«If you do not see signs and wonders, you do not believe»
(Jn 4:43-54)
Starting from the fourth week, the path of the Lenten liturgy takes a decisive step towards Jerusalem, which is already outlined in the Easter light.
The evangelist wants to introduce us into a more intimate familiarity with the mystery of the person and the story of the Son of God; a communion on the plane of being that bathes other lands.
He takes the rhythm of the catechumen's inner journey (v.47) to introduce us into his Vision, which regenerates our flesh and puts us back into the Exodus (v.50) that unleashes a whole dynamism around it (v.51).
On the Way, each creature is restored to itself and to the radical goodness of the original project - rediscovered first within, then without.
To have Faith is to depart, and to allow oneself to be traumatised. "For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet in his own country has no honour" (v.44). Why?
By the term "homeland" the synoptics imply Nazareth.
The fourth Gospel, on the other hand, alludes to a more theological dimension: that of the Word that transcends local privileges, targeting the ideology of the religious centre as well as the national institution.
After showing in the episode of the Samaritan woman (vv.1-42) the significance of Christ as the new Temple for both Jews and "heretics", Jn illustrates its meaning for pagans.
As if the Resurrection dimension ("after the two days": v.43) displaces the House of God to the whole world.
The observants of Judaism were forbidden to pass through Samaria and stay with the Samaritans (cf. Jn 4:9) who were considered mestizos (theologically polygamous: Jn 4:17-18).
Jesus does not limit himself to his own lineage, nor even to his religion.
In Galilee, he receives a super-pagan, who begs for help because he realises that the world he comes from is unable to generate life (vv.46-47.49.53).
Often our piety prevents friendship between different cultures and neutralises the power of intimate self-healing that everyone - of whatever ethnicity or creed - carries.
The trivial auspices of cultural baggage block freedom of thought from what is not yet foreseen, fixing stereotypes.
The idol-impregnated person no longer sees anything; he does not even meet himself and his intimates.
Nor does he experience unknown forces. At most, he believes in the pagan protector god, who performs miracles by lottery.
He who regulates himself with the naked eye... supposes he sees the Lord who heals through extraordinary deeds (v.48: "if you do not see signs and wonders, do not believe").
He misses the life-giving power of the Word, which touches without being seen, but makes Jesus present in his work and in his incisive, effective wholeness.
Christ is interested in making us understand how Faith 'works' in its pure quality: what dynamisms it activates - not the show of spectacle religion, all external, rhyming with impression, evasion, sensation, devotion.
These epidermic expressions lock the crowd into intimism, or arouse interest in oddities that jolt the senses, arousing a moment's enthusiasm, but not the core of each person.
The newness of Christ is not conveyed by contact, but by thoroughly accepting his unexpected Word-event. It is not subject to a principle of locality or any other religious guarantee.
The external gaze is convinced by miracles, but does not grasp the profound meaning of the Sign that speaks to us of the Person of the Lord - the true spectacle. All yet to be experienced.
Commenting on the Tao Tê Ching (xii), Master Wang Pi says: "He who is for the eye, becomes a slave to creatures. That is why the saint is not for the eye'.
Master Ho-shang Kung adds: 'The lover of colour harms the essence and loses enlightenment (...) The disordered gaze causes the essence to overflow outwards'.
The curious wait to see and ascertain. Thus they die of relative hopes, without root in themselves.
Only in Faith do we discover what we cannot yet see with the naked eye, nor did we know was there.
To internalise and live the message:
How does adherence to the Word of Christ help overcome the trivial desire for hype or escapism?
Returning to "your home", did you discover what you did not know was there? Has someone announced the Newness to you?What I didn't know was there: Faith, the naked eye, assurance
"Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe"
(Jn 4:43-54)
Starting from the fourth week, the path of the Lenten liturgy takes a decisive step towards Jerusalem, which is already outlined in the Easter light.
The evangelist wants to introduce us into a more intimate familiarity with the mystery of the person and the story of the Son of God; a communion on the plane of being that bathes other lands.
He takes the rhythm of the catechumen's inner journey (v.47) to introduce us into his Vision, which regenerates our flesh and puts us back into the Exodus (v.50) that unleashes a whole dynamism around it (v.51).
