Turnover in the Church, antidote to one-sidedness

(Mt 5:1-12)

 

In the Gospel of Mt Jesus is the new Moses ascending "the Mount". But the young Lawgiver does not proclaim rules on a stone code, but rather his own experience of the Father... "seeing the crowds" (v.1).

At the crossroads between divine condition and fullness of humanisation, the new Rabbi outlines a kind of self-portrait of himself: as a Son; on behalf of his brothers. Gathered in the spirit of Family.

A sprout of a hospitable world - which in his small churches Mt wants to encourage. Where there is no man above and man always below; or character in front and character behind.

Only humanising upheavals [such as the reversal of roles and conditions] that strengthen the concordant fabric.

Hence in the House of All there must be reciprocation and reversal of figures, situations and criteria of eminence, hence chains of command - signs of the Kingdom to come. 

Reversal capable of sharpening sensitivities to Communion [at that time there was lively friction between experienced Judaizers, first of the class, and latecomers at the threshold of the fraternities of faith].

 

At the time, the mentality of precedence and supremacy was ingrained to the point that all religions recognised hierarchies.

Those who considered themselves entitled to precedence [in the community!] always raised a question of seeming obviousness:

Is it not in the natural order of things that in human society there are first and last, learned and ignorant, sovereigns and subjects?

After all, the legal principle that once governed e.g. all private property law in the Latin world is also the motto in the epigraph of a well-known official Catholic newspaper: Unicuique Suum.

Even Leo XIII, pope of the Social Encyclicals, recognised that 'in human society it is according to the order established by God that there are princes and subjects, masters and proletarians, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, nobles and plebeians; the obligation of charity of the rich and the powerful is to help the poor and destitute'.

It was the mentality of a sin of simple omission: it is enough to do charity.

The Lord's position is very very different: the powerful are by no means the blessed of God - as the rich patriarchs of the First Testament were also supposed to be.

Their estranged world, their palaces, and even their fancy clothes, are perfect metaphors for the inner emptiness and ephemerality they enjoy.

Their gorging themselves is a sign of an inner abyss to be filled - a kind of nervous hunger that feels dizzy.

So on, from alienation to alienation.

On "the Mount", on the other hand, the discreet work of the Spirit is announced, which designates the character of a modest holiness, animated by the Love of gift, in itself divinising and humanising [a quality manifested in the so-called "poor in Spirit"].

Holiness that surpasses the ancient fiction of the dominators, who piled on top of one another reciting the same script.

For hitherto the masses remained dry-mouthed: whichever ruler seized power, the little flock remained submissive, sad and suffocated; unworthy even to present themselves to the Lord.

All condemned and inadequate.

The people of the disciples are also heartbroken, because they do not accept the inequalities of the pyramidal society, which tends to level and annihilate the Gifts of God spread throughout humanity - of whatever social class.

In fact, the authentic disciple goes as far as tears: they express the dimension of intimate energy that purifies external ideas; it makes us true from within, essential outside.

Affliction guides one back into oneself; it reintroduces contact with our earth and the primordial virtues, which regenerate.

Sadness that in the condition of finitude and conscious limitation, makes us empathetic, beautifully human.

Intimately dissatisfied: opponents of injustice. Because every person who is not placed in a position to express his or her abilities is an insult to the Plan of Salvation.

It is not a matter of charity or philanthropy: it is a precise, social choice (v.5).

In fact, each ostracised person is concealed as an artist who is not allowed to express himself, who is neither discovered nor valued in favour of himself and others; rather, considered an outsider or a deviant.

Indeed, Annalena Tonelli spoke of the last people whose pain she wished to diminish as 'murdered Mozarts': she wished to recover and involve them, to enrich them together. She had a mother's heart - and her heart in the misery of her abandoned brothers and sisters.

 

Identical severity prevailed in religions, whose leaders bestowed on the people a strong and vulgar nationalist horde drive, and the contentment of the gregarious.

In contrast, in the Kingdom of Jesus there must be a lack of ranks - which is why the plan of the ambitious and error-free does not match his.The Spirit of Christ spontaneously identifies itself not with the usual aggressive energy of the beasts, of those who prevail because they are more cunning and stronger - but with the person who makes himself available.

