Creating abundance where there is none
(Lk 9:43b-45)
'Son of God' is Christ who manifests God in the human condition. 'Son of man' is Jesus manifesting man in the divine condition.
'Son of man' (v.44) is the one who, having gone to the utmost human fullness, comes to reflect the divine condition - and radiates it, without narrow perspectives.
In short, 'Son of Man' is the trustworthy, authentic person; even the 'little one' - without even a legacy of just and invariable ideas, or forces of the same level, and always performing.
"Son of Man" is here the successful Son: the Person with the definitive step. Word made "brother", who in us aspires to the fullness spread throughout history.
It would seem to fall short; instead, it is indestructible charature, within each one who approaches such 'measure' - encountering the divine marks that bring out what we are [and are born again].
In the Gospel passage, it is the Messiah who becomes a servant (!) and becomes the 'next of kin': the one who in Semitic culture was held to ransom and liberate his enslaved kin.
There is, however, a sharp contrast between what the people dream and hope for, and the opinion of the authorities, who are challenged by this atmosphere of humanisation with its overly broad contours.
Established and official teachers of the spirit were at ease in the narrow sphere: accentuating guilt, disfiguring people; making them needy, childish - instead of adult, secure, emancipated.
Even the religious institution trembled: the divine condition diffused in the lives of women and men made autonomous and able to stand on their own two feet would make any mediating structure superfluous.
Since time immemorial, in order to block the search for the You-for-you, the face-to-face with God [and to direct consciences], the leaders concerned had filled minds with things of the past, or all conformist, and people's lives with problems that stalled the way.
The slave of the customary ancient religion, allied with power, lived under condemnation, because it was outside its home. In a reality that stagnated, or advanced in a severely moralistic manner.
Such confusion stranded souls - even more so by accentuating ballasts, emphasising limitations, and feelings of subservience. Disturbing the life-wave of each one.
The logic of the old masters was unacceptable, both from the point of view of personal fulfilment and for living together.
In any sphere, the criterion of the self-loving big-wigs was in force.
Everything was in accordance with the principle that he who stands still is best controlled, stays where you put him, and cannot have passions; therefore he does not set anything in motion.
Under the enormous social conditioning, the dull soul was forced to submit to the outer cloak, which willingly blocked the spontaneous energy of souls, and of the world.
Even today, perhaps, there are still agencies of plagiarism that cloak all the proposals of Providence, and the very resources of women and men, or of charisma, with things already dead or abstract [mannered, external].
The true Son, on the other hand, conquers spaces of freedom, not so much from errors, as from egoism that annihilates communion, from self-love that refuses to listen, from standardisation that cancels uniqueness, from conformism that makes exceptionalism pale, from envy that separates and blocks the exchange of gifts, from competition, even spiritual competition that drugs us; from the sloth of those who believe they are not worth enough, which discourages and paralyses.
'Son of Man' is therefore not a 'religious' or selective title, but a possibility for all those who adhere to the Lord's proposal of life, and reinterpret it creatively.
They overcome the firm and proper natural boundaries, making room for the Gift; welcoming from God the fullness of being, in his new, unrepeatable tracks.
Feeling totally and undeservedly loved, they discover other facets, change the way they are with themselves, and can grow: they realise themselves, they flourish; they radiate the wholeness they have received.
Coming out of the poor or static idea we have of ourselves - a serious problem in many sensitive and dedicated souls - the relational personality can also begin to imagine.
And to dream, discovering that it can no longer give weight to those who want to condition its path as a person, in fullness of being, character, vocation.
He who activates the idea that he can do it, then transmits the power of the Spirit he has received and welcomed, and the universe around him blossoms.
Emanating a different atmosphere, the person integrated in his or her even opposite sides, feels consciousnesses arise, creates projects, emits and attracts other energies; makes them activate.
By relating interpersonally, God wants to extend the sphere in which he "reigns" - to all mankind.
Church without visible boundaries, which will begin with the 'Son of Man'. A figure not exclusive to Jesus.Son of David and Son of Man
This universalistic perspective emerges, inter alia, from the presentation Jesus made of himself not only as "Son of David", but as "Son of Man" (Mk 10:33). The title "Son of Man", in the language of the Jewish apocalyptic literature inspired by the vision of history in the Book of the Prophet Daniel (cf. 7:13-14), recalls the character who comes "with the clouds of heaven" (v. 13) and is an image that heralds an entirely new kingdom, a kingdom supported not by human powers, but by the true power that comes from God. Jesus uses this rich and complex expression and refers it to Himself to manifest the true character of His messianism, as a mission destined for the whole man and every man, overcoming all ethnic, national and religious particularism. And it is precisely in following Jesus, in allowing oneself to be drawn into his humanity and thus into communion with God, that one enters into this new kingdom, which the Church announces and anticipates, and which overcomes fragmentation and dispersion.
[Pope Benedict, Consistory 24 November 2012].
With the image of the Son of Man, the prophet Daniel already wanted to indicate an overturning of the criteria of human and divine authenticity: a man or a people, a leader, finally with a heart of flesh instead of a beast.
In the icon of the 'Son of Man', the evangelists wish to reveal and trigger the triumph of the human over the inhuman; the progressive disappearance of everything that blocks the communication of full existence, of totality of profound energy.
The divinely shining people are no longer entangled by fears, manipulations, or hysteria; on the contrary, they bring to the full all their varied potential of love, of outpouring of life.
The 'Son of Man' - a possible reality - is anyone who achieves completeness, the blossoming of the capacity to be, in the extension of relationships. With this, he enters into harmony with the sphere of God the Creator, the Lover of life.
It does so in its varied facets, and merges with Him - becoming One. Creating abundance; not a false identity.
"The 'Son of Man' is the man who behaves on earth as God himself would; in short, who makes the divine present and its power unfolded in history.
So he can afford to replace the gloomy seriousness of the pious and subservient being, or the superficiality of the sophisticated and disembodied, with the wise 'light-heartedness' that makes everything light [because it rhymes with naturalness].
'Son of Man' depicts the ultimate human, the Person par excellence - in its eminent Self, which becomes liberating instead of oppressive.
The consequences are unimaginable, because each one of us in Christ and for our brothers and sisters, no longer has dead, abstract, or other people's paths to tread.
To internalise and live the message:
How does the 'Son of Man' figure speak to you of your own personal thoughts and hopes, and what is the difference or contrast with the thoughts and hopes of the manipulators?
