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OMELIE / Omelie EN

30 ago 2020
30/08/2020 – 22nd Sunday in O.  T. -  year A

30/08/2020 – 22nd Sunday in O.  T. -  year A

Reading 1 JER 20,7-9 Psalm 62/63  Reading 2  ROM 12,1-2  Gospel  MT 16,21-27

 

The world we are living in is a world hostile to our faith and to the actions and words we use in order to show it. Sometimes we are amazed at the fact that the world thinks and speaks in such a negative way about that faith that is the source of the love with which we serve our brethren and with which we commit ourselves to overcome evil that is tempting us strongly in many ways. We are surprised, but Jesus Himself has prepared us for this. He Himself who, we can say, is goodness made person, has borne the shaming and the hatred of the world guided by Satan, the enemy. He has not rebelled against this fate, which the prophets already had foretold with their very own life too. And when Peter has reacted to the declaration of Jesus, in order to change His mind regarding this certainty, the Lord Himself did not hesitate in giving His disciple nothing less than the title of “satan”, justifying it so: “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do”. These words of Jesus’ are very surprising to me: how many times I would deserve them! I think very often in a human way. Many times I talk in a way men do. Too often I act in a human way. I have desired to hear the praises and the approval of many, I have desired to eat many special dishes and drink my favourite drinks, I have complained that I had not been able to sleep, I have avoided some work for fear of a little bit of effort… I have looked at others' desires and at my body’s instead of at those of my Lord.

Saint Paul, in the letter to the Romans, is passing on to us a strong invitation to be novelty for the world in which we live. If we were like everyone else, we would be useless. We would not be either light for who live in the confusion, or salt for whom do not have a reason for their existence or their actions. If we were like everyone else we would not ever be able to change the world. We need to be different, and therefore we need to start thinking differently, renewing our minds. This is possible if we keep alive the desire to do according to the Father’s will, to answer to His love, to show His goodness by mimicking Him in our actions. It is possible still if we make of our bodies, so of our whole life even in its more earthly and sensitive aspects, a sacrifice to God. To Him we do not offer just something that is separated from us, but our whole being, like Jesus. He has offered His own will to the Father.

We are following Him, and therefore we try to offer Him what we can out of our life, even if it costs us. We do it joyfully, knowing that it is pleasant for God, but also it is useful to all men, even to those who mock us and slander us, to those who accuse us of being childish because we pray and believe, to those who avoid meeting us and showing that they are friends of ours. This is what happened in the prophet Jeremiah's life: “All the day I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me”.  But he has remained faithful and persevering in his faithfulness. Why?  “You duped me, o Lord, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me, and you triumphed”: the Lord’s love has a strange attractiveness, strong, irresistible. It is enough for it to find you once, and you understand that that one, His, is the truth of life, that anything else is not possible or that nobody else is there more beautiful and truthful than Him. Therefore Jeremiah, as today’s martyrs, is taken by God. And we have been taken by Jesus, come among us. Defeated by Him, persecutions do not frighten us. We know that our detractors and persecutors will themselves need Jesus' forgiveness and love. In fact, it happens very often that these very people, when they find themselves in suffering and in the difficulties, in doubts and in the painful turns of life, look for us, because they know that we know the meaning of sufferings and we know how to manage them without being overwhelmed. Therefore it is necessary, also for love of our brethren and also of our ‘enemies’, that we remain steadfast in our following Jesus and that we keep firmly steady on the way of the cross; it is indispensable that we persevere in the faith notwithstanding trying circumstances and difficulties.

We should not complain, but let us firmly repeat the prayer: “My soul clings fast to you; your right hand upholds me!”.