Different (08/03/2015)
Jesus shouts. Jesus is outraged.
Jesus has got the physical strength to perform a vigorous prophetic gesture: he drives the sheep and cattle out of the temple, he overturns the tables that are covered in coins.
Jesus bears on him the weight of aloneness and misunderstanding.
Jesus uses very hard words with the Pharisees, he dissociates himself from them with unsoftened words and shouts at them, accusing them of being snakes, hypocrites, sons of the Devil. Jesus chooses. Jesus reprimands. Jesus commands.
Jesus surrounds himself with passionate men, too, such as the Zealots, ready to use their swords to chase the Romans away. Peter himself did own a sword and, when Jesus was arrested, he did use it and cut off a ear. Jesus was manly.
Jesus makes his face like flint and goes ahead to meet the Cross.
Jesus cries over his dead friend. Jesus prays, even on his own, in the night.
Jesus takes a number of blows that would be enough to kill a less than sturdy man. The Holy Shroud reveals his athletic features.
Jesus is not afraid of being left alone. Jesus doesn’t answer every question. Jesus is not afraid to disappoint. Jesus keeps silent. Jesus sings. Jesus is straightforward. Jesus says things that are not immediately understandable. Jesus is smart. Jesus is a strong walker.
Jesus casts out evil spirits.
The Love and Mercy of God emerge from each and every defined trait of the true face of Christ given to us by the Gospel. How terrible it is when we make him into a faceless puppet, with a “smiley” mouth and two button eyes. Ignoring the Scriptures means ignoring Christ, the real Christ.
Those who know every word of the Gospel, they know that Jesus is really so.
I used the present tense because the Holy Spirit accomplishes this same Christ in ourselves, who are the limbs of his true body. The imperative of Jesus is to follow him, to imitate him, all the way to loving as he does. Belong to Jesus as his disciples isn’t mechanical, nor instinctive, nor immediate. Jesus, in particular, wants to forge us, his shepherds, into him, the only shepherd. The very frequent statement: “Well, but Jesus is Jesus, and us is us” would seem self-explanatory and innocuous, but there is no statement that drives away from his will more than this one. These words are humble but in their appearances: in reality, they are intertwined with such pride that they nullify the will of Christ.
Jesus Christ – remaining the same yesterday, today and forever – does not change from the real one that is portrayed by the Gospel. And he is inexorably different from the one he should become in order to please each and every modern palate.
by Fr. Maurizio Botta C.O.
