Stubbornness
(Lk 7:31-35)
The Gospels break through, advance and liberate, making us realize the enormous difference between common religious belief, and Faith.
They emancipate us by overturning positions: those who used to feel defended and secure - or on the crest of the wave [fashionable] - now seem to understand nothing of God's action in us.
As the ‘providence of the new’ makes its way in, those who are tied to stagnant or fanciful forms stubbornly try to cling to them in order to curb the authenticities - which are nonetheless rampant.
The new leaders of the people and the veterans feel lost, as they begin to measure the hollowness of their arrogance, the futility of their prestige, the childish incoherence of their pathetic pretexts.
Capricious children always complain when they don't get a prominent place in the games, or when others don't do what they themselves say.
The Baptist was an eminent herald, called to the realization of God's plan [known because of his peculiar figure, perhaps more prone to renunciation].
But the preconception of mortification did not fit: therefore, a nuisance to be rejected.
Christ was more sympathetic, expressive and welcoming; he did not make an issue of purity [so he too was an exaggerator]: to be insulted and condemned.
The austere and penitent was judged the equal of a demoniac; the young Rabbi who invited joy, a laxer.
For the gravediggers of the holy city, John was too demanding, Jesus too broad in ideas and behaviour.
Spoilt kids do not even agree in the game, and stubbornly stand their ground.
The incontentatible children reject every proposal: they always have to retort.
The austere way of the desert seemed unreasonable.
The Lord, on the other hand, lived among people, accepted invitations and did not try to appear different from others - but his affable and simple style was considered too ordinary and accessible [for one sent by God].
«Yet Wisdom has been justified by all sons» (v.35 Greek text); i.e. the little ones read the sign of the times.
The 'sons' recognise divine Wisdom, they see his plan.
They grasp the plan of Salvation in the preaching of the Baptist and the Christ.
They do not have too much ‘control’ over things; they are spontaneous friends with them.
They are aware of limitations and strengths; they even learn from subordinate positions, and from dark sides; they learn from fears.
They overcome the spiritual immobility of the great experts, critical of every breeze of change, or too abstract and sophisticated.
Both of which settle themselves and rule - generating a radically impoverished humanity.
They are like puerile and uncontactable figures, who neither get up nor move: «sitting» (v.32).
They trample, violate, jam everything.
Everywhere, the ‘chosen ones’ remain indifferent or annoyed, because they are, grasp and understand “one thing only”.
They never close their ‘character’ to open another, or to explore different sides of themselves and the world. Their souls are starched.
Instead, he who does not have a closed heart is anticipating the Coming of a new Kingdom, is grasping his own eternal face.
[Wednesday 24th wk. in O.T. September 18, 2024]
