Inheriting the Life of the Eternal

(Mk 10:17-27)

What are we missing, despite our conviction and involvement? Why do we make certain behavioural choices?

Even if we were to devote years of commitment to the spiritual journey in religion, we would realise that in the end it is not just the icing on the cake that is missing, but the global One.

It is not enough to accentuate or perfect the good things, one has to take a leap; one step (even alternative) more is not enough.

Paradoxically, it starts from the perception of an inner wound that stirs (v.17) the search for that Good that unifies and gives meaning to life.

Jesus makes us reflect on what is to be considered "Insignificant" (so the Greek text: vv.17-18).

It is not a magisterial statement for those far away, but for us: "One is missing you!" - As if to emphasise: "You lack the All, you have almost nothing!".

Normal life proceeds, but the path of trust is lacking. There is no astonishment.

Our going is not consolidated or qualified by adapting to our surroundings, adding heritage to heritage and avoiding peccadilloes, or - above all - unknowns.

Too many things are missing: the challenge of the more personal, caring for others, confronting the drama of reality: there is no unity, there is a lack of the authentic Presence that launches love into the spirit of adventure.

It is not a matter of having a cue in addition to what we already possess, continuing to be slaves to it (the titles, the capital or the money, which give us orders like masters; they promise, they guarantee, they flatter).

It is not enough to improve on relationship situations that we know by heart, making ourselves approved from the first step - nor to limit ourselves to pious curiosities by satiating the spiritual gluttony.

The passage from religiosity to Faith that brings our vocational destiny and full realisation is played out on a shortage of supports - in chaotic systems of correlation.

To be happy, it is not worth 'normalising' or remaining decent, devout people, because the soul demands the challenge of unexplored skies.

Waters we have not probed: sides of ourselves, of others and of reality that we have not brought to the surface, and yet perhaps are not even probing.

It is necessary to venture into the basic and extraordinary traits that are calling today; not waiting for assurances.

And the starting point can also be the accent of doubt, a healthy restlessness of the soul - the very danger... typical of critical witnesses.

Let us not be silent about our unhealthy being, nor our sense of dissatisfaction with an ordinary, unshaken existence: these are fruitful suspensions, which (when ready) will activate us.

To feel complete, fulfilled, happy? It is necessary for the eyes and heart to give way, not to be already occupied.

It is absolutely necessary to let go of certainties from the mind and one's own hand.

Daring is not the maceration of self or of the main lines of one's personality - but the reckless investing of everything for another realm, where energies surface, different relationships are explored; one attempts to sublimate possessions into a matrix of life (also others': v.21).

After a sense of incompleteness or even spiritual infirmity has driven us to a rich attunement with the codes of the soul and brought us face to face with Jesus (v.17) from Him we understand the secret of Joy.

Our Core remains restless if it does not infuse correspondences that fly over - precisely - the ancient ruler: possessions, which make one stagnate.

Despite the assurances promised, they remain constipated, meaningless. 

Indeed, locking ourselves into dependency causes us to regress almost into the pre-human - snatching away the delight of open, self-respecting relationships.

The Deep Roots want to modify the vector of the swampy and situated self - "as it should be", well-integrated or self-referential - so that it dilates to include the You and the real whole (vv.28-30).

It is the Birth of the new woman and man, mothers and fathers of humanisation (in a living community that accepts the conviviality of differences). That which verges on the divine condition.

Capable even of reversing positions (v.31). Eschatological sign of the genuine Church. Nest and true Hearth.

It is Genesis in the authenticity of cosmic energies and inner powers, which are preparing stages of growth - elsewhere.

Gradually the warmth and reciprocity of an understanding relationship is created, the purpose of Love in what we undertake or do again; like the friendly warmth of a non-frigid Presence.

We experience the inebriating distinction from which there is no turning back, because it places us in the very Life of the Eternal (v.17). The missing One (v.21).

As I strive to question myself or others, previously hidden resources surface - that I did not even know about.

With amazement I experience a reality that is gradually unfolding.... as well as of the Father who provides for me (v.27).

In this extension, we learn to recognise the (new decisive) Subject of the spiritual journey: God's Design in being itself.Dream leading, and in spite of the travails, the emotional storms, our contortions, it gradually reveals itself to be Resembling.

As innate: forthright, genuine, limpid; irrefutable, flowing.

Inserted in the Community that hears the call to "go out", we move from the tortuousness of retreats; and here is the Father's hundredfold in everything (vv.28-30).

Except for one thing: we are called to be Brothers, on the same level. 

There will be no hundred-to-one "fathers" (in the ancient sense), i.e. conditioning controllers (vv. 29-30) who dictate their track and rhythm, as to subordinates.

Then we will be in our Centre, not because we are identified with the role, but chiselled in an astonishing way by facets of the Unknown.

A life of attachments or subservience to dirigisme blocks creativity. 

To cling to an idol, to allow oneself to be plagued or intimidated, to anchor oneself in the fear of problems or pre-occupations is like creating a dark room.

To feel programmable, already designed, without a more... To submit to ordinary or conformist views... excludes the vector of personal novelty.

Those who allow themselves to be inhibited build an artificial dwelling, which is neither their home nor the tent of the world.

Conceiving that we can foresee global adventures, we shrink, we frighten. One does not grasp what is really ours and others'.

