Folia Theologica et Canonica 10. 32/24 (2021)

Sacra theologia

I AM WITH YOU EVERY DAY ,. (GOD’S PROMISES ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES) 45

their life’s journey, and thus working for their happiness, “in the fullness of time”, that is, when He saw the time had come, He became incarnate in the person of Jesus, a man in the flesh. Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah, in whom, in the words of the Apostle, “all the promises of God are fulfilled” (2Cor 1:20). He is known as the promise of the Father, but also as the bearer of new promises.

During His public earthly ministry, He begins His preaching by proclaiming the Kingdom of God (Mt 4:23), which He promises in the Beatitudes to the poor and persecuted (Mt 5:3,10; Lk 6:20,23). Jesus takes disciples to Himself and promises them a miraculous persecution (Mt 4:19) and authority over the twelve tribes of Israel (Mt 19:28). He promises Peter personally that he will establish his Church on him and secure for him victory over hell (Mt 16:16f). To those who follow him he promises a hundredfold reward and eternal life (Mt 19:29); to those who stand with him he promises support before God (Mt 10:32).16 All this is part of the divine promise that man is not abandoned, but is cared for by God, who guides his life with his merciful love. The Gospel of John makes it clear that Jesus, by his presence and his actions, is no longer just a promise, but a gift, a gift of God to humanity: he is the way, the truth, the resurrection and the life, the bread and the living water.

We see, then, that Jesus is once again manifesting all the promises of the Old Testament Scriptures concerning the people, the land, the happiness, which, although already partially fulfilled, could not yet reach its fullness because, as the Gospel of John repeatedly says, “his (Jesus’) hour has not yet come”, that is, when he gives the final sign of his self-giving love in the sacrifice of the cross.

Jesus was careful to prepare the last evening he would spend with his disciples. He had already understood more and more clearly the will of his heavenly Father, which he was preparing to carry out. He wanted to interpret the events of the next day in the light of his disciples - and also of their future disciples, the Church. In John’s words, “Before the feast of Easter, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father, though he loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” (Jn 13:1). Luke introduces it this way, “When the hour had come, he sat down at table with the apostles and said to them, T longed to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer’” (Lk 22:15). It must have been a shock to the disciples to see how, in the midst of the annual ritual Passover celebration, the Master now announced his own impending suffering and death. Breaking the bread and giving it into their hands, he speaks of the breaking of his own life, and when he passes the cup of blessing around the Passover meal, as is customary at the end of the

16 See article Les promesses in Léon-Dufour, X. (ed.) Vocabulaire de théologie biblique, Paris 1970.