07/02/2010 - 05TH. SUNDAY IN ORDINARY SEASON - C
I Reading Isaiah 6,1-2.3-8 Psalm 137 II Reading 1Cor 15,1-11 Gospel Lk 5,1-11
"And now, Father, glorify me with the glory I had with you before the world
was formed". Jesus repeats the petition he had started the prayer with: asking
the Father for glorification, and underlines what kind of glory, that is, the one
he had before the world was created. This is a surprising affirmation: Jesus knows
his being as Son since eternity, he is eternal like the Father, shares in the divine
life, and therefore, of the divine love which is forever. These words sound as a
great mystery to our ears, and not easy to grasp. What could this "glory I
had with you before" mean? As if Jesus speaks of it with nostalgia. Before
he assumed a body and a human soul, the Son of God was living a special relationship
with the Father, a relationship which is not known to us, because we can never experience
it. Having assumed a human nature the Son of God came to know in time the limitations
and the weakness that it had inherited from past generations, even the weakness
that leads to sin: it is the weakness with which we struggle to combine with obedience
in love and the service that expresses the true meaning of the life of the sons
and daughters of that God who knows only to love. Even Jesus had to suffer in order
to obey, even so, as the Letter to the Hebrews say; he needed "to learn obedience
through suffering". Jesus is aware of his proper identity: He is God. He said
even in other occasions, during his discussions with the Jews: "Before Abram,
I am". In that occasion they even tried to lapidate him because they understood
him well, and so they were saying that he is cursing. What is the consequence of
this awareness? Knowing that he is God, that he comes from God, a God who knows
only how to love, by serving, he humbles himself to give that fullness of love.
"Before the world was formed". He lived the fullness of love even though
he needed not express it through small and understandable signs known by men. The
glory of Jesus was his being continuously in obedience to the Father to do his will
and to be the fullness of his will: this desire made him say: "Here I am, I
come to do your will, O God".
How can man proclaims the words of God? The Word of God is pure and perfect love:
man is a sinner, born and live in a place ruined with sin. When he proclaims the
Word of God, is he not a comedian, an actor? Isaiah knew it, when he was called
to be a prophet; Peter understood it, when Jesus went up with him on a boat; Paul
too knew it when he wanted to proclaim that Gospel that changed his life. We often
forget it and become 'hypocrites': repeating the Word of God, we say things that
are not ours, truths we share up to a certain point, at an intellectual level, but
not at a practical level. We need, like Isaiah, a purification of the lips, and
a total cleansing of our life, as Peter came to understand. Like st. Paul we too
recognize that we are not worthy. I, myself, even though I never killed anybody,
need to recognize that I'm a great sinner for times I live superficially, for ignoring
the sufferings of the brethren, because I often think of my little and insignificant
problems. How many sins, which we hold as "venial", and from which we
don't commit ourselves to repent, break our generosity, block the joy of our witness
and close us upon ourselves! Often the venial sins are worst that the moral ones:
because we tend to try to repent and correct these last ones, for these are seen
also by our brethren, they won't imitate us! Instead, we tend to multiply the venial
ones, don't think about them, and thus we hinder the brethren who might be influenced
by our behavior. The Word of God can sound strange on our lips, like a comedian's
word.
What to do? Avoid proclaiming the Word? Never! God know that he cannot find clean
persons on earth to bring forward his mysteries to the world. Even so he finds us
worthy to be sent to do so. He wants to use us and is committed to show us mercy
and give us his grace: he does so when he finds us at least aware of our unworthiness
and of our sin, and if we are humble like Isaiah, Peter and Paul. Isaiah recognize:
"I'm lost, because I'm a man with unclean lips living in the midst of a people
with unclean lips"; Peter "threw himself at Jesus' feet, saying: "Lord,
stay away from me, for I am a sinner", and Paul "I'm not worthy to be
called an apostle because I have persecuted the Church of God". To the first
one, his lips were purified by a Seraphim, to Peter Jesus trusted the mission to
bring men out of the sea, that is from the state of perdition in which they felled,
and to Paul was given the grace to work for the Gospel and to be added among the
apostles. We remain unworthy to proclaim the Word, but our humility and our awareness
of being unworthy attracts God's attention, who uses us for his mercy whatsoever.
It seems to me that today the Lord is inviting us to a deep humility of the heart,
confessing that we are sinners, not to leave every commitment, but to trust ourselves
to his grace and to recognize everything to the power of his Word and not to our
worthiness of ability to proclaim it.