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 together 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 the man always below; or the person in front and the person behind.

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

Therefore, in the House of all there must be replacement 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 the friction between experienced Judaizers, first of the class, and latecomers at the threshold of faith fraternities was lively].

 

Back then, 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!] have 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, the 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 wealthy is to help the poor and destitute'.

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

The Lord's position is very very different: the powerful are not at all 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 dress, are perfect metaphors for the inner emptiness and ephemerality they revel in.

Their gorging is a sign of an intimate abyss to be bridged - 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 divining and humanising [a quality manifested in the so-called "poor in Spirit"].

Holiness that surpasses the ancient fiction of the rulers, who piled on top of each other reciting the same script.

For hitherto, the masses remained dry-mouthed: whatever ruler seized power, the petty 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 one 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.

This is not almsgiving or philanthropy: it is a precise, social choice (v.5).

In fact, in each ousted person is hidden 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 whose pain she wished to diminish as 'murdered Mozarts': she wished to recover them and involve them, to enrich them together. Having a mother's heart - and heart in the misery of abandoned brothers and sisters.

 

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

Instead, 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 'il Monte' - 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 therefore 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 constituted 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 naturalness 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 recognises himself precisely in a house valet; a shop assistant, who, however, 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 the sanctity standardised by procedures, which is always abhorring, exorcising, the danger of the unusual.

This is precisely why - instead - the fixation on antecedence 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 does not identify it with having, power, appearing.

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

Rather, it relies on our spontaneous freedom to give, to go down and to serve - a franchise entrusted first and foremost to the top of the class. Those in history have made the callus to overwhelm others with moralism and cunning.

 

God does not deny the ego's legitimate urges 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.

This is not an external conquest, but an intimate one and made one's own. It is thus able to sculpt our deepest inclination, in its richness of faces and in the time of a Path.

Aristotle stated that - beyond artificial petitions of principle or apparent proclamations - one only really 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 rhythm - even to encounter new states of being.

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

Path and Vector that then expands skills 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 employs'. And Master Wang Pi comments: 'The high has the low for a foundation, the noble has the vile for a foundation'.

 

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 its outward appearance.

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.

In concrete terms, these are the moments when we ourselves incorporated into the human wholeness 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 Mount" 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 [the one that lasts a minute or an hour] are levelled.

So blessed are the poor 'to the Spirit' - that is, 'by 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 such a 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 may multiply, avoiding keeping it for oneself. Otherwise everything becomes an insurmountable obstacle to life, and the prerogative of the quick-witted.

Those who have freely dispossessed themselves of the superfluous in order to share it, do so 'by the Spirit', i.e. out of Love: out of free choice, with passion and without distinction between those who benefit from the circle and those who do not.

Thus the rich man becomes lord.

In turn, the wretched may not be poor 'in the Spirit' if they are puffed up, boastful, haughty, disinterested in others; if they lack openness of heart, extraneous to dialogue, intent on improving their condition through compromise and deception - only desirous of substituting themselves 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 distinguishes us as children of God.

Consanguineous; already here and now able to experience the blissful life of Heaven: to be 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 deities, who unwillingly participated in it; and reassuringly, only after death. However half-hearted.

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. That even rises from a shaky state.

The Father is not the God of religions that fog and dull life: he does not bless the greed of the few, who make the multitudes needy.

Did the last of the commandments dictate that one should feel fulfilled and not covet the stuff of others?

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

The dynamic of falling in love presupposes 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, 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 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 and daughters, the Saint is indeed the excellent man, but in his 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 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, divine attribute] is indeed the 'detached' man, but not in a partial or physical sense, but ideal.

It is not the person who at a certain point in life distances himself from the human family in order to embark on a path of purification that would elevate him. Deluding oneself to improve.

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' (n.87).

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

In Christ, man is "detached" from 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, it concretely substitutes the fraternity of giving, of serving and of diminishing [from "character"]. Fruitful energies.

All for the sake of 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 it replaces the presuppositions of keeping for oneself, of rising above 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; coexisting 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, in 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 others.

Only this horizon of the Hearth impels us to depart.

Consequently, the opposite of Saint is not 'sinful', but rather unrealised or unfulfilled.

 

Let us look again at the motive (vocational and personal).

Jesus was a friend of publicans and public sinners not because they were better than the good, but because in religion, the 'righteous' are not infrequently less than 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 willing to question themselves, realise, rework, deviate from habit - for the building up of new paths, even by 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 from a biblical perspective.

At every turn, Scripture proposes to us a spirituality of the Exodus, that is, a road of liberation from fetters and travelled as if on foot, step by step. Hence, valuing paths of research, exploration, 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', so 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, recovering the dissimilar 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 'perfects', 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 clumsily dispose of one, and the contrived construction collapses.

We realise our natural impossibility to fulfil sterility, (other people's) maps and such high standards.

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

In ancient contexts, the children's path has been cloaked in a mystical or renunciatory proposal of abstinence, fasting, retreats, secluded living, obsessive cultic fulfilments... which in many situations formed the backbone of pre-conciliar spirituality.

But in Scripture, saints do not have haloes or wings.

They are not such for performing 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 daily life; the search for one's identity-character, or deep inclination.

And the apostolate; the family, the education of 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 tangle 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, the providential life proposes itself and comes to open unthinkable breaches.

Its unprecedented journeys of growth renew existence all intertwined and in conformity.

This also makes us wonder at the intimate resources, previously unconscious or unconfessed and concealed, or unpredictably 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: on the contrary, it becomes the lack of a spirit of Communion, in differences.

The enemy of the story of Salvation 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 is harmonising the 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) i.e. disesteem 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 'be holy', but with Him, like Him and in Him - United, to encounter our own 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).