Faith and religion. Turnover in the Church

(Lk 6:20-26)

 

In Mt the Beatitudes outline a programme for fraternities of Jewish origin.

In Lk the sermon seems more radical in character and is addressed to Hellenistic communities, with a strong social emphasis.

Jesus judges the configuration of the world in which his Church in the Spirit finds itself living: rich and destitute [shaky in many senses], prominent and invisible.

A situation that does not reflect conditions of fullness of life; rather - even today - it makes the blood bitter for many.

A distorted and non-definitive reality, exasperating, which he absolutely denounces he does not like among his own: that of lauded rulers (despite the selfish abuse of possessions and positions) and insignificant subordinates.

Devoid of lofty titles, the young Rabbi addresses from the bottom up (v.20) those who have freely chosen his proposal of fraternal existence and sharing of property [in Mt "poor "for" the Spirit (of love)"].

 

The Master explicitly rejoices ["Blessed"] in the choice of his own, alienated from selfishness.

He praises that experience of attunement: in the same quality of intimate life with God, united and promoted to a different vision and reciprocity.

Already here on earth, the intimates testify to a different perception of things: looking down.

In addition, the Dream of an alternative society, founded on harmonious coexistence, without discrimination. A heady thing - in the exchange of benefits.

A sprout of a hospitable world - which Lk wants to encourage - where there is no top and bottom or front and back: only humanising upheavals (such as the reversal of roles) that strengthen the concordant fabric.

Even in his House there must be rotation and reversal of leading figures and roles - signs of the Kingdom to Come.

Replacement is a sign of the Kingdom to Come; capable of sharpening sensitivities to Communion.

Not installation (even, for life) and fixity.

 

In the documents of ancient literature there is little mention of the poor, voiceless and hungry. The focus was on the rich, the heroes, the kings and generals.

The reversal of fortune was unimaginable, although here and there [especially in the world of women, which was completely stifled] it was perceived as a deep and far more authentic desire.

The powerful of the new humanising world are precisely the opposite of what was foreseen: those who feel the Son present, pulsating in their hearts, Risen in them.

They do not keep for themselves, but transform goods, goals, titles and ministries into Life and Relationship.

Dynamism that will no longer cause anyone to lose the ground under their feet.

 

Nor will high tones be needed to defend themselves.

If one is still unable to distinguish and recognise oneself, one can become less noisy in reciprocity.

Then, what one now experiences - and suffers for love - is transitory, not definitive.

What on the other hand is decisive and conclusive is the building of this unusual type of Church [Kingdom].

Germ that departs from the one-sidedness of relationships.

Seed and Nest - with enrichment and alternation - where everyone feels adequate, no longer singled out.

In any case, independent of conformist or pyramidal opinion, interested in perpetuating themselves.

In this way, persecutions that then bring suffering must be taken into account - not as a death rattle, but as glad tidings: birth pains, emblem and source of broad Hope.

 

The old competitive world is reeling and defending itself by all means, but the announced future is coming.

Fraternities that make decisive choices go the right way, sensible, vital, that not only cushions but teaches how to live misfortunes as an opportunity for Novelty and different Harmony.

Those to whom everything runs smoothly and are incensed - and allow themselves to carve out fixed positions of prominence in the assemblies of Faith reduced to the realm of man - only reiterate the divergences that already marked the structure of the Empire.

They have nothing in common with the Father's plan.

Therefore Jesus does not rejoice in their presence, rather he laments it.

He does not believe that social inequality is the result of fatality, but of injustice - unbearable for those who call themselves disciples and brothers.

 

In an atmosphere of real sharing of resources and conviviality of differences, it also helps us to understand the relationship of Friendship in a strong sense - between us members of the Church, and with God.

In an atmosphere of blissful living, the inner core is finally heard, and shakes up crystallised situations. It makes one see life from other points of view. So no exaggeration of control; no forcing.

Between believers, any need finds space - without any more script - and everything moves away from the partiality of external relationships.In a religious and verticist (already chained, voluntarist) Father-son relationship devoid of Faith, it is always the Almighty who dominates, and the creature obeys.

God is in the foreground and judges; man follows him, living as a function of the 'master' and his 'representatives' - even in vital positions - as if all others had a bland, decentralised identity.

Instead, in the community that reflects the divine, there is never anyone who is always in the background and the usual ones who prevail and decide - while others follow and act as spectators.

Otherwise some will end up brooding over abandonment or retaliation, and react [the only way] not to annihilate themselves.