On the Way, each creature is restored to itself and to the radical goodness of the original project - rediscovered first within, then without.
To have Faith is to depart, and to allow oneself to be traumatised. "For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet in his own country has no honour" (v.44). Why?
By the term "homeland" the synoptics imply Nazareth.
The fourth Gospel, on the other hand, alludes to a more theological dimension: that of the Word that transcends local privileges, targeting the ideology of the religious centre as well as the national institution.
After showing in the episode of the Samaritan woman (vv.1-42) the significance of Christ as the new Temple for both Jews and "heretics", Jn illustrates its meaning for pagans.
As if the Resurrection dimension ("after the two days": v.43) displaces the House of God to the whole world.
The observants of Judaism were forbidden to pass through Samaria and stay with the Samaritans (cf. Jn 4:9) who were considered mestizos (theologically polygamous: Jn 4:17-18).
Jesus does not limit himself to his own lineage, nor even to his religion.
In Galilee, he receives a super-pagan, who begs for help because he realises that the world he comes from is unable to generate life (vv.46-47.49.53).
Often our piety prevents friendship between different cultures and neutralises the power of intimate self-healing that each person - of whatever ethnicity or creed - carries.
The trivial auspices of cultural baggage block the freedom of thought from what is not yet foreseen, fixing stereotypes.
The idol-impregnated person no longer sees anything; he does not even meet himself and his intimates.
Nor does he experience unknown forces. At most he believes in the pagan protector god, who performs miracles by lottery.
He who regulates himself with the naked eye... supposes he sees the Lord who heals through extraordinary deeds (v.48: "if you do not see signs and wonders, do not believe").
He misses the life-giving power of the Word, which touches without being seen, but makes Jesus present in his work and in his incisive, effective wholeness.
Christ is interested in making us understand how Faith 'works' in its pure quality: what dynamisms it activates - not the show of spectacle religion, all external, rhyming with impression, evasion, sensation, devotion.
These epidermic expressions lock the crowd into intimism, or arouse interest in oddities that jolt the senses, arousing a moment's enthusiasm, but not the centre of each person.
The newness of Christ is not conveyed by contact, but by thoroughly accepting his unexpected Word-event. It is not subject to a principle of locality or any other religious guarantee.
The external gaze is convinced by miracles, but does not grasp the profound meaning of the Sign that speaks to us of the Person of the Lord - the true spectacle. All yet to be experienced.
Commenting on the Tao Tê Ching (xii), Master Wang Pi says: "He who is for the eye, becomes a slave to creatures. That is why the saint is not for the eye'.
Master Ho-shang Kung adds: 'The lover of colour harms the essence and loses enlightenment (...) The disordered gaze causes the essence to overflow outwards'.
The curious wait to see and ascertain. Thus they die of relative hopes, without root in themselves.
Only in Faith do we discover what we cannot yet see with the naked eye, nor did we know was there.
To internalise and live the message:
How does adherence to the Word of Christ help overcome the banal desire for hype or escapism?
Returning to "your home", did you discover what you did not know was there? Has someone announced the Newness to you?
Faith and Touch
(Mt 8:5-17)
"The essential thing is to listen to what is coming up from within.
Our actions are often nothing more than imitation, hypothetical duty, or misrepresentation of what a human being should be.
But the only true certainty that touches our lives and our actions can only come from the springs that gush deep within ourselves.
One is at home under the heavens one is at home anywhere on this earth if one carries everything within oneself.
I have often felt, and still feel, like a ship that has taken on board a precious cargo: the ropes are cut and now the ship goes, free to sail everywhere".[Etty Hillesum, Diary].
Says the Tao Tê Ching (LIII): 'The great Way is very flat, but people prefer the paths'.
Commenting on the passage, masters Wang Pi and Ho-shang Kung point out: "winding paths".
The incipient faith of a pagan convert is the example Jesus sets before that of the observant Israelites.
What heals is believing in the efficacy of his Word alone (vv.8-9.16), an event that possesses generating and recreating power.
The Lord shows care, usually by touching the sick or laying his hands on them, as if to absorb what was imagined to be impurity, an alteration from normality [a 'fever' or paralysis that was thought to render the needy unworthy in the eyes of God].
