04/07/2010 - 14TH. SUNDAY IN ORDINARY
SEASON - C
1Reading Is 66,10-14 Psalm 65 2Reading Gal 6,14-18 Gospel Lk 10,1-12.17-20
"For them I consecrate myself, so that they will also be consecrated in
the truth". This is the most significant sentence in the prayer of Jesus.
Now we know that his prayer is not made of words, but of gift. The prayer of
Jesus consists in offering of one's life. Shortly, in the garden of olives,
in fact, during his agony, he will say: "Father, not my will but yours
be done". Jesus "consecrates" himself in that he offers, gives
himself to be slain as the sacrifices were offered on the stone altar of the
Temple of Jerusalem. He becomes the sacrifice. And sacrifice is sacrificed.
He offers himself to become "victim" for them. The sacrifices in the
Temple, were offered or for all the people or to anyone in particular. Jesus
expresses the intention of offering himself to his disciples. And for them he
does not only ask the forgiveness of sins or atonement of sins, as it was intended
in the offering of sacrifices of animals, but that they too are consecrated,
and are consecrated in the truth. They must therefore accompany him always.
They will be offered to the father too. They too must become love, a gift of
God's love in the world, to reveal to it the Fatherhood of God. Also their immolation
will offered as an act of love, like that of their Lord. Here we learn to pray,
we learn that true prayer, that is acceptable to the Father, is not the fine
words, beautiful songs, devout devotions! Prayer is the offering of oneself.
For this who prays really becomes available, detached of himself, devoid of
self-interest, free from desires from one's glory or from one's convenience.
Just before Jesus had asked the Father to consecrate his own in the truth, offers
himself for this. He knows that the prayer does not receive strength, as I said,
from offering fine words, but by the gift of oneself. The consecration of the
disciples is at his heart and so he offers his life. They will be "consecrated
in the truth", that is offered to God in order to become revealers, highlight
others with his great love.
The revelation that st. Paul offers is for those who want to be seriously committed
in the journey of faith: "what counts…is to a new creation".
To be a new creation is to go through "the cross of our Lord Jesus, the
Christ". The apostle boasts of the cross of the Lord, and his boasting
comes to fullness with the affirmation "the world, for me, is crucified";
meaning that he stopped the world from influencing his choices in life. If the
world does not seduce you or hits you, it means you have won it, and you are
"a new creation".
The disciples of Jesus receive from him this mission, to proclaim and to make
experience the newness of the reign of God to men. They themselves are to be
made new, different: because of this they will be like lambs amongst wolfs.
The meaning of this expression is clear: the lambs don't bite and don't know
violence, not even if they are surrounded and threatened, wounded or even killed.
In this sense they will be truly new, because wherever they go they carry a
new way of reacting towards the on going wickedness of the world. Wherever they
go, they don't take with them the usual preoccupations that burden the people
they will come across: money, clothes, investments for the future, the need
to be affirmed by others. For this too, they are a new creation. And at the
end, their words are not the usual lamentations that are heard everywhere, but
a message of hope, trust, and joy: "the Reign of God is at hand".
This proclamation accompanied by what Jesus said and did, brings joy and a sense
of awaiting in one's life. That Jesus who loved and healed the sick and consoled
sinners, is alive, is always present in the world with his Spirit, who is still
being sent to his disciples and to the Church because of his prayers. Any one
and everywhere one can turn to him in prayers and therefore consolation is spread
all over the earth. The prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, and joy invades the
hearts. The first to rejoice of this "ministry" of the disciples,
is the Lord himself. When they return to share with him the outcome of their
mission, he rejoices with them. Their joy is great because they came to realize
that their presence and their word send demons away. This is the great sign
of the coming of the reign of God. If Satan runs away, his reign is overcome:
he has no definitive power over men. Not only Jesus but also his messengers
bring peace and a richness not of wealth or money, nor that of pleasure. Making
Jesus known, they bring the richness of love, of that love, that even though
has to go through pain and suffering to make itself present, produces the fruit
of joy, the true joy from the depth of one's heart. Man feels to be alive and
fulfilled when he knows that he is loved and that he can love in return as God's
gift. Because of this Jesus tells the disciples to rejoice because they themselves
are loved by the Father: from this joy they receive the power to continue to
bring to the world the Word and the signs of the kingdom. This is the joy of
freedom that goes over and above that received from the evil's victory, the
joy of being "a new creation", a new gift of the Father to the suffering
world.