We are women and men characterised by a heart of flesh - not of beast (Dan 7).

 

The Beatitudes - the new Decalogue of "the Mount" - allude precisely to a kind of divine condition incarnate and transmissible to anyone, pacified and creative like love, therefore all to be discovered.

 

Blessed is the trait and outcome of the true and full development of the divine plan on humanity.

In the Gospels, this character is not hindered by the frequenters of bad places, but paradoxically by the habitués of the holy precincts.

According to Jesus, purity of heart is not linked to external legal purity - as was believed in all devotions - but to a purified gaze and lack of duplicity. 

The growth and humanisation of the people is thus not thwarted by sinners, but precisely by those who would have the ministry of making the Face of God known to all!

In short, the load of preconceptions with which they face reality and relationships, does not allow the established and fixed authorities to recognise the calls of the Lord in the facts of life and Nature itself.

Thus for the peacemakers.

They work for the complete reconstruction of Life and Fraternity, of Nature itself and of Equal Coexistence.

All of this, in the spirit of selflessness that integrates selfishness by recognising the poor We that expands in the world.

 

The self-portrait of Jesus as it transpires from the Beatitudes of Mt embraces the icon of a little boy - who at that time counted for nothing.

The Lord identifies himself precisely in a house valet; a shop assistant, who nevertheless has a mysterious and pleasant divine spark within him.

It is the only identification that Jesus loves and wishes to give us: that of the one who cannot afford not to recognise the needs of others.

A dimension of sacredness without distinctive haloes: not cynical, but shareable. Because it is linked to instinctive perception and reciprocity, to spontaneous friendship towards woman and man - experienced in the likeness of the Father.

Obviously: this is not a proposal compromised with the usual inexorable rigmarole [doctrine and discipline] that drives back eccentricities: on the contrary, it is very sympathetic and amiable, inclusive.

 

That of the blessed is therefore the condition that makes one unique - not sanctity regulated by procedures, which always abhors, exorcises, the danger of the unusual.

This is precisely why - instead - the fixation on antecedents has characterised the life of the Church for centuries; as has the feudal and monarchical idol of stability for life.

The Master does not exclude our right to do something great... but he does not identify it with having, power, appearance.

For a path of Bliss and Divinisation, the Master does not excite the impulses of holding, rising, dominating: they do not give Happiness.

Rather, he counts on our spontaneous freedom to give, to descend and to serve - a franchise entrusted first and foremost to the top of the class. Those who, throughout history, have made the callus to overwhelm others with moralism and guile.

 

God does not deny the legitimate urges of the self to be recognised. We do not participate in life as if we were destined to fail, but as those who are promoted - who do not suppress their own requirements.

But not to win 'the race'. In this way, the Lord makes us reflect on authentic fulfilment.

It is not an external achievement, but an intimate and self-made one. It is thus able to sculpt our profound inclination, in its wealth of faces and in the time of a Path.

Aristotle asserted that - beyond artificial petitions of principle or apparent proclamations - one really only loves oneself. This is no small question mark.

Granted and not granted, the growth, promotion and blossoming of our qualities lies within a wise Path.

An even interrupted path that knows how to give itself the right pace - even to encounter new states of being.

Genuine and mature love expands the boundaries of the ego lover of primacy, visibility and gain. It integrates it with primordial, dormant energies to which we have not given space - understanding the You in the I.

Itinerary and Vector that then expands capacities and life. Otherwise, in all circumstances and unfortunately at any age, we will remain in the puerile game of those who scramble up the steps to prevail.

As Pope Francis said about the mafia phenomena: "There is a need for men and women of Love, not honour!"

The Tao Tê Ching (XL) writes: 'Weakness is what the Tao uses'. And Master Wang Pi comments: 'The high has for its foundation the low, the noble has for its foundation the vile'.

 

We feel ephemeral and often disappointed, yet we want to be happy, not just here and there: we are uncertain, yet we seek full and lasting joy. Of course we can only find it in a disconcerting proposition.