This is what becomes apparent during a process - which becomes holy in the exodus from oneself and in the quality of creative relationships.

As Pope Francis said in Dublin: 'Docile to the Spirit and not based on tactical plans'.

Under a stimulus of the unprecedented and unknown, it is the new genesis that allows attention to be shifted from calculation to the brightness of the soul, from the brain to the eye, from reasoning to perception.

What should I "do" (v.17)? Embracing the Gift of difference and difference - even in my own inner faces, not infrequently opposites; complementing.

We transcend the One who is missing, but who reaches out to us.

One does not manufacture, but receives, one 'inherits' (v.17) freely - from the real that presses.

"Where is the Insigne for me?".

To become who we authentically are in the election of our sacred Source, one must surrender oneself to things, situations, even unusual emotional guests - treating them with dignity, just as they are.

Within this new ancient ground is the secret of that elevation that rises above dilemmas, for each one.

With all its load of stimulating surprises and appeals to flourish in humanising fullness, the Good lies in welcoming something that I do not already know what it is or will be, but It comes.

"You miss the One!" - and the best way to value contact is a bet, a matrix of being: transforming goods (of all kinds) into life and relationship.

Empty Spirituality, or Goods-Relation

From customs with limits to the Spirituality of Goods-Relation

(Mt 19:16-22)

At the time of Jesus there was a moment of social collapse and disintegration of the communitarian dimension of life - in the past more linked to family, clan and community.

Herod's policy guaranteed the empire control of the situation: a reality of maximum exploitation and severe economic and civil repression.

Religious impositions even ensured the subjugation of consciences - and the spiritual authorities willingly made themselves guarantors of this most hidden form of slavery.

The condition of total (civil and religious) subjugation of the people everywhere tended to diminish the sense of interpersonal and group fraternity.

There was no lack of severe conditions of social and cultural exclusion, which accentuated the bewilderment of the people, who were marginalised, homeless and without references - even religious ones.

Some movements were attempting to mend the rifts and propose forms of shared life, of course - but they were united by an idea of tormenting decontamination [Essenes, Pharisees, Zealots].

Jesus chose the path of a decisive vital redemption, compared to the ideologies of the rediscovery of ascetic purism and custom, traditionalist nationalist fundamentalist.

For a radical fulfilment of the spirit of the Law, it was necessary to go beyond doctrines. They excite some, yet they do not erase our inner sense of emptiness.

The community of the sons does not keep within the 'limits', and does not live apart; thus it does not accentuate the torments of imperfection, or the perception of incompleteness, nor the marginalisations - but rather welcomes them.

It does not feel endangered by contact with the realities that the external legalism of ancient devotion considered dangerous and cursed or in sin. It trembles for them.

The Church recognises the value of existential poverty: it is not enough to seek 'good things' without 'fire' within.

It confesses the richness not of all that is already recognisable and static, but of new positions and differing relationships, which open up the present and open up creative visions of the future.Faith, in short, is not a popularly identified belief capable of accrediting roles, tasks and characters - and their advantages, on which all should depend [!]

Nor can the dimension-richness still rhyme with differentiation-safety.

In vv.18-19 Jesus does not enumerate commandments that would make the interlocutor [as they used to say] live 'more from near' to 'God alone', but criteria that bring us near and alongside sisters and brothers.

The honour reserved for the Father is not one of many forms of competitive love: the threshold is the neighbour.

The God of religions is a capricious child who demands the big piece of the cake, at snack time: but the Son does not deceive us with the most childish ideas of widespread beliefs.

Nor does it cite the first commandments, identifying the exalted Lord of his people.

Our hands embrace the timeless in concrete love.

They trigger the dynamisms that annihilate the torments of the least, and thus in an unthinkable way help us rediscover the meaning and joy of living - letting the world be reborn, far more than with the usual forms of insurance (sacralising titles and acquired economic levels).

Conscious living does not have to do with customs and clichés [that produce alibis] but with another serenity and joy: the wonder of the unusual and of new degrees, places, states, relationships, situations.

There is no other wealth to fill our days, while there is only sadness (v.22) in the old bonds without humanity. They lower us all into an artificial mental and emotional reality.

To detach oneself from immediate calculation seems an absurd choice, out of the air and destined to go wrong, but it is, on the contrary, the winning move that opens the doors to the new Life of the Kingdom and to Happiness, which can be accessed precisely when material goods are transformed into Relationship.

We know of no religious discipline that holds [and that can defy time, our emotions].

Only the risk for complete Life - ours, everyone's - acts as a spring to the will and impels full dedication.

Says the Tao (xiii): "To him who makes merit of himself for the sake of the world, the world may be trusted; to him who cares for the sake of the world, the world may be trusted".

And Master Ho-shang Kung comments: "If I did not care about my person, I would have the spontaneity of the Tao in me: I would lightly rise up to the clouds, I would go in and out where there are no gaps, I would put the spirit in communication with the Tao. Then what misfortune would I have?

Let us free ourselves from the plethora of misguided goals, which crush our paths, making them swampy. Let us also reflect well, then, on "that which is worthy" (v.17).

To internalise and live the message:

Thanks to spiritual guides, have you learnt to grasp your life from the Goodness of God, or to be lulled and content with what is there?

In the Church, have you found Jesus' criterion fulfilled, the strong desire for the Good of others too, capable of showing a path? Or more attention to the things of the earth?