08/08/2010 - 19TH. SUNDAY IN ORDINARY SEASON - C
1Reading Wisd 18,6-9 Psalm 32 2Reading Heb 11,1-2.8-19 Gospel Lk 12,32-48
"I in them and you in me that they may be perfect in unity and the world comes
to know that you were the one to send and that you have loved them as you have loved
me". Jesus insists with the Father upon his desire to see his disciples one.
He wants that among them there is only love, trusting love, obedient love, a love
free from every kind of selfishness. This is the reason why he prays to the Father
the power to live in them in the same way that he lives in the same Father. In Jesus
there is no jealousy. The one who loves would want all to know how to love. If Jesus
lives in the intimacy of every disciple, there should be no obstacle to a reciprocal
unity amongst them: all the disciples will be one heart and one soul. Jesus dares
to ask the Father for a perfect unity: each and every one of them is not and shall
never be perfect, all are weak and sinners. Each and every one of his disciples
has a defect and they are still slow in love and faith: in a short while and they
all shall run away and shall not be present at the cross to share with him his suffering.
Even though they are so weak, their unity can be a perfect gift of the Father: they
can live in obedience to one another and can have trust in one another. Their unity
shall be a light in that life that is not know in this world by men, but only in
heaven by the Father and the Son. The world, that does not want to hear about God,
a God who is love, shall see what it does not want to know, and remain confused.
The life that all can see shall leave a mark on the heart of the one who does not
believe, but can open up for faith. The one who sees Jesus loved by his disciples
to the point of obeying one another should recognize that Jesus is not only a man,
but the true God who comes from God, from a God who is able to love even sinners.
The one who see the unity among the disciples, sees in them the same divine love
that unites the Father to Jesus. Thanks to this unity, fulfilled only in faith,
the disciples become missionaries: they bring into the world the good news made
image and real experience of the one true God. That same God who lives in himself
a loving relationship through the disciples of Jesus, spreads in the world the true
light and the real warmth of his love in the midst of division. Thanks to them,
all can be enlightened and saved.
Faith is the greatest gift that man can have. Without it we would be like animals,
without future, with no hope. Faith in God lifts us up to a dignity that is close
to God himself and clothe us with a power to love constantly and faithfully. Even
so, to live the faith can put us in a position of being a sign of contradiction,
and therefore to have around us "enemies". The believer is therefore always
in danger, danger to be tempted in the same act of faith and in his trust in God,
the danger of being laughed at, or being persecuted because he carries in his heart
the light that comes from above, danger that can even harm him physically or even
risk to be killed, as it already happened and as it happen frequently.
The writer of the Book of Wisdom, written a century before Jesus Christ, knows the
difficult situation of the true believers in God. It is always like the one of the
people of God in Egypt, a people who needed to defend himself from the anger and
unjust laws but who found the strength to remain faithful in prayer and praise of
God. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews gives us a list of names, examples
of true faith living, starting with Abraham. He is the number one example of a believer,
because he lived his faith in God not only in the midst of external dangers, but
also by overcoming the temptations that were using the same Word of God. This Word
of God seemed to contradict itself, but not the one who gave It. If God ask something
from man, he know the reason why: God sees further and more deeper than the eyes
of man even if he is careful and wise. Abraham is for us an example at the moment
when he about to offer his son Isaac in sacrifice. He is the only heir, but he was
to inherit not only the earthly properties of his father, but also his experience
of God, of a loving and omnipotent God.
The disciples of Jesus are to live in a world where the temptation to think only
self and to save oneself is strong. To be worthy of God, they need to forget about
themselves, starting with leaving behind the idea to possessions, to earthy guarantees,
life here on earth: "Sell all that you gave and give it to the poor; invest…a
sure treasure in heaven…" When the Lord shall return, he will want to see that
his own are waiting for him and not busy with the things of earth. These can make
one violent and abusers of one another, while love lives and shines in a free life
from oneself, free from self consideration. "Be prepared". Come, Lord
Jesus!