In ancient times people thought they could meet God in the intoxicating emotions generated by successful experiences, typical of successful men. But the persecuted and crucified Son disputes the externality of this.

Other decisive appointments were considered to be those on the summits of suggestive heights, or the devout and paroxysmal rushing right into the sacred precincts that Jesus intended to dismantle, forcing the people out of them [Jn 10:1-16 Greek text].

Luther interprets the Son of God on the Mount as "Mosissimus Moses". However, Matthew speaks of "the Mount" - not a tribune - as the figure and context of an eternal call, not only intended for the members of the best equipped and most able institutes of perfection to ascend.

Specifically, it is about the moments when we ourselves incorporated into the human completeness of Christ feel fullness of being: like the passing of the bride-soul into its sacred centre, and a special attunement of ideas, words and actions between our nature - and the divine.

"The Mountain" is the (theological) place where the cunning, conformist thoughts, knowledge and calculations of the worldly plain are abandoned. Where the assumptions of hilarious and transient happiness [that which lasts a minute or an hour] are levelled.

So blessed are the poor 'to the Spirit' - that is, 'for the Spirit' - says Jesus [v.3a Greek text].

In the Christian community it is important (precisely) to enrich together.

The Lord delights in those who take this direction, where his feelings become deeply ours - and important are not the minutiae, but the direction of travel.

Particular details of the life of love are left to personal creativity and the variety of people; sensitivities, cultures, situations. 

What counts is the fundamental option for goodness and communion, understood not as uniformity - but conviviality of differences.

This is not to despise wealth hysterically: it is a matter of exchanging it, so that it multiplies, avoiding keeping it for oneself. Otherwise everything becomes an insurmountable obstacle to life, and the prerogative of the quickest.

He who has freely dispossessed himself of the superfluous in order to share it, does so 'by the Spirit', that is to say, out of Love: out of free choice, with passion and without distinction between circle and non-circle beneficiaries.

Thus the rich man becomes lord.

In turn, the wretch may not be poor "by the Spirit" if he is puffed up, boastful, haughty, disinterested in others; if he lacks openness of heart, estranged from dialogue, intent on improving his condition by compromise and deception - only desirous of substituting himself for the rich and then tracing their lying, subjugating and opportunistic ways.

 

The voluntary renunciation of the selfish and mediocre use of one's material and sapiential resources marks us out as children of God.

Consanguineous; already here and now able to experience the blessed life of Heaven: being with and for others, being oneself.

In fact, the promise accompanying the first Beatitude (v.3a) does not guarantee access to Paradise in the afterlife, in the distant future.

The exchange of gifts guarantees the experience of divine life itself, right on earth.

In pagan religions, the condition of blessed life was a jealous and exclusive characteristic of the deities, who unwillingly participated in it; and reassuringly, only after death. However, halfway.

In Christ and through Via, despite our partial failures, or our possible lack of natural abilities and frailties - indeed, because of them - we discover a Father who is the friend of full, charged Joy: immediate, energetic, limitless Happiness. Which arises even from shaky states.

The Father is not the God of religions that fog and whet life: he does not bless the gluttony of the few, which makes the multitudes needy.

Did the last of the commandments dictate to feel content and not covet the stuff of others?

The first of the Beatitudes proposes to desire that others also have the same things and possibilities of life as we do.

The dynamic of falling in love supposes in each of its declensions, a quivering Fullness that flows everywhere - recognising the opposites in us and the legitimate desire for expressive fulfilment in our brothers and sisters.

 

 

To internalise and live the message:

 

How do you overcome doubt by retreating? What do you announce with your life? Does it go beyond direct experience? Do you know realities that manifest the Risen One? How do you point out exuberant paths of hope? Or are you selective and silent?

 

 

 

They let the Light through

 

All Saints, Between Religious Sense and Faith

 

Embodying the spirit of the Beatitudes, we ask ourselves what is the difference between common "religious feeling" and "living by Faith".

In ancient devotions, the Saint is the composite man sui, perfect and detached [but predictable]; and the opposite of Saint is 'sinner'.In the proposal of full life in the Lord, the 'saint' is a person of communicative understanding and who lives for conviviality, creating it where there is none.

