"Come and see"

(Jn 1:35-42)

 

"Tithing hour" (v.39): in the Semitic mentality, sunset of the old and beginning of the new Day.

Time that says: we are not wrong.

Time that is approached dialogically, heart to heart; not according to a prescribed order.

Supreme hour, of soul-tension - while we are never the same. Filling the void.

 

Vocation is discovery of why we come into the world, in the trajectory of a road travelled as if on foot.

Dream for which we are made: reality that corresponds to us immediately, in an unprecedented, non nauseating way.

The call of the hearth of the Word gradually helps to understand our person and to define our exceptional mission.

On such an orientation, each and every character flourishes.

In short, God is "He who calls".

Everything, so that without too much commentary we see ourselves in it, sense the impulses, develop a new outlook on things, grasp them as an Encounter, and let ourselves go.

Says the Tao Tê Ching (LVII): 'From what do I know that this is so? From the present' - and Master Ho-shang Kung comments: 'Lao-tzu says: How do I know that Heaven's intention is this? I know it from what I see today'.

Such a scenario triggers a passion in the soul that sinks into the Mystery.

Energy that develops impulses and pauses, on this Path of meaningful encounter with reality - and new, yet extravagant relationships.

Without the hysteria of exasperations.

 

The way of scrutinising the world is decisive.

If anchored to small certainties of custom or thought, it will always make us be and set up ordinary things, dictated by habit, prejudice, conditioned hopes that do not belong to us.

Here, we will never shift our inner eye to unfamiliar processes and territories.

When, on the other hand, undertaken, they will introduce the heart to a kind of hermeneutic island, face to face with the invisible Friend who makes each one feel 'at home'.

Such paths together will not give us a priori the certainty that we are 'in the right', but that we are involved in the same spirit of the 'Nazarene': that is, rebelling against the constraints [into which we may already be putting ourselves].

Procedures that entangle with chains and laces the superior Voice, or the innate Icon to be admired intimately, the figure of our Vocation.

 

If so, the restlessness of the Waiting, its fantastic frenzies, those murmurings that seem to be in the air, will be an expression of an unseen fairy tale that we do not know what it is - but our fascinating Brother does.

On the contrary, we will retrace the path always trodden by others. And we will only be forced to imitate, copying the outside.

That is until an alternative vision launches us onto a path that is still dark instead of well illustrated (the usual path, where everything is under control).

 

With excessive mental feedback we will get no further than vicious circles, or already adopted characters and defined roles.

They humiliate the Spirit, who dislikes sphinxes, impervious to the dew of the 'coming' tide.

Over-filtering and over-managing will not lead one to appreciate the value of the inner world and its presences.

Common dirigisme will not help us to perceive the meaning of encounters, the openness of the horizon of the proposals that life brings... to dismantle the imprinting that we drag along.

The only therapy for jumping beyond the usual way of seeing things will be to shift the perspective, so that it is itself that makes us dissymmetrical.

And along with the annoyances, allow us to enter the field richer; always varied, outside the perimeter drawn by swampy conventions.

 

With Jesus we will embark on a path full of pitfalls, yet magical, because it is not taken for granted.

With Him we will realise ourselves, our vocation and our own codes - but in the fullness of the polyhedron that is personal essence.

Neither woman nor man remain without modulations to be discovered and activated; as if they were already calibrated, anonymous, poor before the Lord and others.

Therefore, no one is destined to be a labourer or the official of archaic bandwagons - devoid of living figures and fantastic, enchanting, awe-inspiring inventiveness.

Even the dreamy tone of this narrative says so.

In an assiduous relationship with Christ, it is his and our ideals outside the guidelines that characterise existence.

It becomes red-hot starting from the Core. Starting from the soul... without first being normalised with effort, according to others' regulations.

Beware, therefore, of constructing a conformist destiny of the penultimate hand.

It would run aground all one's life, precisely because it is chosen from among what is common, banal, other people's; habituated and quiet - or vice versa delusional: criteria destined to collapse.

The Calling is virtue, not the projection of ambitions suggested by cheap vanities. Nor a reward for previous loyalties or behind performance.

First of all: a reading of self.

A living listening to events - more intimate, than conformist and outline. 

As well as participatory interpretation of reality, insights, the Word - and elastic reworking of moments, advice, relationships.

 

"Come and see" [v.39: sense of the Semitic undertone].

