means they have more responsabilities in their lifes, cause they only have to interested in being reals testimonials of the love, forgers of the unity in the difference.

When we forget our commitment, and we live for us ("Am I rather living for myself?"), we are obscuring the mission in the world with inconsistences, preventing to men and women from the encountering God's love. If we err, knowing it, we must have the courage to ask for forgiveness and put ourselves available to the others, cause the responsability implies a willingness to be corrected to reconcile with the community.

This goes particularly for priests in their mission to bring God's mercy to those served, when abdicate peace and change by the sword, when they choose violence and selfish power instead of power of love, always willing to suffer for the good. Then, catholics are called to respect Law (as a manifestation of justice, the basis for peace), make the just and good, and the priests first. There are no exceptions: the truth of the kingdom doesn't tolerate facades that hide an inability to suffer for the beloved subject; without it, there's no real joy.

The abuses committed in his apostolate, such as violations of physical integrity of children, must be punished even more severely than crimes of ordinary citizens and the church should do everything possible to shed light on these cases, possible and certain. Without light there is no truth nor reconciliation. What not to say that the priesthood, and the requirements involved for a more dedicated service, itself is bad by any means, as we have said!

MASS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Basilica of St John Lateran
Holy Thursday, 1st April 2010


Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In his Gospel, Saint John, more fully than the other three evangelists, reports in his own distinctive way the farewell discourses of Jesus; they appear as his testament and a synthesis of the core of his message. They are introduced by the washing of feet, in which Jesus’ redemptive ministry on behalf of a humanity needing purification is summed up in this gesture of humility. Jesus’ words end as a prayer, his priestly prayer, whose background exegetes have traced to the ritual of the Jewish feast of Atonement. The significance of that feast and its rituals – the world’s purification and reconciliation with God – is fulfilled in Jesus’ prayer, a prayer which anticipates his Passion and transforms it into a prayer. The priestly prayer thus makes uniquely evident the perpetual mystery of Holy Thursday: the new priesthood of Jesus Christ and its prolongation in the consecration of the Apostles, in the incorporation of the disciples into the Lord’s priesthood. From this inexhaustibly profound text, I would like to select three sayings of Jesus which can lead us more fully into the mystery of Holy Thursday.

First, there are the words: “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (Jn 17:3). Everyone wants to have life. We long for a life which is authentic, complete, worthwhile, full of joy. This yearning for life coexists with a resistance to death, which nonetheless remains unescapable. When Jesus speaks about eternal life, he is referring to real and true life, a life worthy of being lived. He is not simply speaking about life after death. He is talking about authentic life, a life fully alive and thus not subject to death, yet one which can already, and indeed must, begin in this world. Only if we learn even now how to live authentically, if we learn how to live the life which death cannot take away, does the promise of eternity become meaningful. But how does this happen? What is this true and eternal life which death cannot touch? We have heard Jesus’ answer: this is eternal life, that they may know you – God – and the one whom you have sent, Jesus Christ. Much to our surprise, we are told that life is knowledge. This means first of all that life is relationship. No one has life from himself and only for himself. We have it from others and in a relationship with others. If it is a relationship in truth and love, a giving and receiving, it gives fullness to life and makes it beautiful. But for that very reason, the destruction of that relationship by death can be especially painful, it can put life itself in question. Only a relationship with the One who is himself Life can preserve my life beyond the floodwaters of death, can bring me through them alive. Already in Greek philosophy we encounter the idea that man can find eternal life if he clings to what is indestructible – to truth, which is eternal. He needs, as it were, to be full of truth in order to bear within himself the stuff of eternity. But only if truth is a Person, can it lead me through the night of death. We cling to God – to Jesus Christ the Risen One. And thus we are led by the One who is himself Life. In this relationship we too live by passing through death, since we are not forsaken by the One who is himself Life.

But let us return to Jesus’s words – this is eternal life: that they know you and the One whom you have sent. Knowledge of God becomes eternal life. Clearly “knowledge” here means something more than mere factual knowledge, as, for example, when we know that a famous person has died or a discovery was made. Knowing, in the language of sacred Scripture, is an interior becoming one with the other. Knowing God, knowing Christ, always means loving him, becoming, in a sense, one with him by virtue of that knowledge and love. Our life becomes authentic and true life, and thus eternal life, when we know the One who is the source of all being and all life. And so Jesus’ words become a summons: let us become friends of Jesus, let us try to know him all the more! Let us live in dialogue with him! Let us learn from him how to live aright, let us be his witnesses! Then we become people who love and then we act aright. Then we are truly alive.

