“What is this? A new teaching with authority” (cf. Mk 1:27)
My meditation on today's gospel made me think about the essence of Jesus of Nazareth's mission. Is it His teaching: “What is this? A new teaching with authority” (cf. Mk 1:27), is what we read in the Gospel? Or is it themany miracles that no one else was able to perform? Perhaps, finally, Jesus' mission was to fight the demons who ruthlessly destroy human nature, leave a mark on human works and with which man cannot cope? Undoubtedly, all this belonged to the mission of Jesus of Nazareth. Especially the messianic prophecy contained in the Book of Isaiah and read by Jesus in the synagogue in Nazareth with his unambiguous comment: " Today this Scripture id fulfilled in your hearing" (Lk 4:11).
When the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus with the question: " Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?", Jesus refers to the obvious signs: " the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them."(cf. Mt 11: 3 - 5). So, one can get the impression that we are touching the essence of the mission. Unfortunately, not! If Jesus' mission was to heal, he should, then and now, heal all the sick, because there is no better or worse suffering, no better and worse crosses! How many new diseases have appeared on the health care list in two thousand years of Christianity? How many sick, living with hope and despair have appeared on earth during this time?
If Jesus' mission was to multiply bread or to silence the forces of nature, he would have to nourish and secure billions of victims until the end of the world: drought, hunger, wars, migration and injustice. And yet he does not. What are the five thousand hungry people on the Sea of Galilee in the face of the unimaginable challenges of later history! Here are some examples: in total, between 1921-1947, as a result of three famines (1921-1923, 1932-1933 and 1946-1947) in Ukraine, 10 million people lost their lives, and in 5 years (1845-1850) in Ireland over a million people died of starvation. Currently, every seventh inhabitant of the globe suffers from hunger, and over 1.5 billion lives on less than $ 1 a day. Are these the worse children of God? Why doesn't Christ prevent these collective hecatombs that touched many? Does God's fatherhood thus lose its credibility in the eyes of suffering children? Does God allow that further accusations against him to be repeated? Questions arise with the birth of deaf, blind, lame, lepers, children hydrocephalus, others with paralysis or a cleft palate. Each person is a new question!
Nor was teaching at the heart of Jesus' mission. Christ did not create any schools or philosophical systems as did the thinkers of ancient Greece. He did not write any books. The oldest of the existing Gospels was created more than 20 years after his death and resurrection, and rather as an experience of the faith of a community that fulfills its mission of proclaiming the Good News to every creature. Yes, it is easy and good that Jesus multiplies the bread, heal or calm storms. It is easy and good for each of us when He forgives, but when He calls us to conversion or difficult reconciliation with our neighbors, it is not so easy. It is not easy when he stands as objection sign towards us, when he exposes our idolatry and call us whitewashed tombs; when he does not listen to us or even gives the impression that he is against us. The greatest sacrifice we can make to Him is not our rosaries, fasts or pilgrimages, but obedience to His will. Yes, the greatest sacrifice is to accept what God gives. Accept without anger or regret, without rebellion or resentment!
The essence of Jesus Christ's mission was to fulfill the Father's will, however how difficult it would be, and it led the Son of God through the kenosis of the cross and the abys of death. And what is God's will? “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. "(Jn 3: 16-17).
For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” (cf. Lk 19:10)
So, in the language of the Gospel, to seek - it means to allowed to be found.
Until Tomorrow
fr . george