01/08/2010 - 18TH. SUNDAY IN ORDINARY SEASON - C
1Reading Eccl. 1,2; 2,21-23 Psalm 94 2Reading Col 3,1-5.9-11 Gospel Lk 12,13-21
"And the glory you gave me, I gave it to them, so that they be like us one".
Jesus keeps on speaking to the Father of his disciples. They are listening to what
he is saying: what do they understand? We too, do we succeed to understand these
words, or better, the desires of Jesus for us? He already spoke of glory, of being
glorified by the Father. Now he reveals that he has passed on to his disciples the
glory received. We have already seen that the glory is to be understood as the capacity
or possibility of the revelation of the face and love of the Father. Jesus has revealed
it in the highest form when he accepted to die for sinners, which happened not long
afterwards when the will of God was fulfilled in the garden of olives and on Calvary.
Jesus has no greater gift to leave to his disciples: they too will become glory
of God, will manifest his perfect love, his mercy, his goodness. Even the disciples
need therefore to be able to offer themselves, to renounce themselves, renounce
to their own will, so to die. It is in this way that they will express in their
lives the love of the Father, the mercy of God, his faithfulness. And on this way,
they themselves will be "one thing" upon the image of God himself that
is of the Father and the Son. As they are one love, so the disciples, who renounce
to themselves to shine the beauty and the goodness of God, become "one thing"!
When someone speaks so to the Christians, there is always someone who thinks that
these are high expectations that they are to be proposed to consecrated persons.
I ask myself whether one should condemn the Christians to nurture themselves only
on milk if they are never able to take solid food. It impedes them from growing
it blocks the kingdom of God and holds back the building up of the Church as a place
where the beauty and the greatness of God are manifested through the fullness of
love! The fullness of love is not fulfilled if not with the imitation of what Jesus
lived and with the realization amongst us of the communion he lived with the Father.
The one who experience the Lord cannot stop half way: he needs to continue to follow
him, progressing in the life within and in the likeness of the Father who is in
heaven!
We normally hears the words of the Letter to the Colossians at Easter time, but
it helps us to hear them even today: we are always the fruit of the Death and the
Resurrection of Jesus, that in every moment we are to be aware that the best part
of our life is not here, among the things that pass, but up there, where there is
our Lord. Here on earth we prepare for the new life that we are to receive in the
glory of Jesus Christ. Because of this our commitment is to "kill that which
belongs to the world", that is, our thoughts and desires, our ways of behavior
that puts the body with its passions at the center of attention, and hence ruin
the spirit and the relationships with the others. This is not only amongst us, but
also with all the rest, even with those who do not share our same faith or our cultural
and social conditions. "There is no Greek or Jew", meaning that our faith
and our love are not to make any differences: we are to manifest to all the new
life received in Baptism, that is, we are to reveal the love of God to all.
The First Reading and the Gospel Reading are somehow complimentary. They help our
conversion from being influenced by earthly things to being attentive and desiring
celestial life. The reflection that the Book of Qohelet is the one that we often
hear from wise elders, but also from young people who are free from many interests
and are not influenced by money or other richness. Vanity hides everywhere. Vanity
is emptiness, delusion, betrayal. Work, richness, enjoyment, commitment, tiredness,
are our daily tasks: if this reality becomes our support in life and the only motivation
to live, they would become really an impediment to our growth and to peace. We need
to learn how to busy ourselves with the things, even those necessary, with a heart
that is directed towards heaven: than even our reciprocal relationships become sane
and source of joy. Either wise we risk to happen to us what happened to the man
who turned to Jesus as if he was a lawyer. After he got hold of the inheritance,
he didn't treat him like a brother. Obviously this is injustice and greed, but even
the one who received the offence is not to take it so much, because inheritance
does not add much to life, which is in the hands of God. "What you have prepared,
to whom shall belong?" says Jesus as a conclusion of the short but very true
parable. All the richness cannot defend one from excessive drinking, eating disorder,
and other dependencies, let alone those who are seriously sick. It's better if we
accumulate treasures in heaven, instead of making bigger our deposits, try to ease
the sufferings of the poor and the afflicted of the world. To look up at heaven
with this desire shall do us a lot of good!