MEDITACIONES SOBRE El EVANGELIOMuestra

"MEDITATION 9: We are all Called to be Jesus’ Family." Up to this moment, we have followed Jesus from the announcement of his birth to the beginning of his ministry. We have seen the guidelines of his spiritual message in the Sermon on the Mount, including how we have to pray to the Father. We have learned his basic approach to the people through his words in the synagogue of Nazareth. From now on, until the mysteries of his passion, resurrection and ascension to the Father, we will follow him and see what he says and does, his words and actions. The purpose of this meditation, (packed with quotations), is to prepare you to see how Jesus challenges our mental schemes, our prejudices, the many concepts we take for granted and accept as solid and firm truths. Jesus presents the face of a God who acts as a father, understands and accepts our feeble and sinful condition, and forgives. Jesus invites us to follow him and learn to look at the world with different eyes. We all tend to build barriers and walls to defend ourselves from others. The first wall is that of family bonds and limits. Jesus begins by telling us that what makes us members of the new family he is about to create is our acceptance of God’s will (8:19-21 and 11:27-28). There is not even a label or a membership card to become one of his followers; it is only necessary to put into practice what he teaches: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ but do not do what I command?” (6:46). The first to recognize his presence at his birth was a group of outcasts, the shepherds in Bethlehem (2:8-20). Even in the moment of his death, he showed mercy to one of the criminals crucified with him (23:39-44). He has not come to call those who are important in society, but accepts those who are of no reputation into his household: children, for “the least among all of you is the one who is the greatest” (see 9:46-48). He does not avoid those who are impure in the eyes of society: lepers, whom he touches and cures (5:12-16; 17:11-18). He eats with sinners, such as tax-collectors (19:1-10), and allows a sinful woman to wash and anoint his feet (7:36-50). In a parable, a Samaritan, a member of a heretic people, is held up as an example of mercy (10:29-37). He cites as signs of God’s compassion two miracles performed by Elisha on behalf of pagans, the widow of Zarephath and Naaman (4:16-30). To make our story short, we can sum up Jesus’ ministry in a couple of sentences: “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost” (19:10); and ”Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners” (5:31b-32). That is what we will find from this meditation onwards. Rev. Fr. Mariano Perrón, Roman Catholic priest, Archdiocese of Madrid, Spain