28/01/2007 - FOURTH SUNDAY in O.
T. - Year C
First Reading Jeremiah 1: 4-5; 17-19 Psalm 70
Second Reading 1 Corinthians 12: 31-13; 13 Gospel Luke 4: 21-30
We are on the road to holiness. We saw that Christianity is a fragile vessel
which contains the treasure of the life of God. Fragile realities require continued
care and attention! This is why it is a new gift from God, an unimaginable gift!
He nurtures us and quenches us with His very Body and His Blood outpoured. The
sacramental signs of His love, which goes "until the end", will become
Bread and Wine, our food and our drink. We experience a union with God, concretely,
in an environment of mutual communion with other believers. This way, we truly
experience that God is really the Emmanuel, "God with us", not God
"with me"! The Eucharist is the communion with God, which nurtures
the communion with other believers. This is why we can, only, benefit from this
gift/nurture through the Church, the community of faithful. They are all in
need of nurturing, because they are all fragile, all sinners. We should not
be surprised at the sins of our brothers, but by the beauty and the greatness
of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which unites the Church, which is holy and
sanctifying! The Christian, who pursues his own sanctity, will do whatever it
takes to be able to participate in the Eucharist, and will whatever it takes
to be able to make the celebration beautiful and worthy of God, and welcoming
to weaker brothers. Man's sanctity will gain strength each time he takes part
in the Eucharist, and so, if he can, he will participate daily. We eat a small
piece of bread, with our mouth, but God's energy, which transforms us in a gift
of love and wisdom, enters within us!
Today, our attention is drawn to the words of St. Paul. He wants to show us
the best way to follow Jesus, so that we can meet the Father! It's the way of
love, but a special love, which He calls charity. It's a love from which men
benefit, but which is derived from God and remains turned to Him. Charity, as
the word itself means, is a love which we received and continue to receive;
it is not our own innate quality, nor is it fruit of our own strength or ability.
Compared to charity, all other earthly things, beautiful and desirable, as they
may be, lose their colour and their weight. Knowing the language of the most
desperate people, the ability to know and understand the future, even the faith
which obtains divine miracles from above, as well as the strength of spirit
to throw one's self in the fire, for the sake of others, are all fleeting possibilities,
with short-lived outcome, and cannot compete with charity! This gift comes from
above and surpasses the limits of time: it is eternal; it shines upon us and
within us, even when we're weak or if the experiences in our life are simple
and very normal. "Charity" makes us patient and good-willed; it makes
us humble and watchful in the small things, to the suffering and the joys of
our brothers; it makes us desire good for everyone, the good and the bad, just
as the heart of the Father does. Charity receives the power of perseverance
from faith, and it is rewarded by hope. In time, it will make our faith and
hope visible at the final reward! Charity is not born in us through listening
to men's desire, but in listening to the beating of the heart of God. Charity,
then, says "yes" to God, always, while still being able to say "no"
to the requests of men. It loves God with all its heart and loves others like
itself: often, we need to deny ourselves some things! In order to really love
others, we must be careful that what they ask of us is not contrary to the express
will of God and His commandments. True love of my brother cannot ask me to disobey
God!
God, Himself, in Nazareth, the place where He was well-known and loved, found
Himself in a position where He had to choose. There, especially, He was asked
to perform miracles, not as sign of revelations for the identity of the Son
of God and Messiah, but as good actions that would relieve the weight of the
suffering of the life of someone. Instead, this was not what the Father had
asked of Him. The Father had sent Him to proclaim His kingdom, to ask that they
love Him and to abandon the way of selfishness. He, Himself, had to pursue the
way of the cross so that He could guide us on the road to true love and true
life. We cannot, then, ask Jesus to deny us the cross, at all cost! After all,
He came for us all, not just for His people: Elijah left the confines of Israel
and Elisha healed a stranger; therefore, He too, like the prophets, must open
His heart to the whole world, to those who are locked in the beliefs of other
religions, because His life is the way of God, and necessary so that His paternity
may be revealed to all. The love of those who knew Jesus in Nazareth has become
hate: it has been revealed as false love, a disguise of selfishness, which turned
into jealousy.
Charity does not run these risks. We want to know Jesus, not as the One who
avoids suffering, but that He unites them with His, also redeemer of sin, which
causes it. His suffering, carried by Him with love, with true charity, put us
on the road which values each situation. From Jesus we do not welcome only consolation;
but, also, His request to help Him carry the cross, as did Simon the Cirene,
so that the world, that is, all of men throughout the world, by seeing Him and
loving Him, will be saved.