Domestic side, not domestications
(Mk 6:1-6)
Where Faith is lacking, only small changes occur, not the astounding wonders of the alternative presence of the Kingdom of God:
"And he could do no mighty work there, except that having laid hands on a few sick ones, he healed" (v.5).
We do not realise that the Lord could come from humble, dishonourable beginnings, as ours might be - devoid of great dynastic ties, or violent class jumps.
Says the Tao Tê Ching (vi):
"The spirit of the valley does not die [...] it is used, but it does not tire". Master Wang Pi comments:
'The spirit of the valley is the non-valley at the centre of the valley. It has no form or shadow, nothing contrasts and nothing rejects, it remains at the bottom without moving, it keeps quiet without fading. The valley is completed by it, yet its form cannot be seen: this is the most perfect model'.
Like the Wisdom codes of nature, Faith in Christ bids farewell to the idea prevalent in institutional, representative and top-down cultures and religions.
All ill-disposed, in their great knowledge, to deal with the normality of flowing life.
Jesus avoids rigid or grandiose models. He gives himself with simplicity to his people and aims at the formation of authentic believers.
Their trust must be placed solely in the Kingdom of God - a dimension that truly breaks the balance, because it enters into day-to-day existence and ferments it from invisible roots.
As an envoy of the Father, he would like all the people to be builders and bishops of other dreams - but in his home village he feels as if blocked by those who are incapable of deciphering the dimension of the divine in the human.
He has to face the obtuse incomprehension of the centres of power, but also the very failures and hopes - quiet or divisive - of the popular reality that frequents the places of worship.
The villagers expected the usual blessings (by now addicted) or perhaps a charismatic leader to fight against the Romans - and here they would gladly use the flames of religious identity to inflame their spirits.
They would have accepted a warlike captain, reflecting archaic beliefs - instead they find themselves disappointed with the inapparent reality before their eyes.
They do not know how to discover God's plot in the history of the least.
Conversely, there are many divine signs inscribed in what is in a minor way manifested: warnings that can help us discover the not purely earthly dimension of things, relationships, presences, and so on.
Many misunderstand the spirit of strength that Faith transmits to us.
It breaks balances because it does not offer guarantees that have already been imagined - but it is at bottom domestic and all natural [each Seed has its own particular destiny and development].
How then is the boy they have known from birth so different?
Because there is no equation between what one thinks conformistically, and the Lord. Not even by emphasising intentions.
Both high expectations and proximity can be an obstacle to a daily knowledge of what is extraordinary behind the ordinary dimension of events and people.
Even many brothers or collaborators of Saints have failed to grasp the exceptionality of a common life lived in fidelity and dedication to their Calling by Name. All the more real as it is less conspicuous.
The incomprehension and village jealousy of those who live next door and chase after a god of their own - disfigured - is a source of bitterness; but it does not stop us.
The experience of rejection prompts a change of direction (v.6b).
The soul lives under the sign of Oneness that renounces preconception, the quiet life, simple approval, easy success.
And closed doors can be an added value! They open us up to the soul's journey in the Spirit, to the eccentric Announcement, to an astounding Mission.
Unfortunately, we register another kind of spirit of the 'valley' - of an entirely negative sign, which in the work of evangelisation and community animation is identified with the pastoral of consent [I will give you what you want].
The astute coordinator manages relations with the faithful, the masses and the institutions with extreme shrewdness, as well as expectations - concrete, immediate - of approval and individual or circle advantage.
At times, some leaders (even church leaders) appear to be nothing more than skilful storytellers: they do not fight the dehumanising structures, nor the powerful on the ground. On the contrary, they try to make allies of them, to win easily.
Even in the time of global crisis, the conviction persists that educational, cultural and 'religious' structures can only go on with the external support of power hierarchies, and the established order. Or with the search for more 'signs' and as many prodigies.
Unfortunately, such a downward, outward-looking attitude - out of weariness, which is widespread - does not equate to the enhancement of the most varied and intimate Gifts of God in people, nor to the promotion of the Kingdom.
It is obvious then that those who frequent the palace do not like incendiaries: those who hold titles and a glorious role remain impervious to the work of the Spirit who makes all things new.
[Every opportunist unfortunately remains tied to the chains of command, to the old tactical balances that have guaranteed him career, position, lustre, visibility, easy security on the side].
Perhaps the worst aspect of this downward and normal common denominator game is the cheap identification between order guaranteed by the Gospel and current equilibrium.
An illusion of external harmony between the Beatitudes proclaimed by the Lord and opportunities for a quiet life, or gain, and social recognition.
Thus the principles experienced first-hand by the Master are subverted by some followers, in an opaque strategy that ends up distorting the Glad Tidings in favour of every lost one.
And each shaky yet unsatisfied person spontaneously tends to adapt to the small certainties they find, offered by the rhetoric of even great narratives.
Even today, on the other hand, the Word of God sparks off the easy appeal of such dynamics and structures of authentic 'sin': it threatens them in no uncertain terms.
Indeed, they seize souls, make them conformist, indifferent to injustice, fearful of freedom - and tend to take even the God of the Exodus hostage.
The Father, however, continues to raise up eccentric prophets: they make us all more capable of perceiving the genius of the age. As well as the personal talents deployed - even amidst the irritated threats of the 'countrymen' caught up in levelling marketing.
Advertisers who risk being left without protection or lineage, of course.
But who refuse to affix ready-made seals to the spirit of mediocrity that annoys no one.
To internalise and live the Word, let us ask ourselves:
What has changed in your journey since you began to live more intensely in adherence to Christ? How has your environment reacted?
