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OMELIE / Omelie EN

21 giu 2020
21/06/2020 – 12th Sunday in O. T. - year A 

21/06/2020 – 12th Sunday in O. T. - year A 

Reading 1 JER 20,10-13 Psalm 68 /69 Reading 2 ROM 5,12-15 Gospel MT 10,26-33

 

Thanks to Jesus God's grace is effused on all men. Saint Paul is reminding us of this mystery. No man has been exempted from Adam's sin. That sin had brought into the world death, and the fear of death, with all the reactions that death provokes, making men's life painful and difficult, almost even impossible. Thanks to the offer Jesus made of Himself, lived till the humiliation of death, the Father’s gratuitous love is lavished on men!

In order to free our life from the serious slavery to death, Jesus had to offer Himself: the cost for Him was to withstand rejection, hatred and derision, persecution and unfair condemnation. It cost Him, but He has done it freely and willingly with so much love, that nobody would have never been able to think possible. Already the prophet Jeremiah was writing that this path is the one that has been prepared for every prophet and, in particular, for the servant of God. Men want to test, with the meanness that comes from jealousy, all those who invite to obey God, the God of justice and love, the God who disapproves cheating and oppressing the others. The prophet needs then to be ready to suffer, to carry a cross of misunderstanding and contempt from those he loves, those he would like to save from the influence of the devil, from those he would like to benefit.

Jesus' disciples will spread His Word, and they too therefore need to foresee for themselves this destiny reserved for the prophets. They need to expect to be met with unfriendliness: however, they do not need to fear. The fear is the fruit of forgetting God, His love and His power. Men could even get to the point of killing Jesus' disciples, but killing their bodies is not the worst damage: it would be worst if they were able to separate them from the Father and separate them from Him, Jesus, the only saviour.

Today’s Word helps us to consider realistically our role in the world: we are the carriers of a new wisdom and of a behaviour that is met with hostility. We might be tempted to let ourselves go and live like all the others, but we would not be the Lord’s disciples anymore: Jesus would not be able to recognise us as His own any longer. We would become salt without flavour, lamps not lit, therefore useless, yeast that has lost the ability to transform the society. We will not be afraid of going against the tide, derision will not scare us, nor misunderstandings, insults and slander: when we are with Jesus we have the Father Himself on our side, who loves so much to count our hair and to follow with His eyes any small movement. He, who is aware even of the sparrows, what on earth will not do for us, His children? If we look at the Father with a loving gaze we will have strength and courage to live all the teachings of His son, as prophets sent by Him, as useful people, nay, necessary to the world!

 

Let us therefore pray the Father with this prayer: Oh God, who entrust to our weakness the prophetic preaching of your Word, support us with the strength of your Spirit, so we may never be ashamed of our faith, but we may confess in all frankness your name in front of men!