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OMELIE / Omelie EN

30 giu 2019
30/06/2019 – 13th Sunday in O. T. - C

30/06/2019 – 13th Sunday in O. T. - C

Today retiring collection for the Pope’s charity work

Reading 1 1KGS 19,16.19-21 * Psalm 15 * Reading 2 GAL 5,1.13-18 * Gospel LK 9,51-62

 

You will show me the path to life, fullness of joys in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever.” This Psalm is the counterpart to the reading of Elisha's call. The latter took seriously the choice made by Elijah and left his promising job in the fields in order to follow the prophet; he left it joyfully, organising a big party for the people he was going to leave forever. To accept the Lord’s call is really a celebration, because to be with him, to enjoy his presence and his help in order to serve Him with all our being, fills life, makes us feel like we have realised our potential.

Elisha's call is an event we are required to rethink of after reading today’s gospel. Elijah needs to find a successor to continue his service to announce God’s Word among the people: in the same way Jesus, who is purposefully walking towards Jerusalem, needs to establish who will be able to keep His light shining in the world! The people chosen in the end need to know also what Jesus will have to face. The evangelist is telling this clearly: “the days for Jesus' being taken up were fulfilled”.

The Jews want Him dead, but the Samaritans do not welcome Him as well: they refuse to listen to Him and to offer Him their services. Jesus is rejected by them too. The reasons for this refusal might be different, but the underlying opposition is a constant. Whoever desires to stick with Him need to know this. They need to know that they are committing themselves to live with a person that has been rejected by the leaders of their own people and even by their own very enemies. He is a symbol of contradiction everywhere!

His very own disciples take on a behaviour that makes Him suffer. They would like to go down the old paths, the ones followed by the prophet Elijah, and call for a severe punishment from God for those who are not hospitable to Him. Therefore Jesus does not feel understood and fully welcomed even by His own disciples: they do not have achieved yet His meekness and His mercy, His patience and will to save everyone.

The firm rebuke that He gives them is still valid. The temptation to teach Jesus how to punish, to paralyse, to eliminate or to make suffer the people who are against Him and the Church, is with many Christians. Jesus does not even take into account these pieces of advice: they do not come from the Father’s wisdom, which is the wisdom of the cross. In fact, He would like those who are with Him to get used right away to forget themselves, to stop desiring comfort and the satisfaction of their feelings, not to follow even those inclinations that might find justification in God’s very own commandments. Who follows Him needs to be poor and pure, not entangled in human relationships.

He, Jesus, does not promise anything of what has value in this world: He does not promise richness or comforts, does not allow to spend time doing things that are not necessary for announcing God's Kingdom, He does not like those who expect their actions to be rewarded. It is necessary a simple and joyful obedience: who “looks to what was left behind…”: whoever makes his own decisions without obeying or wants to enjoy his skills, or tries to be proud of the results of his work, whoever wants to feel great about what he has achieved, he is not “fit for the kingdom of God”. Who follows Jesus needs to be firm in following Jesus, that Jesus who is walking purposefully towards Jerusalem, where He will sacrifice Himself to the Father through death.

Saint Paul applies these considerations to some aspects of the community life. To welcome Jesus is a great grace, because He allows us to enjoy true freedom, the freedom we all desire and look for. Freedom from laws and old traditions, like those the Jews had, does not have to be a reason to be disrespectful to people who don’t have this freedom yet. True charity, practiced with patience, needs to be always there, with everyone. We are never authorised by the Lord to get angry, not even to force our opinion on others. Nobody will be able to prevent us from loving with the love that makes us our brothers' servants. In this way we have the possibility to be “dead” to ourselves, to leave everything we will leave when we will die, to be free to follow Jesus wherever He goes, and to serve Him by putting effort in His kingdom, steadfast and full love.