Twice in the course of the priestly prayer Jesus speaks of revealing God’s name. “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world” (v. 6). “I have made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (v. 26). The Lord is alluding here to the scene of the burning bush, when God, at Moses’ request, had revealed his name. Jesus thus means to say that he is bringing to fulfilment what began with the burning bush; that in him God, who had made himself known to Moses, now reveals himself fully. And that in doing so he brings about reconciliation; that the love with which God loves his Son in the mystery of the Trinity now draws men and women into this divine circle of love. But what, more precisely, does it mean to say that the revelation made from the burning bush is finally brought to completion, fully attains its purpose? The essence of what took place on Mount Horeb was not the mysterious word, the “name” which God had revealed to Moses, as a kind of mark of identification. To give one’s name means to enter into relationship with another. The revelation of the divine name, then, means that God, infinite and self-subsistent, enters into the network of human relationships; that he comes out of himself, so to speak, and becomes one of us, present among us and for us. Consequently, Israel saw in the name of God not merely a word steeped in mystery, but an affirmation that God is with us. According to sacred Scripture, the Temple is the dwelling-place of God’s name. God is not confined within any earthly space; he remains infinitely above and beyond the world. Yet in the Temple he is present for us as the One who can be called – as the One who wills to be with us. This desire of God to be with his people comes to completion in the incarnation of the Son. Here what began at the burning bush is truly brought to completion: God, as a Man, is able to be called by us and he is close to us. He is one of us, yet he remains the eternal and infinite God. His love comes forth, so to speak, from himself and enters into our midst. The mystery of the Eucharist, the presence of the Lord under the appearances of bread and wine, is the highest and most sublime way in which this new mode of God’s being-with-us takes shape. “Truly you are a God who is hidden, O God of Israel”, the prophet Isaiah had prayed (45:15). This never ceases to be true. But we can also say: Truly you are a God who is close, you are a God-with-us. You have revealed your mystery to us, you have shown your face to us. You have revealed yourself and given yourself into our hands… At this hour joy and gratitude must fill us, because God has shown himself, because he, infinite and beyond the grasp of our reason, is the God who is close to us, who loves us, and whom we can know and love.

The best-known petition of the priestly prayer is the petition for the unity of the disciples, now and yet to come. The Lord says, “I do not ask only on behalf of these – that is, the community of the disciples gathered in the Upper Room – but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me, and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (v. 20ff.; cf. vv. 11 and 13). What exactly is the Lord asking for? First, he prays for his disciples, present and future. He peers into the distance of future history. He sees the dangers there and he commends this community to the heart of the Father. He prays to the Father for the Church and for her unity. It has been said that in the Gospel of John the Church is not present – and it is true that word ekklesia is not used by John – and yet she appears here in her essential features: as the community of disciples who through the apostolic preaching believe in Jesus Christ and thus become one. Jesus prays for the Church to be one and apostolic. This prayer, then, is properly speaking an act which founds the Church. The Lord prays to the Father for the Church. She is born of the prayer of Jesus and through the preaching of the Apostles, who make known God’s name and introduce men and women into the fellowship of love with God. Jesus thus prays that the preaching of the disciples will continue for all time, that it will gather together men and women who know God and the one he has sent, his Son Jesus Christ. He prays that men and women may be led to faith and, through faith, to love. He asks the Father that these believers “be in us” (v. 21); that they will live, in other words, in interior communion with God and Jesus Christ, and that this inward being in communion with God may give rise to visible unity. Twice the Lord says that this unity should make the world believe in the mission of Jesus. It must thus be a unity which can be seen – a unity which so transcends ordinary human possibilities as to become a sign before the world and to authenticate the mission of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ prayer gives us the assurance that the preaching of the Apostles will never fail throughout history; that it will always awaken faith and gather men and women into unity – into a unity which becomes a testimony to the mission of Jesus Christ. But this prayer also challenges us to a constant examination of conscience. At this hour the Lord is asking us: are you living, through faith, in fellowship with me and thus in fellowship with God? Or are you rather living for yourself, and thus apart from faith? And are you not thus guilty of the inconsistency which obscures my mission in the world and prevents men and women from encountering God’s love? It was part of the historical Passion of Jesus, and remains part of his ongoing Passion throughout history, that he saw, and even now continues to see, all that threatens and destroys unity. As we meditate on the Passion of the Lord, let us also feel Jesus’ pain at the way that we contradict his prayer, that we resist his love, that we oppose the unity which should bear witness before the world to his mission.

At this hour, when the Lord in the most holy Eucharist gives himself, his body and his blood, into our hands and into our hearts, let us be moved by his prayer. Let us enter into his prayer and thus beseech him: Lord, grant us faith in you, who are one with the Father in the Holy Spirit. Grant that we may live in your love and thus become one, as you are one with the Father, so that the world may believe. Amen.