In the path of the sons, the saint is indeed the excellent man, but in its full sense - full and dynamic, multifaceted; even eccentric. Not in a one-sided, moralistic or sentimental sense.

In the Latin language perfìcere means to complete, to go all the way.

In such a complete and integral meaning, 'perfect' becomes an authentic embodied value: a possible attribute - of every person who is aware of his or her own condition of vulnerability, and does not despise it.

The woman and man of Faith value every occasion or emotion that exposes the condition of nakedness [not guilt] in order to open new paths and renew themselves.

From the point of view of life in the Spirit, the saint [in Hebrew Qadosh, a divine attribute] is indeed the 'detached' man, but not in a partial or physical sense, but ideal.

He is not the person who at a certain point in life distances himself from the human family to embark on a path of purification that would elevate him. Deluding himself that he is getting better.

As the encyclical Fratelli Tutti emphasises: 'A human being [...] does not realise himself, does not develop, cannot find his own fullness [... and] does not come to fully recognise his own truth except in the encounter with others' (No.87).

The authentic witness is not animated by contempt for existential chaos - nor eager to outsource the difficulties of managing one's own freedom by handing it over to an alienating agency with a secluded mentality (which solves the drama of personal choices).

In Christ, man is "disjointed" from the common mentality, insofar as he is faithful to himself, to his own Fire that is not extinguished - to the passions, to his own unrepeatable uniqueness and Vocation.

And at the same time, "separated" from external competitive criteria: of having, of power, of appearance. Self-destructive powers.

To the latter, he concretely substitutes the fraternity of giving, of serving and of diminishing [from "character"]. Fruitful energies.

All for the global Communion, and in Truth also with one's own intimate character seed - avoiding proselytising and being noticed in the catwalks.

The true believer knows his redeemed limit, sees the possibilities of imperfection.... Thus he replaces the presuppositions of keeping for oneself, of climbing over others and dominating them, with a fundamental humanising triptych: giving, freedom to 'come down', collaboration.

This is the authentic Detachment, which does not flee one's own and others' inclinations, nor does it despise the complex trait of the human condition.

In this way, the "saint" lives the essential Bliss of the persecuted (Mt 5:11-12; Lk 6:22-23) because he has the freedom to "lower himself" in order to be in tune with his own essence; co-existing in his originality.

In terms of Faith, the saint is thus no longer a physically "separate", but rather "united" to Christ - and banished like Him, into the weak brothers and sisters.

In short, the divine Design is to compose Families of the small and shaky, not to carve out a group of "strong" friends, and "better" than the others.

Only this horizon of the Hearth drives us on.

Consequently, the opposite of Saint is not "sinful", but rather unrealised or unfinished.

 

Let us see again why (vocational and personal paths).

Jesus was a friend of publicans and public sinners not because they were better than the good, but because in religion the 'righteous' are often not very spontaneous; making themselves impermeable, closed, refractory to the action of the Spirit.

Surprisingly, the Lord Himself repeatedly experienced that it was precisely the devoutly deficient people who were prone to questioning, realising, reworking, deviating from habit - for the building up of new paths, even groping.

Not being able to enjoy the respectable cloak of social screens, after an awareness of one's own situation (and over time) - compared to those who considered themselves 'arrived' and friends of God - from 'distant' they became people more than the 'impecunious' willing to love.

 

Questioning is fundamental in a biblical perspective.

At every turn, Scripture proposes a spirituality of the Exodus, that is, a road of liberation from fetters and walked as if on foot, step by step. Hence one that values paths of seeking, exploring, self-discovery and the Newness of a God who does not repeat, but creates.

The call that the Word makes is to embark on an itinerary; that is the point. And we have always been "those of the Way" and who do not pass by, do not look the other way [cf. Lk 10:31-33; FT, 56ff].

 

For the classical pagan mentality, woman and man are essentially 'nature', therefore their being in the world is conditioned [I remember my professor of theological anthropology Ignazio Sanna even used to say 'de-centred'], even determined by birth (fortunate or not).According to the Bible, woman and man are creatures, splendid and adequate in themselves for their mission, but pilgrim and lacking.

