(Mk 9:38-43.45.47-48)
The concept of closure and inquisition
(Mk 9:38-40)
It is not strange that the Holy Inquisition arose in the time of an absent ecclesiology.
The sickness of caste - always prone to kidnapping Jesus - and the sense of absolute monopoly... were already temptations of the first communities, particularly of the leading Apostles.
The super Apostles pretended to fix the typology of church members, including authorisations, deferences, characteristics.
On the other hand - albeit in simplicity - there is no trivial criterion that gives the imprimatur of being able to discriminate 'faithful' and 'not'.
It applies: how much does the Person of the Son of Man count for our lives and in our daily choices?
Feeling - or not - a friend to anyone who is committed to annihilating evil (perhaps by resorting to his free way of perceiving God) makes us reflect even today.
Are we only on the threshold of a journey in the Spirit? The sign of a de facto separation from God's plan for woman and man is perhaps concealed by epidermal expressions.
We have probably not properly understood that every step of liberation - wherever it comes from - brings us closer to the Father and also humanises our heads.
The leaven of the Pharisees and Herod (Mk 8:14) also leads Christ's direct disciples to a sealed mentality - according to which if someone "is not of ours" ("did not follow us" v.38) he must be marginalised.
The difference between religiosity and Faith: there is no longer any need to adhere to a recognised way of thinking or be a member of an official club.
Spiritual wisdom and Openness are the same thing. Every vital gesture opens up happy possibilities: being "drawn to God" is all of this.
In order to do good (casting out demons, v.38) it is not the badge (e.g. the name on the Baptism register) or being confirmed in exclusive circles that counts.
In the personal adventure of genuine Faith, there is no monopoly - not even for the Apostle John. No one is qualified to judge in the name of the assembly!
Holiness as separation concerns the criteria, the mentality, the concatenation of principles (or their reversal): not the election-predestination of a 'people of the pure'.
For Christ, what counts is not formal belonging - which tends to homologate - but what to do in the concrete (obviously on a vocational basis and of unrepeatable inclination).
It is not the feeling of being a disciple that counts, but being a disciple in fact. Love for the 'truth' does not exclude, but includes all those with high values (even supernatural ones, which we do not understand).
Authentic adherence is about the good - the only Victory of the people reborn in the Risen One. Work of life that even the official Church is called upon to build, without squeamish attitudes.
On the contrary, we see that precisely the situations outside the lines become a goad: they urge the dull and opaque 'Christians' to become seeds.
The 'community' is not important because it sees itself as such.
The universal call to the promotion of humanity is divine: a wealth that overcomes obstacles, a heritage of joy from wherever it comes.
If relegated and squeezed into filing cabinets, salvation history does not become a life of the saved.
The Mystical Body of the Lord shuns the ideology of power and the opinionated style of manipulators (spiritual grabbers) who imagine they are who knows what.
"But Jesus said, Do not hinder them. For there is no one who does a mighty wonder in my name and immediately afterwards can speak evil of me" (v.39).
To train disciples, Christ does not tickle self-love by setting up a festival or promoting fictions.
With his intimates, the Master does not use diplomatic language (expressions careful not to offend their susceptibility as experts).
The training of disciples is essential to the building of the Kingdom with wide boundaries, primarily mental.
In esoteric religions, there are models. Here no, only charisms, even personal ones - a condition of true love.
We are governed by God alone - the only one who knows what arouses in each one, and where to go.
Jesus is the revelator and pivot of this joyful, unthinkable News: but in the sense of motive and intimate motor, entirely non-external.
The Lord calls the person in a way that seems incomprehensible to others.
Christ marks his Friendship in the lives of believers, as centre and axis. Yet there are so many gestures and sensitivities that the new world arouses, and equally mark his Presence.
Interior education and the challenge of Faith reflected in activities prepare us for daily life, as well as for the great mission.
By training us in the straightforward Word-event, the resigned Messiah conveys his own experience of the Father.
He involves us with incredible and undeserved confidence in the work of evangelisation.
Nor does he tire of repeating what we do not wish to understand.
The Son of Man only commands us to perceive well the reality (Mk 8:27-29) where God's secret lurks (which conformist thinking cannot even begin to imagine: Mk 8:30-35).The Rule only applies to standardised devotion, which always poses more (already ancient) answers than questions.
The standard has no specific weight for the excess of the adventure of Faith.
The imbalance of love is personal: it serenely admits diversity and the eccentric increase of life that follows.
Such is the new awareness of the Mission made in listening, and in respect not only for the intelligence and culture of others, but also for oneself.
Even now in a thousand ways and finally with the help of a wiser ecclesial Magisterium, Providence encourages us to better position ourselves - in support of those excluded from the 'round'.
The work of 'evangelical conversion' comes to us loud and clear, overriding any considerations made from the standpoint of a triumphant Church or ancient right.