In the Judaizing communities of Galilee and Syria, the question was still being asked in the mid-1970s: does the new Law of God proclaimed on 'the Mount' of the Beatitudes create exclusions?
Or does it correspond to the hopes and deep feelings of the human heart, of every place and time (vv.10-12)?
Those far away possessed a keen intuition for the novelties of the Spirit, and discovered the experience of Faith from other positions - not installed, less tied to conformist concatenations; perhaps uncomfortable.
Not infrequently, it was precisely the newcomers who stood out for their freshness of substantive insight - and they saw clearly.
It was enough to communicate face to face with the Lord, in a sense of secure friendship (v.6).
There is no need to add to this secret, to be born again. God is immediate Action (v.7).
The personal relationship between the ordinary man and the Father in Christ is sober and instantaneous.
Starting from his simple experience, the centurion understands the 'distant' value of the Word and the 'calamitous effect' of true Faith [which does not claim 'contacts' or material and local elements: vv.8-9].
In short, the cultural heritage and ancient religious conformity remained a burden.
Both the experience of the personal Christ the Saviour and the complete discovery of the power of full Life contained in the new total and creative proposal of "the Mount" were missing here and there.
Mt wrote his Gospel to encourage community members and stimulate mission to the Gentiles, which precisely the Judeo-Christians were not yet ready to make their own.
But to say "Faith" (vv.10.13) is to advocate a deeper adherence, and [at the same time] a less strong manifestation.
Expression of personal Faith is not to repeat or sweeten a learned doctrine, nor the conviction of others.
There is no need to fear: God has gone before us; the different and distant is not a stranger, but a brother.
Therefore, what saves is not belonging to a tradition or fashion of thought and worship.
Not demanding that the Lord comes in a certain form means not imagining him bound to an external expression.
One reaches and grasps Him only intimately, by certain vision - unencumbered by indispensable imagined convictions - whatever happens.
It will reveal itself time after time in the way that best suits our limitations.
Those distant from us are totally 'worthy' creatures, albeit faltering and fallible at times.
Not autonomous, insufficient, like everyone else - for they do not realise that God is in their flesh and hearth.
Thanks to such a clear awareness in the Son, they can finally understand the supreme Love of the Father, gratuitous, unreserved; that astounds, overcomes and launches them.
The pagan is conditioned by his pyramid world, but on encountering Christ he discovers himself to be a totally adequate and fulfilled person.
Not because he has merited or granted favours to the chosen people, or fulfilled a special kind of observances (reciting imprimatur formulas).
In the Lord, he himself is taught to expand the horizon of the usual religion - made up of external vertical relationships.
Although he recognises himself as lacking [v.8 Greek text] he realises that his relationship with God does not depend on an exchange of favours.
This immediate and spontaneous personal friendship does not become subordinate to works of law, nor does it spring from fulfilled norms of purity.
Nor does it subject itself to a headlong religious relationship.
The 'distant' includes love. In this way, he is already emancipated from a conspicuous, epidermal, common mentality.
In the Lord, he himself is educated to expand the horizon of the usual religion.
He believes precisely that the Word of the Lord - by Way, out of synchronised or established places and times - produces what he affirms.
And it accomplishes it even at a distance; without even resounding, peremptory signs that make a racket.
Rather, by releasing the mysterious Energy [still captive] of the "Logos" (v.7).
Unconventional Word, which does not run amok.
This, despite the fact that this Power can be found mixed with sometimes contradictory convictions:
He is already far from a magical and carnal mentality.
But he still has to take the decisive step, which will make him grow further - and it concerns us closely.
Self-esteem must be the attitude of even remote children, no matter what.Not by vague or emotional recondite feeling, but by Presence guaranteed regardless - even already operating, though sometimes unconscious.
Internalising it will be the work - and the "more" - of mature Faith, which sees, grasps, penetrates the preparatory energies at work.
And actualises them, anticipating the future.
"I am not worthy" is, together with "Have mercy on me" or "Son of David" - one of the most unfortunate expressions of spiritual and missionary life.
Formulas that Jesus abhors, although they have become customary in some expressions of the liturgy.
The prodigal son tries with the same rambling expression ["I am no longer worthy"] to move the Father, who precisely does not allow him to finish his absurd tirade.