God is the One who 'calls' them to complete themselves, making up for their deficient aspects.

 

To come to be the image and likeness of the Lord, we must develop the capacity to respond to a Vocation that makes us not phenomena, nor exceptional 'perfect' ones, but particular Witnesses.

Chosen by Name, just as we are; who embrace their deep being - even unexpressed - to the point of recognising it in the You, and unfolding it in the We.

A person's holiness is thus combined with many states of dissatisfaction, boundary, and even partial failure - but always thinking and feeling reality.

For a New Covenant.

 

In the Old Testament, the believer came into contact with divine purity by frequenting sacred places, fulfilling prescriptions, reciting prayers, respecting times and spaces, avoiding embarrassing situations; and so on.

Our experience and conscience infallibly attest that strict observance is too rare, or mannered: within, it often does not correspond to us - nor does it humanise us.

It sooner or later becomes a house of cards, shaky the more it points 'upwards'. All it takes is to lay one of them out clumsily, and the artificial construction collapses.

We realise our natural inability to meet such high sterilisations, (other people's) maps and standards.

With Jesus, Perfection is not about 'thinking', nor is it about adherence to an abstract code of observances. Completeness is about a quality of Exodus and Relationship.

In ancient contexts, the path of the sons has been cloaked with a mystical or renunciatory proposal of abstinence, fasting, retreats, secluded living, obsessive cultic observances... which in many situations formed the backbone of pre-Conciliar spirituality.

But in Scripture, saints do not have a halo or wings.

They are not such because they performed incomparable and astounding miracles of healing: they are women and men embedded in the ordinary world and in the most ordinary aspects. 

They know the problems, weaknesses, joys and sorrows of everyday life; the search for their own identity-character, or deep inclination.

And the apostolate; the family, raising children, work. The seductive power of evil, even.

 

In the First Testament, 'Qadosh' exclusively designated an attribute of the Eternal [the only non-intermittent Person] - and its separateness from the entanglement of often confused earthly ambitions.

Despite the flaws, however, in Christ we become capable of listening, of perception; thus enabled to seize every opportunity to bear witness to the innate, vital Gratuity of divine and real initiative.

Unceasingly, providential life proposes itself and comes to open unthinkable, breaching gaps.

Its unprecedented journeys of growth renew the existence all linked and conforming.

This also makes us marvel at intimate resources, previously unconscious or unconfessed and concealed, or unforeseeably hidden behind dark sides.

 

That which is Insignificant is no longer moved behind clouds and placed in fortified enclosures.

Therefore, God's adversary will not be transgression: instead, it becomes the lack of a spirit of communion, in differences.

The enemy of the Salvation story is not religious incompleteness, but the gap from the Beatitudes - and from the unfolding spirit of the 'wayfarer' for whom 'wandering' is also synonymous [not paradoxical] with 'wandering'.

God's counterpart is thus not 'sins', but 'the' Sin [in the singular, a theological term, not a moralistic one].

"Sin" is the inability to correspond to an indicative Calling, which acts as a spring to complete us, to regenerate us not to be partial. This by harmonising opposite sides - in being ourselves and being-With.

Here it is the Faith that 'saves', where we are - because it annihilates 'the sin of the world' (Jn 1:29), that is, the disbelief and guilt; the humiliation of unbridgeable distances.

In fact, Jesus does not recommend doctrines, nor does he recommend parcelling out one's life with punctual ethylisms. Nor does he envisage any religious ascent [in terms of progressiveness] peppered with effort.

To no one in the Gospels does Christ say 'become holy', but with Him, like Him and in Him - united, to encounter one's deepest states unceasingly.

Recognising them better, also through the You and the We.

 

The Saint is the little one, not the all-in-one, uniform, predictable hero.

The saint is he who, walking his own path in the wake of the Risen One, has learnt to "identify himself with the other, regardless of where [or] from where [...] ultimately experiencing that others are his own flesh" (cf. FT 84).