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OMELIE / Omelie EN

26/6/2016
04/09/2016 - 23rd Sunday of O.T. - C

04/09/2016 - 23rd Sunday of O.T. - C 

1ª reading Wisdom 9,13-18 * from Psalm 89 * 2ª letter to Philemon 1,9-10.12-17 * Gospel Luke 14,25-33

“Who can imagine what the Lord wants?” It is a question that makes us curious. Does God want anything? And in this his desire what can we do? The answer becomes a little more simple if we remember who is God, if we remember that “God is love”. So then we can imagine what can he desires, even if we do not succeed in getting near fully at his richness and the complexity of his love, knowing that we live in a “tent of clay” in which love is fragile, because it is conditioned and influenced always from egoism and pride. For this our reflections and reasoning’s are “timid and uncertain”. To answer for the first initial question, we need truly to depend on him, God, and to ask him his own wisdom and his holy spirit. This wisdom and this spirit readdress our ways, protecting from that which is superficial and not true and making us live a beautiful life, true, free and profound, generous and joyful.

Saint Paul certainly asked which was the will of God when he found himself of the slave who had escaped to his friend Philemon. In his reflection and his arguments brought forward illumined by the Holy Spirit he arrived to the conclusion which we have just heard. It is the will of God that Onesimo returns to his master, and that he must return there with a new heart, humble, with a friendly heart of Jesus. And it is their will of Jesus that his master, Philemon, accepts him, and that he must not treat him as a slave but as a brother. Saint Paul is sure that this is the will of God that he tells the slave “Accept it as myself”. This shows how Paul made himself part of the slave. The will of God changes us, changes us from the inside, and makes us realize things that no one was able to do. The will of God in fact makes us new, and makes us bringers of newness. We say everyday: “ thy will be done”, but this expression leaves us indifferent. Why? We must ask this to our own heart. We must say this as if we are saying to God to do what he wants. This is not what Jesus intended when he told us to “say” these words. He intended to indicate to us which desire must be ours, a constant and profound desire, so much so as to put our hearts and soul in the disposition of the father as if saying: “I am ready to realize your wills, which are better than mine. I offer myself to do only that which you want, to live the love, that love that you want to give to the miserable, the sinner, to those who never saw you. Make me a channel for your kingdom which is to come, change me in a way that on earth there shall be peace and good. Inspire me in a way that I will became your collaborator, even if I have to renounce my wishes to do what you want”.

Jesus infact foresees that whoever wants to stay with him must be decisive in putting into practice his own love. And he says this with clarity, because he knows the will of God: “If one wants to follow me and does not love me more than his father, his mother. Even his own life, cannot be my disciple”, that is if he does not love me more than his father, his mother...even his own life...he will not be able to stay with me, will start lamenting and will get tired.

The exclusive and decisive love for Jesus is the will of God, because God send his own son Jesus to guide us, to orientate us, to take us away from the influence of the world, far away from its temptations. To explain better, and because Jesus did not want misunderstandings, Jesus gave two examples. If one wants to make a construction to which he invests all that he has, first he starts calculating to be able to be sure that he has all the money. Otherwise, he will not even be able to start. Our life is more important than a construction. Do you want to follow Jesus? Are you able to renounce to our own riches, your loves, and all that to which your heart is attached to? If you are not able to suffer, you will not even be able to start.   even a king who wants to go to war cannot do this is the other one is stronger than him. “ Thus whoever does not renounce all his goods, cannot be my disciple”: If a problem presents itself, you will deter, go backwards and you will become his enemy. In this case he cannot have faith in you, and he cannot give you am important mission or a task. Our war is against a strong enemy: if we are not with Jesus, we cant even start the war. Doing the will of God is not an optional game, which one can abandon when he wants.

If you do the will of God you must be committed.   God sent his own Son not to play a game with us, but because he is necessary for our life. Thus it is obvious that the will of God foresees that we embrace his gift, Jesus and that we will put him above everything. Without him what can we do? To the question:
To whom shall we go Lord?, we can answer without doubt: we want to love Jesus much more than ourselves, much more than what we dream of. For this we offer to carry our cross, with determination and humbly. We can be certain that our life will be full, rich of fruits and thus joyful!