OMELIE / Omelie EN

26/6/2016

17/07/2016 - 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time - C

17/07/2016 - 16ª Sunday of Ordinary Time - C

1st Gen 18, 1-10 * from Psalm 14 * 2^nd Col 1, 24-28 * Gospel Lk 10, 38-42

Abraham, by giving hospitality to the tree travelers who passed by his own tent, accepted God himself. He did not know this. For the three strangers he did all that he could do with joy, with generosity, with a great love reserved only to God. He was not aware that he was giving hospitality to God himself, but he behaved as if he knew. And the things took place in a way that, with great surprise, he himself at a certain point realized that he was in the presence of God and that he enjoys his friendship and confidence. It is God, one alone even if it presents itself with three faces, but with one understanding, offers to Abraham a divine promise, that which Abraham did not wait for longer, neither in his own dreams: “In a years time to Sarah, your wife, shall be given a son:”. No, it was no longer possible, according to the calculations of man. This is a promise which God only can give. It is nice the hospitality of Abraham ma when one thinks, it is a bigger surprise the patience and the docility with which that guest or guests, accept the attentions of the patriarch. It is exactly this that God looks at us when we think about doing something for him. What do we do for Him? To his eyes everything that we do is a small thing, for him does not serve, but he enjoys seeing us us expressing our love.

The episode of Abraham showing his care is also similar to the idea we find in the gospel. Here we see the two sisters of Bethany who prepared the hospitality of Jesus with his own disciples. They embrace the emerging church in their own house. The attention is obviously directed to Jesus, while the disciples become, besides the one who profit from the hospitality, even the spectators of these events. Martha, as her name reveals – the mistress of the House, decide the hospitality of the group which is arriving from Jerusalem after having crossed the desert of Judah. We can also make an intuition or imagine their own tiredness, thirst and hunger, the desire to have some form of rest. Jesus instead take advantage even of this occasion to continue his own teachings. He becomes aware of the great ignorance of God that all live, and from this ignorance come out their own behaviors and ways of thinking which give original to suffering, disorders, and fear of all types. For him hunger and thirst and tiredness are truly secondary. He sees the hunger, thirst and spiritual tiredness of those people who he meets or come to him. In the house of the two sisters he continue to speak. His words are light and richness; they are a gift for that house. Mary, the minor sister, feels it, and she does not want to miss a single word to which even the publicans and the sinners look with avidity. Martha on the contrary, the one who invited the guests, is absent, or better, is present and tries to catch the attention of Jesus; and thus she cover his own voice. She wants that her preoccupation becomes for all the center of attention. Her own interventions disturb and prevent the others from listening. With her preoccupation, Martha, becomes a scandal. No one has the courage to stop her. But Jesus does this, making her note that it is her sister Maria, whom se disrespects and accuses, is the example for all the Church even in the future.

It is true that Martha is doing what Abraham did, occupying herself of the food and the rules of hospitality, but she does not love Jesus truly. She gives hospitality to the body of the guest, but not the soul; she gives hospitality to the physical presence but not the spiritual. The guest, in this case Jesus, does not feel loved, does not feel valued from her for his spiritual stature, neither does he feel welcomed as the Son of God. It seems that Martha wants to make herself big with her attention to material things and her remarks and pretenses, but does not succeed in making herself small to let herself be nourished. The Lord tells her: look at your sister and learn from her and be wise. The true wisdom is that of God, and thus we are wise when we put ourselves listening to him. For this reason saint Paul invents all sort of things to continue to preach and announce the Word of God, so that no one remains without this nourishment, the bread of life. And the Word of God is Christ: “Christ in you, hope of glory”. It is him who announces “instructing” and “admonishing every man”. And in order to reach this objective he is ready to suffer, knowing that every apostle of the gospel must participate to the sufferings of the Lord. In the “flesh”, that is in the physical life of the apostle must be fulfilled the ‘sufferings of Christ”: It is these which build the Church, makes it reveal the love of the Father, that is “glory” to God. We are wise and we participate to the building of the kingdom of God not when we preoccupy ourselves with material things but when we listen and favor the hearing of the Word which saves. We give glory to God when we first of all welcome him in our hearts, listening to him, before we do something for him. Thus, we realize that which he himself asks form us!