15/06/2008 - 11th. Sunday in Ordinary
Time - Year A
Ist. Es 19,2-6 Psalm 99 2nd. Reading Rom 5,6-11 Gospel Mt 9,36-10,8
"And He became man": When at Christmas we pronounce these words,
we usually get down on our knees. We adore this project of God and were really
fulfilled. God himself became man. The fullness of God's love is not an idea,
a thought, an imagination, but a reality. God was taken away by such a great
love for man, up to the point of putting upon himself man's nature to become
one like us. In this mystery we realize that God is on our side. We are sinners,
able to make out of the world a place of pain and sufferings because we are
makers of evil. God come to us to be with us. He doesn't come to join in our
evil and perverse ways, doesn't come to support our selfishness, but rather
he comes to plant in the field that we present to him, seeds of a newness of
life. He enters into the world as a see of a new humanity, able to live the
love of the Father for all. We are like that field in which he sows the seeds
to die. It's the only way to bring change to the field, from a death field to
a field of life! "He became man"! He took upon himself the poverty
and the danger of our human condition, so that in return we can receive his
power and the guarantee of life eternal. Since he became man, we are not to
feel condemned to be bad and perverse, makers of sufferings, but rather, we
should feel capable of doing divine actions, actions of love, of consolation,
or reconciliation, of peace! And we are able to do so because of him, and only
because he is with us!
God keeps on speaking to his people through Moses. It's Moses who goes up the
mountain, it he who listens and then refers to all the Word of God. God uses
the mouth, the intelligence and the discernment of Moses, who is to find exact
words, the proper time and the space to pass on to all the people the proposals
of God. Who obeys to the word said by Moses was to obey God himself and is to
become heir of God himself that is to enjoy all that belongs to God, and to
be witness of His presence and of His love for all the other peoples.
When Jesus came into the world, he came to realize the poverty of that people
who had received there great promises, but because of its leaders, would not
listen anymore to the Word of God and so not able to witness the love of the
Father! He trusts to his disciples what he had in front of him: wandering people,
like sheep without a shepherd, without a leader, without food and without rest.
What could Jesus do? He invites his disciples to pray: they earnestly needed
to feel the need of others who can put themselves that God's disposition to
give to the people the spiritual nourishment necessary for eternal life! Praying
for someone expresses the great desire of being a free and loving disposition
in God's hands so that the desire itself can be fulfilled. Having formed the
heart of the Twelve, he calls them so that they themselves become guides, pastors,
to give to the people the right understanding of the true God and of his nearness
to them. He calls by name the Twelve, and empowers them with the necessary ability
to perform the ministry entrusted to them. He gives the "the power to impure
spirits and to heal every kind of sickness". The evil that human beings
suffer is always provoked by the enemy, the devil, who keeping their hearts
away from God, make them unhappy, fills them with selfish desires, lies and
deceivements, and gives way to arise sicknesses and bad situations. The workers
of the Kingdom need to deal with this evil as from its roots, and so they need
to exorcise the heart of man. They, proclaiming Jesus, would help men to be
free from the sin of pride, of jealousy, impurity, attachment to wealth, from
the desire to be better than others, from vanity, from unfaithfulness towards
their responsibilities towards their families and work, from false religiosity,
from superficiality, from wrong decisions that go against God's will. Jesus
gives them power over these spirits, the power to recognize their presence and
their danger, and therefore to send them away from the hearts in his name, a
name full of the Father's love for each and everyone! How many psychic illnesses,
and hence psychosomatic, can be healed as fruit of attentive listening to the
love of the Father!
The disciples need only to do what the Lord tells them: that is to go "only
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel". The field of mission will grow
later. At first they need to strengthen the people that already knew God, and
then Jesus will send them to the pagans, after He had given his life for the
world. Hence the disciples of Jesus are sent to proclaim the Kingdom of God
that is His love and His own presence as King! They will give out the fruit
of the love that heals, that gives life and frees from evil spirits that is
from all that doesn't let them retain their communion with God and with men.
The disciples know that they themselves cannot save anybody, because the savior
is one and He will be for ever, Jesus! It's Him who came to give us the love
of the Father, while we were still sinners, as st. Paul tells us. He reconciled
us with Himself while we were his enemies. Hence our glory is in God and in
His Son that raised our life to a divine life and makes us sharers with Him
for the salvation of the world!