Rather he prevents him from considering himself "one of his servants" and getting down on his knees before Him [Lk 15:21ff].
This would really be the only danger that endangers the whole of life; not just a small stretch of existence.
By Faith in Christ, from incomplete we become not only worthy, but we are so here and now Perfect to fulfil our Vocation.
Of course, some ideologues or white-mill purists might consider us unfashionable, or even paganising.
Our great and only risk is precisely that of absorbing such oppressive views from the environment, and allowing ourselves to be conditioned.
Every contour works not infrequently with the logic of hierarchies and power relations, whereby e.g. the inferior should not consider himself on the same level as the superior.
But at this rate, one can no longer perceive the divine Conspect.
The Face of the Eternal One is within us and in our homes; not in the chain of command with conditioning influences, but in our environment and in those who stand beside us - even across borders.
Family, friends, loved ones and others are on the same level. It is also true with God: we are face to face.
Not even the 'I and Thou' scheme with the Son counts any more: because - widely incarnated - he has planted his Heaven as well as his own therapeutic [even self-healing] capacity 'in' us.
Thanks to the Master, we are no longer within an ideology of the submissive - identical to that which prevailed in the empire - nor in a well-disciplined barracks, with distinct roles and confined areas.
External propriety does not belong in the Gospels.
In short, the Father no longer asks anyone to obey 'authorities', but to 'resemble' Him.
This is achieved simply by corresponding - each one of us - to this kind of superior Presence that dwells in us and loves us.
It is the end of the empty rigmarole: we are intimate and consanguineous with our own innermost Self, the super-eminent Face.
There is absolutely no need to "avert" God (v.5) as if we were "underlings" (v.9).
Our work is to unearth and acquire a new 'eye', not to submit to organisation charts.
The reborn eye is intuitive of other virtues - it does not submit to nomenclatures incapable of immediate fruitfulness.
Enough with the senses of shortcomings!
They end up introducing us into hoods and spire dynamics (v.9) typical of every stagnant feudalism.
Swamps that annihilate the new power of love - chronicling arrangements.
Configurations congealed by too many boring concatenations and local monarchies [such as we see in the provinces].
In natural listening to oneself and events, genuine esteem and divine Gratuity guide us wave upon wave towards a new way of living and exchanging gifts.
Impassable road for habit; for the obviousness that does not move thoughts, and does not perceive.
A path inaccessible to those who act out of duty - an enigmatic, opaque, devious and very 'tortuous' path.
To internalise and live the message:
How do you understand and cultivate the certain and free Coming of Jesus in your House?
Catholic
The Church is Catholic because Christ embraces all humanity in his mission of salvation. While Jesus' mission in his earthly life was limited to the Jewish people, "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt 15:24), it was nevertheless oriented from the beginning to bring the light of the Gospel to all peoples and to bring all nations into the Kingdom of God. Confronted with the faith of the Centurion in Capernaum, Jesus exclaims: "Now I tell you that many will come from the east and the west and sit down at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 8:11). This universalistic perspective emerges, among other things, from the presentation that Jesus made of himself not only as "Son of David", but as "son of man" (Mk 10:33), as we also heard in the Gospel passage just proclaimed. 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 person 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, address Consistory 24 November 2012].
The Power of the Word and the Creativity
of the Healing Touch of Jesus (feminine)
In the communities of Judaizing Galilee and Syria, the question was still being asked in the mid-1970s: does the new Law of God proclaimed on "the Mount" of the Beatitudes create exclusions? Or does it correspond to the hopes and deep feelings of the human heart, of every place and time (vv.10-12)?
The pagans possessed a keen intuition for the novelties of the Spirit, and discovered the experience of Faith from other positions (not installed, less tied to conformist concatenations; perhaps uncomfortable).
It was not infrequently the newcomers who possessed the freshness of substantive insight, and saw clearly. This was in comparison to the veterans - more tied to the leaves than to the seed - to whom they offered healthy jolts of outspoken Trust, married to the Newness of God.
Unlike those from habitual or markedly ethnic religiosity (even of Israel) they had already realised that it was not necessary to explicitly ask for Christ's intervention - as was done with the ancient gods (and according to customary thinking).
