Jesus starts his mission at home, at Nazareth. His means is the Word. Not the empty word, which is a snare to entrap others, but the word that is like the bread by which we live. We become the word we listen to. It is the source of our thinking, feeling and acting. The false word will kill us, making us to think, feel and act for nothing. The true word gives us back our reality. Jesus is the very flesh of the Father’s Word, perfectly listened to.
What is fulfilled in Him today is Isaiah’s message that ushers in the Jubilee Year, the Holy Year (Isaiah 61: 1ff). In it everybody goes back to family and possessions, having been freed of debts and slavery (Leviticus 25:5ff). It is the year of grace, pleasing to God, the Father of all, who wants all to be brothers and sisters. Since we kill each other in order to possess earthly goods, the Bible states that nobody is master or owner. God is the only owner. Not master but father who gives to each one what he needs in order to live.
Jesus is sent to bring the Good News to the poor. It is summed up in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are you, poor, because yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20ff). To us, this word appears as a mockery for the poor who are listening to it. But it is the only word that can open our eyes to reality and make us come out of our illusions. There are billions of poor people in this world: a “people of crucified ones” who are carrying on themselves the evil of the world. Blessed are the poor. Jesus identifies with them. The Beatitudes are His autobiography: His life as Son and brother. He is the kingdom of God, freedom and salvation of humankind.
How is it possible? For us, evil is to be poor, hungry, harassed, hated, despised, marginalized. And good is to be rich, satisfied, self-indulgent, revered, honorable and excellent. For this reason, we steal, starve, harass, hate, despise and marginalize. When we understand that evil is not to be starved, marginalized or killed, but to starve, marginalize and kill, then there will be no more people who are starved, marginalized or killed. When we are ready not to do evil, at any cost, then the kingdom of God will come into being. Now it is present in whoever is unable or unwilling to do evil. And, for this, He carries evil on Himself waiting for those who do it to come to the light. And He is able to see in all the poor of the world God Himself who carries on Himself the evil of the world. What we do to them, the poor, we do to God. And it saves us not them.
If we open our eyes, injustice will disappear from the world and its root as well. We shall see that what counts is not to possess or dominate but to share and serve. We shall, moreover, understand the supreme value of poverty. One is that not what he owns but what he gives away. The one who owns things gives things; the one who has nothing gives of himself. And giving of self, he at last owns himself because he is like God: he loves. To love is to give away not things but oneself. In this way, we shall discover the whole truth about ourselves: what we have and are, we have received.
Things spiritual or material, even our own selves: everything is a gift from God. If we possess this gift, we destroy it; if we give it away, we fulfill it. In this way, we become like God who is extremely poor. God is love that gives away everything: His being is the other’s being. Poverty, like humility, is God’s highest quality. Because God is love, principle of life, who puts Himself in everybody’s hands, not a god-master who grabs everybody and everything.
To evangelize is, first of all, to help people to pass from the logic of possessing to the one of giving away: from death to life. Obviously, we will have to feed the hungry and to quench the thirst of the thirsty, to host the immigrant and cloth the naked, to relieve the sick and visit those in prison (Matthew 25:35 ff). But we must do it with this outlook. Otherwise, it is an act of power, the cover for a bad conscience. Instead of curing, it multiplies and justifies evil. Popoli – www.popoli.info