No one can live without expressing his or her own personality and unrepeatable Vocation: in micro and macro community relations, in the Church active in the lay apostolate - if untiring.

This also applies with God.

 

The same ideal of harmonisation applies with Traditions or so-called Charisms - which should not overburden souls.

No more worldviews chiselled out according to another size: someone else's, or already dated, that no longer belong to us. Although it can in various cases propose a world of knowledge in which one can and must recognise oneself....

If, on the other hand, the relationship is filled with overwhelming power - as in devotions or ideologies, in business gangs or sects - the inclination will not be able to generate unity [if not facade] but all sorts of betrayal and abandonment.

But here defection becomes paradoxically necessary, in order to find oneself.

There remains a moment of tension and perhaps on the spur of the moment an escape, but from an oppressive situation - like that of the prodigal son (in ch.15) who runs away from home because he is harassed by the attitude of the 'eldest son'.

 

In the Faith-Love adventure, there is always a mutual recognition.  Thus, offices are incessantly reversed.

Roles are incessantly reversed between subject and 'object' (made into a protagonist in its turn) of the exchange of resources and gift-giving.

Over-centred relationships of subjection annihilate God's living Gifts; they produce deep, paralysing wounds.

They reduce Creator and creature to silence: a paradoxical self-condemnation.

In the realm of multifaceted 'holiness', on the contrary, the inversion persists between the one who proposes, the one who welcomes, and the one who expands.

In each situation assessing whether the brother is in joy. [In this sense the synodal path is really appropriate].

Then over time one grows and also changes one's opinion - e.g. about people or events that we considered distant, inconclusive.

And instead they spoke to us of mission, or of our secret pace towards another goal and destiny.

 

The Christ present in every believer and in his mystical body that lives the Beatitudes, surpasses all normalised opinions.

God is not monochromatic: he overcomes disparities of behaviour, class divisions, discontents - and this is not a far cry from us.

E.g. until recently in Baptism we used to perform a formality.

We did not realise what was happening between God and the creature brought into the Church - nor the difference between pious ceremony and life orientation.

But pausing with ourselves and our Meaning, together, would have qualified the way of understanding ourselves; understanding others, being in the field.

Spontaneously we would have abandoned our 'character', role and primacy (which centralise, but act as a ball and chain to the best energies).

In short, with the help of a qualitatively rich common house, alive and committed in the spirit of gratuitousness, we would already be here in the divine condition.

We would have reactivated ourselves and our capacities in the round - without first adjusting positions on homologated models without vigour, which subject us to rancorous, suffocating, partial, equivocal relationships.

 

In the contrasts in vv.24-26, the Lord distinguishes well between what makes us blessed - complete, not one-sided - and what does not belong to or resemble the Father's work.

But he does this not simply by admonishing, but to bring together, and expand our Core; to lubricate the intimate, better essences of all.

By proclaiming the spirit of the Beatitudes - within each one of us - even in the time of pandemic and global crisis, he does not intend to make us gnaw our guts out and feel traitorous, inconsistent and off-track.

This Word wants to communicate [especially to the assemblies themselves, who seem to need it so much from the Risen One] a less centralised and partial energy, more permeable and confluent; an inclusive rhythm.

And full permission to live.

 

 

To internalise and live the message:

 

What is your ideal of happiness?

Do you know any blessed men in the Church, or mostly men of earth and centralising relationships, tasks, management of pastoral programmes and more (...) while propagating 'unity'?

What is your angry cry that you do not let out, for fear of being excluded? Don't you think it is speaking deeply to you of discriminating human choices, of personal and ecclesial Vocation?

Do you believe that the Beatitudes are a hindrance to personal and social fulfilment, or vice versa a chance to assert yourself, and with determination?

 

 

Paradoxes for a sharing

 

Brother Egidius, a companion of St Francis, summarised his Founder's teaching thus:

"You want to hear well? Become deaf. You want to speak well? Be silent. Want to walk well? Cut off your legs. You want to work well? Cut off your hands. Wanna really love? Hate yourself. Want to live well? Mortify yourself. Want to gain? Learn to lose. Want to get rich? Be poor. Want to be consoled? Cry. Want to live in security? Always be afraid. Want to rise to the heights? Humble yourself. Want to be esteemed? Despise yourself and esteem those who despise you. Want to have good? Endure evil. Want to be at peace? Strive. Want to be blessed? Hope that they curse you'.

