Without stopping in the middle, and the new torch

(Mal 3:1-4; Heb 2:14-18; Lk 2:22-40)

 

Forty days after Christmas, the Liturgy proposes to us to meet again the Child Jesus, who appeals unceasingly.

In the meantime, it may be that the joy of that Feast of Light has faded; that more stars have caught our attention.

Perhaps we have once again allowed ourselves to be caught up in gargantuan and other stars, more bursting or venal - reflecting inferior and common dreams

 

The context of the First Reading is heartbreaking: the priests had reduced the temple to a bank; the professional worshippers were acting as functionaries, disinterested in sincere adherence.

That Child is a reminder that God ceaselessly comes with his smoldering fire (Mal 3:2-3) not only to work a purification, an improvement, an enhancement, a mending, a mending, a parenthesis.

It does not burst in to make the same reality more current, or the identical formal and condescending contents more sympathetic. It comes to replace them.

It does not come to refine, but to open up. It comes not to affect, but to supplant. Not to bless tamed situations, but to denounce them.

Perhaps He comes to return us to the "ancient days", to the "distant years" - but not as imagined by Mal 3:4 - but to fly over the same swamp of the usual religion, the one with its head always turned back to investigate the past.

Nor does he advocate abstract, disembodied figures that distract attention; even if they were fashionable ['current' but evasive or personally oppressive, incapable of igniting reality from within].

Henceforth he manifests himself living, opening wide the doors of our sanctuary - no longer "subject to bondage for life" (Heb 2:15; Second Reading).

"For he cares not for the angels" (Heb 2:16), always available but without any instances of precisely personal impetus - without natural passions, lacking in independence - and with his brain always there, in the sacred.

 

The Gospel passage from Lk recounts the Father's surprising response to the predictions of fulfilment regarding the messianic prophecies.

An eloquent and peremptory manifestation of the power of the God of Israel and the submission of those who did not fulfil the Law was expected.

Everyone imagined that they would witness the triumphal entry of a leader - surrounded by military leaders or angelic hosts (Mal 3:1) - who would subjugate the pagans by bringing their possessions into the holy city, grant the chosen people many slaves, and enforce observance.

Jesus? Here he is in the Temple, but helpless; accompanied by insignificant people. No one notices them, although at all hours the holy place is swarming with visitors.

 

It is not enough to be pious and devout people to realise the presence of Christ - to see God himself, one's brothers, things, with the eyes of the Father.

 

How do we break through the wall of closed customs - how do we break through the artificial world of contrary appearances, to turn to the creative Unknown?

Lk answers: with the help of particularly sensitive people, capable of understanding the New Project.

They are those who do not set trivial intentions or current dreams against the Design of the Most High; the habitual expectations (of others) - demanding from the Lord only the help to realise them.

 

Here then arise Simeon and Anna (vv.25.36-38), women and men coryphaeans of the most sensitive authentic People, thanks to excellent work on the soul.

Coming both from inside and outside the Temple - such prophets attempt to block (vv.28.38 Greek text) the small family procession, still bound by Judaic conventions (vv.21-23).

 

Compared to cultic and legalistic stereotypes, the members of the holy family must take a different, conscious Path.

A path that will lead it to unforeseen growth, for the benefit of all.

 

Thus, the Tiny Holy Remnant of Spirit-animated women and men burst in (always) as if they were strangers...

People of tiny worshippers, of genuine outsiders, who even try to prevent the 'same' useless clan ritual!

A gesture that pretended - again - to transform (and reduce) into an obsequious son of Abraham the One who had been announced as the Son of God.

 

In short, in the figures of Simeon and Anna, Lk wants to convey to us a fundamental teaching.

If the goal is the triumph of life, past history must not take precedence over unheard-of revelation.

Divine Oneness is manifested in what happens.

The Exceptionality of the Spirit proposes itself (dimly) now.

Unexpectedness to which we are called to give full voice - and echo.

The unveiling is now.

The 'here' immediately opens an arc of full existence.

[No more repeating 'how we should be' according to customs or fathers...].

 

Where everything is combined, we will not find the answers that solve the real problems, nor magic times - those that motivate us. 

Genuine Godly souls are not concerned with pandering to obligations, but rather with living intensely in the present moment with the energy that charts the future, without hesitating with the excesses of control.

