OMELIE / Omelie EN

24 nov 2019

24/11/2019 – 34th Sunday in O. T. - Year C

24/11/2019 – 34^th Sunday in O. T. - Year C

Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Reading 1 2SM 5,1-3 * Psalm 121 * Reading 2 COL 1,12-20 * Gospel LK 23,35-43

“He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son”! Today our thankful eyes turn to this beloved Son, full of love and desire.

Every joy and consolation of ours, every truthful and deep communion with other people, every peace of the heart is given us thanks to Him, as the fruit of the obedience that led Him to the cross, suffering for love of us, sinners. Saint Paul is helping us to love Him through his thoughts.

Jesus is “the image of the invisible God”: the invisible God has made Himself visible in Him, like He Himself has said: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father”. The invisible God is not hidden anymore, He is no longer <<mysterious>>, we do not have to imagine Him anymore through our imagination based on our reasonings: He is visible in the person and life of Jesus. Let us welcome Him, and let us try to make our His very feelings and His spirit in order to please the Father!

“He is the head of the body, the church”. Jesus Is not far away, He is not detached from us. He is always united to His people, those that have been baptized in His name and are part of God’s people. He is the king of this people, the first, nay, the head: the one everyone depends on, because from Him they receive the strength to remain united and make use of one another with love. Being the first and the one giving movement and meaning to all the limbs of the body, it is  also given that “in all things he himself might be preeminent”, because all things are at the service of whom loves with His love.

“For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell”, so to speak, in Him there are no gaps, neither lack of love nor lack of wisdom: in Him dwells the divinity, God Himself.

Looking at Jesus we see and enjoy God, who loves us and is waiting for us.

Regrettably our way to look at Jesus is often ruined by selfishness and sin. We are tempted to look at Him like the ones standing at the foot of the cross were looking at Him, seeing only a man condemned by men, so much in pain to look like He had been cursed by God Himself. We can stop a moment on this page from the Gospel.

And the people stood by, watching: the people does not pick sides. It has known Jesus as the benefactor of everyone and it has listened to Him recognising that He was wiser than the wise, but now it has doubts about Him, rejected by the leaders, by those who know best.

The rulers sneered at Jesus: they know that Jesus has “saved others”. They remember His miracles, the signs with which He had demonstrated He was not only pleasing to God, but also His Messiah. They remember them, but without thankfulness, and without recognising their meaning. They have seen His selfless love, and they are jealous of it: they would like to see Him thinking of Himself, so He would become like them, who knows only to think of themselves. Let him save himself. But Jesus, exactly because He is the chosen one of the God of love, does not think of himself, on the contrary, He abandons Himself to the wisdom of the God who has prepared the cross for the Son and who, through the prophets, has already announced His sufferings.

“Even the soldiers jeered at him”, they were taking Him as someone who is naive, using the title mentioned by Pilate: King of the Jews. This title, for Jesus, who knew the Scriptures, did not exclude, nay, it included death as an offer, an act of loving sacrifice, for everybody. They, not differently from the rulers, are tempting Jesus with the usual words: save yourself. To save oneself is the instinct of all men, but it is the source of fear and the source of all those prevarications and violence that are soaking the world in blood and make men enemies to one another. Jesus would like to save the world from evil, He does not want to save Himself from death.

One of the criminals to the “Save yourself” adds “and us”. This is why Jesus suffers and dies, in order to save us. Becomes aware of this the other criminal, who, with a simple look, but full of faith, turns to the Lord with those words that today we want to make ours:“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom”. He believes his eyes: he has seen Jesus while he was being flogged and crowned with thorns. He has seen how different He is, how holy He is. He has seen how different from everyone else He was. This is why he has the courage to go against the tide and to believe in the kingdom He would have entered as king.

Jesus’ kingdom is the kingdom the Father had given Him: the kingdom in which He is the King, the first of all who wants to become everyone's servant. Jesus' regality is the most beautiful and perfect, because it gives life and joy to whom obey Him, to whom recognise Him as the king of their life. He is the king who fulfils the prophecies, the king who guides, defends and feeds His people like the good shepherd does with his sheep!