In the Letter to Diognetus (mid-second century) we read:

"Christians neither by region, nor by voice, nor by custom are to be distinguished from other men. For they neither dwell in cities of their own, nor use a jargon that differs, nor lead a special kind of life. Their doctrine is not in the discovery of the thought of multiform men, nor do they adhere to a human philosophical current, as others do. By living in Greek and barbarian cities, as each one did, and adapting to the customs of the place in dress, food and the rest, they testify to an admirable and undoubtedly paradoxical method of social life. They live in their homeland, but as strangers; they participate in everything as citizens and are detached from everything as foreigners. Every foreign homeland is their homeland, and every homeland is foreign. They marry like everyone else and beget children, but they do not throw out babies. They share the table, but not the bed. They are in the flesh, but do not live according to the flesh. They dwell in the earth, but have their citizenship in heaven. They obey the established laws, and by their lives they overcome the laws. They love all, and by all they are persecuted. They are not known, and they are condemned. They are killed, and they live again. They are poor, and make many rich; they lack everything, and abound in everything. They are despised, and in despises they have glory. They are reviled and proclaimed righteous. They are reviled and blessed; they are abused and honoured. Doing good they are punished as evildoers; condemned they rejoice as if they received life. By the Jews they are fought as foreigners, and by the Greeks persecuted, and those who hate them could not tell the reason for their hatred."

"To put it briefly, as the soul is in the body, so in the world are Christians. The soul is diffused in all parts of the body, and Christians in the cities of the earth. The soul dwells in the body, but is not of the body; Christians dwell in the world, but are not of the world (...). God has placed them in such a place that it is not permissible for them to leave".

 

Christianity is not a religion, but a Person and its proposal: an exceptional Path of Friendship and Paradox.

Quoting Emmanuel Carrère: "(Jesus) is always what his followers wanted to see, hear, touch, but not as they expected to see him, hear him, touch him (...). He is the first to pass, he is the last of the beggars".

God's imaginative choices pass for the undecided, the defeated, the weak ignoble fools.

Not because of an alternative quirk, but because these are the people who - while working to brighten the lives of others - by risking their own make experience of a Father who provides for their uniqueness.

 

 

They let the Light through

 

All Saints, between religious sense and Faith

 

Embodying the spirit of the Beatitudes, we ask ourselves 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 a 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, the saint is indeed the excellent man, but in its 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 or her 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, a divine attribute] is indeed the 'detached' man, but not in a partial or physical sense, but ideal.He is not the person who at a certain point in life distances himself from the human family to embark on a path of purification that would elevate him. Deluding himself that he is getting better.

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' (No.87).

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

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

All for the 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 he replaces the presuppositions of keeping for oneself, of climbing over 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; co-existing 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, into 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 the others.

Only this horizon of the Hearth drives us on.

Consequently, the opposite of Saint is not "sinful", but rather unrealised or unfinished.

 

Let us see again why (vocational and personal paths).

Jesus was a friend of publicans and public sinners not because they were better than the good, but because in religion the 'righteous' are often not very 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 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 in a biblical perspective.

At every turn, Scripture proposes to us a spirituality of Exodus, that is, a road of liberation from fetters and walked as if on foot, step by step. Hence one that values paths of seeking, exploring, 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', therefore 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, making up for their deficient 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 'perfect' ones, 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 holy 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: inside, 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 lay one of them out clumsily, and the artificial construction collapses.

We realise our natural inability to meet such high sterilisations, (other people's) maps and standards.

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

In ancient contexts, the path of the sons has been cloaked with a mystical or renunciatory proposal of abstinence, fasting, retreats, secluded living, obsessive cultic observances... which in many situations formed the backbone of pre-Conciliar spirituality.

But in Scripture, saints do not have a halo or wings.

They are not such because they performed 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 everyday life; the search for their own identity-character, or deep inclination.

And the apostolate; the family, raising 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, providential life proposes itself and comes to open unthinkable, breaching gaps.

Its unprecedented journeys of growth renew the existence all linked and conforming.

This also makes us marvel at intimate resources, previously unconscious or unconfessed and concealed, or unforeseeably 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: instead, it becomes the lack of a spirit of communion, in differences.

The enemy of the Salvation story 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 by harmonising 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), that is, the disbelief 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 'become holy', but with Him, like Him and in Him - united, to encounter one's 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 with the other, regardless of where [or] from where [...] ultimately experiencing that others are his own flesh" (cf. FT 84).