Stepping out of the normality of the established way - even through labour pains (vv.34-35) - creates space to welcome the Newness that saves.

Along the way, those thoughts and duties that no longer correspond to one's destiny will be defused, will evaporate of their own accord.

 

Thus in Mary: Mother icon of the whole Church of true expectations - cut off (v.35) from the habitual crowd.

She has laid down all dependencies.

 

And the Innocent One is the glory of the 'nation', in Spirit - because she comes out of it!

In her unpredictable and healthy figure resides a Light that enlightens all (v.32).

A trait of childhood and simple immediacy that becomes the "redemption of Jerusalem" (v.38).

 

 

It is in fact a Light that produces conflict with officialdom, a profound Splendour destined for all time - while the astute do not want to know about losing coordinates, roles, positions.

A "sword" (v.35) that in Mother Israel will bring about lacerations between those who open themselves to the torch of the Gospel and others who vice versa.

Lk has in mind community situations, where believers in Christ are discarded by friends and families from different cultural backgrounds (Lk 12:51-53).

But the awaited and true Messiah must be delivered to the world - although those best prepared to recognise him are the members of the smallest tribe of Israel [Asher, in the figure of Anna: vv.36-38].

These are the same prophets who in life vibrated for one great Love (vv.36-37), then experienced the absence of the Beloved - until they recognised him in Christ. Rejoicing in surprise; grasping personal correspondences within themselves, in the Spirit; rejoicing, praising the Gift of God (v.38).

 

The passage concludes with the return to Nazareth (vv.39-40) and the note concerning Jesus' own growth "in wisdom, stature and grace" [Greek text].

 

 

Moral: we are not in this world to cling to shadows and blocks of the past, with its perennial feelings - same old moods, same prevailing thoughts, same way of doing things (even the little things).

Mechanisms and comparisons that close off our days, our whole life and the emotional space of passions - clipping the wings of testimonies that want to override the course recognised since our ancestors.

Conversely, this is precisely the great Challenge that activates the young Rebirth of the Dream of God. And launches us into the transition from religious sense to personal Faith.

Such is the only energy that awakens, arouses enthusiasm, communicates simple virtue, sweeps away the layers of dust that still cover us with conformism without intimate momentum.

The recalcitrant and collective ways of taking to the field [more or less 'moral'] point at, deviate from, overload our essence - appealing to the fear of being rejected.

To slip effortlessly into the conventions and manners of our local culture [i.e. à la page] we often risk losing the Calling by Name, the unrepeatability of the path that vibrates within and truly belongs to us.

 

With respect to the 'religious' guerrilla warfare that we carry on even with ourselves, we need a respite from the common forms - even devout; cultic and purist, or glamorous.

Here comes a break from the social self-image: to allow us to abandon external and toxic forms, to recover silenced energies.

And to launch ourselves into new experiences from the soul [which is not wrong] - which we want to and are called upon to espouse, with enthusiasm, without first stepping into a role.

 

 

To internalise and live the message:

 

Forty days after Christmas, how do you encounter again in you the Child Jesus, who appeals without ceasing?

Has the joy of that Feast of Light faded? Have more stars caught your attention?

 

 

 

Lost and found. Salvation in a young and open place

 

Already rebellious: Particular vocation

(Lk 2:41-52)

 

The family is the nucleus of society and the privileged place of educational risk, not the only one.

It is a precious stage of growth, but it must not hinder flowering in the universal dimension.

The movement of Salvation familiarises everyone with the dynamics of loss [from the narrowness] and rediscovery [of a Presence within the dissimilar presences] in order not to narrow horizons.

The complacent retreat into the world of kinship affections and interests reduces the dimension of vital frontiers, making personal and household life narrow; cultural, social and spiritual.

The home must integrate them into the community, and introduce young people to the knowledge of the innate character of their vocation, so that as they grow up they become available and mature in an ever-widening reality. 

The family becoming a stepping stone preludes detachment, which in its cut will be painful for all - but it will become a taking flight from the protected nest that enslaves; a leap towards the freedom of a full life.

 

The Gospel passage baffles because it seems to portray a distracted family and an already grumpy and rebellious Jesus.

Lk writes more than half a century after the Lord's death and resurrection.

The tragic story of the Master is understood and internalised in a way that perhaps Joseph and Mary could not yet have guessed in their adolescence.

Recognising Jesus as the Son of God from the age of twelve meant in the literature of the time "covering" his entire life [cf. Lk 24].