Perception, the gaze that notices, is essential to understand the Root; who we are.

Nothing intimate, but nothing external - not even the happenings outside of us. We are those who develop innate Images and Dreams.

God did not create us to stay on the ground, but to take flight.

Yet the Baptist had stopped [v.35 Greek text]: "again he stood [there]".

Jesus, on the other hand, proceeds, is always moving; He Himself begins a new journey.

The comparison is stark. Ancient expectations run aground - they no longer have any strength in themselves.

That is why the first disciples of Jesus came from the school of John - where they had met.

After being a pupil of the greatest leader of his time, the new, young Rabbi sets out on his own, and 'moves on'.

 

He does so not to stand out above others, but to proclaim the authentic Heart of the Father, in his own figure.

The Word-event of a Son now formed, but who in his Exodus only gradually assimilates the secrets of the human and spiritual journey.

It is an astonishing identity, that of the Lamb of God: his Person, vicissitude and Blood depict the Action of the Creator Spirit.

Powerful, impetuous wind that takes away the forces of evil's ability to do harm - not through immediate and prodigious shortcuts.

 

Purposes that are too close do not unite man and the world with God.

They do not confirm the rightness and conformity of the great End and Source: the continuous Presence that accompanies our particular activity.

Every soul has an original physiognomy: it "is" in a special way, it has its own place and Meaning.

The personal Calling remains constitutive of this unrepeatable essence, which opens up the task of uniqueness - grammar of our language.

Even with ourselves; and interacting in the world. In the soul, of listening to God.

The unrepeatable Vocation. Here is the only path to read and encounter the genius of time before problems, and a kind of friendly impulse.

Will and recognition factor, which accompanies and orients in every issue.

 

There may be an unforgettable day and hour in life, but the relationship of intimate existential dialogue is fundamental.

A furtive encounter with the unstoppably moving Christ is not enough to 'look inside' and understand any decisive weight.

And to become - like Simon - building stone that composes and is composed (v.42).

 

Commenting on the same passage from the Tao (LVII) quoted above, Master Wang Pi points out: "He who rules the world with the Way, exalts the root to make the branches grow.

Like an artistic vein.

Only in such a Vision do we permeate all inner being and earthly activity, without dissolving into it.

 

Here, even in seemingly irrelevant situations, we are ourselves.

We are cosmic and divine intention; we are immeasurably important.

 

 

To internalise and live the message:

 

What do you wait for from Jesus?

Or do you give in and let him lead you?

What do you think he would call you?

 

 

On the sidelines

 

Life-preserving encounter

(cf. Mk 6:30-34)

 

Spy and interpretive key of the Gospel passage is the expression "standing aloof" (v.31), which in the Gospels is everywhere used to indicate critical moments of misunderstanding or even open opposition between the Lord and the Apostles.

"Come ye apart, into a deserted place": the explicit reference to the "desert" is that of the Exodus - recalling the time of the first Love.

Experience of the great Ideals that the path of Freedom could still instil in the New People (generated in silence, far from the hustle and bustle of idols): reflection and attention, sobriety of life, welcoming, real sharing.

 

Jesus moves ever more decisively away from his environment, and does not want a horizon of supposing elect around him, attracted by the suddenly exploded visibility - they would end up considering themselves indispensable.

They would be overloaded with triumphalist and monopolistic platitudes - little attentive to the contents, their connection with the forms of implementation... and the social implications, such as bridging the gaps.

In fact, here they chase the many things to be done - also to make them positively more agile, of course - but they go haphazardly and regardless. Despite all the fuss and hosannas, they do not make sensible paths.

They are always there, even though they should go elsewhere; or vice versa.

All this perhaps precisely to consolidate ascents and positions from the earliest days, in the manner of certain life offices today (never questioned) or stages of careers that cannot be changed.

Conditions that make one artificial, and do not create personal or other fulfilment. They raise a lot of fuss, but they stay in the habit.

The problem they have in mind is wrong, and in spite of any sweating and little free time (or time for themselves) they do not demonstrate a genuinely creative energy.

We see this. 

So the Lord does not call 'aside' for a 'retreat' - to safeguard the stability of exhausted hierarchies, or for a moment's escape to avoid the crush and its stress - but because something profoundly substantial does not fit.

One has to be self-critical.

 

In all four Gospels, only Jesus is the one who 'teaches' (passim, Greek text). The apostles - who give themselves the air of teachers (v.30) - are only given the task of "proclaiming".