It was enough to communicate face-to-face with the Lord, in a sense of secure friendship (v.6) - not to solicit Him for a miracle: a fundamental acquisition, in order to be able to activate a new course even today, and finally emerge from the idea of a well-chiselled (and chosen) organic culture.
It is the Risen One who authentically does the opportune good... and all the rest: as in Jesus - strengthened by the intimate experience of the Father in the Spirit - all we need is Faith, that is to say, nuptial and fertile confidence in the Word, effective and inventive.
There is no need for any additions to this secret, to be born again.
God is Immediate Action (v.7): he does not like to be "prayed to and reprimanded" - as if he were any kind of sovereign, who takes pleasure in forcing his subjects into deference (with a view to a consequent paternalism of relations).
The relationship between the common man and the Father in Christ is sober and instantaneous, without any mediation means: the work of Grace is not at all conditioned by acknowledgements and formulas, or 'internal' titles, veteran rank; nor targeted bows, prior 'bribes', or rigmarole.
Starting from his simple experience, the centurion understands the 'distant' value of the Word and the calamitous effect of true Faith (which does not demand 'contacts' or material and local elements: vv.8-9).
It is not like magic: the intimate sensitivity of the relationship of Faith communicates to the eye of the soul a Vision of new genesis. Not doctrine, discipline, morals, ritual appointments and so on.
It is a picture of the future (strongly existential) that does not serve to anticipate (v.13) a selfish result, useful only for the believing subject, or from nomenclature: it is for the promotion of life, everywhere.
This corresponds to the deepest yearning of our heart.
In fact, another great novelty of the new Rabbi's proposal - which was spreading - was the acceptance of women as the "deaconesses" (cf. v.15 Greek verb) of the Church here in the figure of the House of Peter (v.14).
This was what had been happening since the middle of the first century (cf. Rom 16:1) and still has much to teach us. With God, one cannot get used to (multi)secular formalities emptied of life.
But religious traditions resisted the onslaught of the Faith-Love experience: even in the mid-1970s, communities did not feel free to gather those in need of care until the evening (v.16).
According to the parallel passage in Mk 1.21.29-34 (source of the passage in Mt) it was in fact the Sabbath day - and after leaving the synagogue. The same impediment and delay is described in the Magdalene's episode at the tomb on Easter morning.
Cultural heritage and sacred religious conformity remained a great burden for the experience of the personal Saviour Christ, and the complete discovery of the power of full Life contained in the new total and creative proposal of 'the Mount'.
The Tao writes (xxviii): "He who knows that he is male, and keeps himself female, is the strength of the world; being the strength of the world, virtue never separates from him, and he returns to being a child. He who knows himself to be white, and keeps himself dark, is the model of the world; being the model of the world, virtue never departs from him; and he returns to infinity. He who knows himself to be glorious, and keeps himself in ignominy, is the valley of the world; being the valley of the world, virtue always abides in him; and he returns to being crude [genuine, not artificial]. When that which is crude is cut off, then they make instruments of it; when the holy man uses it, then he makes them the first among ministers. For this the great government does no harm'.
And this is how Master Wang Pi comments: "That of the male is here the category of those who precede, that of the female is the category of those who follow. He who knows that he is first in the world must put himself last: that is why the saint postpones his person and his person is premised. A gorge among the mountains does not seek out creatures, but these of themselves turn to it. The child does not avail itself of wisdom, but adapts itself to the wisdom of spontaneity'.
In the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas we read in Nos. 22-23:
"Jesus saw little ones taking milk.
And he said to his disciples:
"These little sucklings resemble those
Who are entering the Kingdom.
They asked him:
"If we are like those babies, will we enter the Kingdom?"
Jesus answered them:
"When you make two things one and make
The inner equal to the outer and the outer equal to the inner
And the superior equal to the inferior,
When you reduce the male and the female to one being
So that the male is not only male
And the female does not remain only female,
When you consider two eyes as a unit of eye
But one hand as a unit of hand
And one foot as a unit of foot,
A vital function in place of a vital function
Then you will find the entrance to the Kingdom'".
"Jesus said:
"I will choose you one from a thousand and two from ten thousand.
And these shall be found to be one individual'".