 

It seems that the Holy Family went up to Jerusalem every year for the Passover (v.41).

Before one became an adult in Israel and bound to the observance of the Torah (13 years old), our Adolescent already shows signs of a special vocation.

From the tone of the narration one can see a Jesus eager to drink in and immerse himself in the as yet unexpressed Mystery of the Father.

Dreaming of discovering his Will, he stays in the holy city to fully understand the Word of God - without settling for impersonal, abbreviated catechisms.

The first expressions of Jesus in the third Gospel mark the character of his whole story. He decisively distances himself from the religiosity of the fathers (v.49).

He begins to distance himself from the ideas common even to his family of origin: he does not belong to a defined clan.

His will be a divine proposal on behalf of all the women and men of the world.

In this sense, Jesus even more honoured his parents' loyalty to God (vv.51-52) by accepting the whole spirit of their teachings, and digging deeper - intuiting their ultimate meaning.

As if to say: in him, the sacred Scriptures become accessible, with the key to understanding his entire life and Person.

Life for us (even before Baptism and the public event).

 

Lk writes to encourage believers who did not yet understand everything about the new Rabbi's story.

Like Joseph and Mary, they had to realise that it is not easy to understand the Son of God and accept his uniqueness of character, even to the point of earthly defeat.

 

In the figure of the holy family, we too are invited to "return to Jerusalem" (v.45).

Here, observing the autonomy of Christ, we will gradually be able to open ourselves to the unprecedented vocation we carry within - because we are "born again" in Him.

And in the face of disconcerting events, we will learn to cherish the personal calling - like Mary.

For she too did not find it easy to enter her Easter: the "passage" from the religion of traditions and expectations to Faith in her Son.

 

But she "kept through" Word and events (v.51b), without stopping in the middle.

 

 

The reflective aspect of the House of Nazareth

 

The house of Nazareth is the school where one is initiated to understand the life of Jesus, that is, the school of the Gospel. Here we learn to observe, to listen, to meditate, to penetrate the meaning so profound and so mysterious of this manifestation of the Son of God so simple, so humble and so beautiful. Perhaps we also learn, almost without realising it, to imitate.Here we learn the method that will enable us to know who Christ is. Here we discover the need to observe the framework of his sojourn among us: that is, the places, the times, the customs, the language, the sacred rites, everything, in short, that Jesus used to manifest himself to the world.Here everything has a voice, everything has a meaning. Here, at this school, we certainly understand why we must keep a spiritual discipline, if we want to follow the doctrine of the Gospel and become disciples of Christ. Oh! how willingly we would like to become children again and put ourselves to this humble and sublime school of Nazareth! How ardently we would wish to begin again, close to Mary, to learn the true science of life and the superior wisdom of divine truths! But we are but passing through, and it is necessary for us to lay aside our desire to continue to learn, in this house, the unfinished training in the understanding of the Gospel. However, we will not leave this place without having picked up, almost furtively, some brief admonitions from the house of Nazareth.Firstly, it teaches us silence. Oh! would that there were reborn in us an appreciation of silence, an admirable and indispensable atmosphere of the spirit: while we are stunned by so many noises, rumblings and clamorous voices in the exaggerated and tumultuous life of our time. O Silence of Nazareth, teach us to be firm in good thoughts, intent on the inner life, ready to hear God's secret inspirations and the exhortations of the true teachers. Teach us how important and necessary are the work of preparation, study, meditation, the interiority of life, prayer, which God alone sees in secret.Here we understand the way of life in the family. Nazareth remind us what the family is, what the communion of love is, its austere and simple beauty, its sacred and inviolable character; let us see how sweet and irreplaceable education in the family is, teach us its natural function in the social order. Finally, let us learn the lesson of work. Oh! dwelling place of Nazareth, home of the carpenter's Son! Here above all we wish to understand and celebrate the law, severe of course but redeeming of human toil; here to ennoble the dignity of work so that it is felt by all; to remember under this roof that work cannot be an end in itself, but that it receives its freedom and excellence, not only from what is called economic value, but also from what turns it to its noble end; here finally we wish to greet the workers of the whole world and show them the great model, their divine brother, the prophet of all the just causes that concern them, that is Christ our Lord.

[Pope Paul VI, Church of the Annunciation Nazareth 5 January 1964].