They have no title whatsoever to approach people thinking they have to convey a life tailored to their agenda, and a mind tuned to the result (or banner membership).

 

After having called them to himself - because they are still far away - and sent them to proclaim their experience of freedom and the Good News on our behalf (vv.7-13), the Master does not seem very happy with what the apostles have preached.

So he imposes on them a test (so to speak) of basic catechism, just for his intimates....

Even after his failure even in Nazareth (vv.1-6) - his bannermen willingly mistook the Servant (who was educating them) for the victorious, hoped-for, respected and glorious Messiah.

For this reason, faced with the needy masses, the Lord first "began to teach" (v.34 Greek text).

In short, the young Rabbi has to start afresh, in order to correct the illusory simplicities transmitted by the followers... perhaps just to leave a trace, to be recognised and to succeed (with the lost people!).

 

The Tao Tê Ching (xxvii) writes: 'He who travels well leaves neither furrows nor footprints [...] he who closes well uses neither bars nor stakes'.

Master Ho-shang Kung comments: 'He who travels well on the Way seeks within himself, without going down the hall or out the door. That is why he leaves no furrows or footprints". He adds: "He who well closes his cravings through the Tao, preserves the life force".

Master Wang-Pi specifies: "He proceeds in accordance with spontaneity, without being a cause or a principle: that is why creatures reach their highest degree, without leaving chariot furrows or footprints [...] he conforms to the spontaneity of creatures and neither institutes nor confers.

 

Jesus' closest collaborators had not yet realised that there is another World, evolutionary and inverted - but ignored.

That is why they have a fortune of their own, but produce very bad evangelisation.

The crowds thronging around the Lord were still exactly as they were before: "like sheep that have no shepherd" (v.34). Steeped in dismay.

In spite of the affirmation of the disciples' circle - who had set their sights on the model of subservience and prestige - humanity was still crying out. Their stability made others even more insecure.

(We want to discover our own wealth, not only that of the always close 'pupils', founders, princes or leaders).

What was missing was the friendship that nourishes more than food, a perception of adequacy that satisfies more than health; the adherence that transmits life, the sense of being born and seeking; the encounter that shifts the gaze, the intimately recognised union with the Truth.

Apostles or no apostles, without the Person of Christ Himself, that people searching for their roots would not have flourished - least of all from their own grey, fragile and lacklustre hues.

The deep-seated needs of the infirm were absolutely intact, despite the leaders' busy-ness around... unfortunately contrived and careless, still ambiguous and immature, dirigiste and superficial.

Extremities that even today do not allow the disoriented to reach the highest degree of their being, because every pastoral expedient triggers the reverse: a loss of capacity.

 

The cunningly opiate and artefactual festivals advocated by the approximate guides are an expression of the normal religious side of the civilisation of the outside world.

Being with the Lord again... sets the mind right.

He alone opens wide the doorways of understanding and creates the other options that correspond to us - in quintessence and hope - generating new answers to new questions, overcoming forced compactness.

This is the true holiday, the authentic decisive appointment: to stay with the right Person; the one who does not enervate with his wrong rhythms or add confusion to confusion.

Christ gathers our kernel from the scattering, our seed from the fragmentariness that hides behind the masks of pretended expertise; our flower, from life without intimate purpose.

To seek oneself one must gather oneself together with Him - and verify oneself in the creative power of His Word, interpreted far from the commonplaces that anaesthetise.

The throng and the noise of the (albeit naive) crowd confuse ideas; they inculcate the vulgar plots of the earthly realm: not the style of the divine life, which entrusts us to our own unexpressed resources. 

No more models. We need a real Witness, who corresponds, and becomes a travelling companion.

We feel an incessant desire to be balanced in the identity of the concrete good. It lies beyond the fatuous, variant but immediately succulent traits of recognition. Here, no person regenerates.

Only around our inner Friend do we become Body in serious, amiable and profound conversation (even in the noisy and confusing everyday).

 

After a day of worries, instead of TV anaesthetics and before epidermic things, let us regenerate from this Contact that introduces us into the Banquet of Life (vv.35-44).

We will be recovered rather than condemned to pious futility - and never alone. Inside we have a Friend.

 

 

To internalise and live the message:

 

How do you evangelise? Does Jesus speak in you or do you speak alone?