No one has a monopoly on Grace, which is why we do not shrink our hearts from canons or fashions.
In the truth of Good, a sense of ownership is out of place.
To internalise and live the message:
What weight do the material interests, the empty rigidity, or the fleshless fantasies, of those who (without even having a title) ape small hierarchies and fulminate the different with mediocre impersonal sentences have on you?
How do you live the Word: 'He who is not against, is for'?
The relationship with the excluded and their (modest) needs
(Mk 9:41-50)
In language typical of the lively East, Jesus' exhortations to coexistence overturn the hierarchy between the strong and the weak.
In religions, we find droves of marginalised people who cannot access or participate in the set-ups of those who deceive the crowds (even themselves) using pyramid religion.
The cowardice of the wealthy classes produces the hesitation of the voiceless, indefinitely.
In the Church of God - a sign of an alternative society - there must be no doubt, starting with small deprivations.
Especially in the well-structured sphere of roles, the wretched would wait to see (I won't say their hopes for redemption realised, but simply) their modest needs fulfilled, for the sake of justice.
Unfortunately, they are still rather mocked and chastised - by those who fear losing visibility, privileges and roles.
On the contrary, those who, like Jesus, are able to give everything, must not forget the small gestures, which speak of a gratuitousness that is not 'exemplary' and therefore authentic (limited in the day-to-day).
It is this coming together in the summary - little praised - that enhances the climate and does not drive the weak to resentment and evil.
The new 'doctrine' of Jesus is wise and decision-oriented, because it does not lose enthusiasm. On the contrary, it already makes us experience the same quality of life as the Eternal, turning away from that which corrupts.
He who is all about the great and does not notice the detail, never has a sense of the value of things, and sooner or later will end up despising everything.
Jesus identifies with us (v.41) because he inhabits us: we are his real, incarnate Victory.
A stumbling stone or even just in the shoe (v.42) turns the "mikròi" away from the path of Faith.
The 'incipients' - precisely, the ones with little energy and relationships - begin to take their first steps... they are still outside the cliques and the (even internal) ranks.
However, those who pretend and stand in the way, or who give shabby and lousy testimony, have but a stone in store: a millstone around their neck and an unworthy end (deadly existence: v.42).
"Better" than the further mortification of all, from the top of the class forced to live badly.
Not because God makes them pay, but because they throw away their lives and ruin others, who finally turn away, rightly repulsed - while the adventure of sharing could be wonderful for everyone.
This non-sense (to use a euphemism) is the trait that drives crowds to seek a more authentic Christianity than the one lived only in signs, catwalks and formulas, or in the structures provided.
The choice - if there is one - is either radical, or no longer convincing. And the smell that is given off is worse than smelly (v.43).
By dint of professing, many are left without God and without humanity; they do not even realise that there are others - different and legitimate life aspirations (towards themselves well recognised and restrained).
Instead, the community in which one experiences joy is like that pinch of wisdom that makes the spontaneous life wave of people full - beautiful.
Ferment that does not leaven is of no use.
All the more so to the small and shaky ones who approach the Church in order to feel good, or finally no longer exposed to the ludicrousness of society's all external competitions.
An artificial atmosphere, good only to reduce the defenceless to silence, despised and reduced to obedience - and which makes a mockery of acceptance.
This was customary in the religions of the empire, even in the name of 'divine' law... so what is the difference?"Having salt in ourselves" (v.50) means that in Christ we are made capable of giving to the smallest and most ordinary things that hue and taste capable of transmitting also to our neighbour the flavour of a saved life - starting from "within".
In the culture of the ancient Middle East, salt was related to God and therefore also had religious importance: a symbol of durability (to preserve food) and of courage (savouriness, seasoning, purification).
Salt had the power to drive out demons, which corrupted life and caused stench. That is why it was widely used in cultic sacrifices and in sanctioning 'covenants'.
In short, salt was a guarantee of genuine durability.
But Christian salt is only... love for one's neighbour and the ability to correspond to one's vocation.
Without it, the very character of life in Christ would disappear.
So the 'salt pact' is essential for credibility, for the proclamation, for the standard of living; for the very survival of communities, and their unmistakable touch.
Listening to the Spirit and to each other thus remains an indispensable ingredient of 'Shalôm'.
No other work of defence from outside - inquisition, prevention or repression - can guarantee the survival of the Church.
Difference between Religion and Faith? The norm, used to promote or legitimise situations (of marginalisation and domination).
For our human, spiritual and whole-life progress, Jesus takes sides (perhaps not as one would expect) - because no one is given exclusivity.
To internalise the message:
In your community, it is the little ones who have to conform to the big ones and their circles... or vice versa, is there serious listening to the new ones with low energy and relationships, shaky and maladjusted?
