Divo Barsotti
St. John Bosco did wondrous works for all young people, but a poor nun like St. Therese of the Child Jesus, who achieved nothing substantial here on earth, is perhaps greater than him.
What is it that makes man great, if not his union with God? And what has the Lord promised you when you come to the community? Did he call you to particular works? Does it require you to be at the head of the nations? No, he has called you to be saints!
It is true that we are all called to holiness, the Second Vatican Council says so. But this divine will in us is more evident, it is more personal, and we can only respond to God by making this journey. Not in assisting the sick, even if we have to assist them; not in teaching, even if we have to teach; not in preaching, even if we have to preach. All these things are added to a primary requirement, which is that of being the living sacrament of Christ in the midst of men. This the Lord asks of us!
This is why we must, from the beginning of the exercises, not only become aware of our greatness, but also thank God for what he has already accomplished. This is the first thing the Lord told us.
The second thing he told us with the responsorial psalm: “I hope in the Lord.” The topic of our exercises will be hope. In this way, I come to continue the topic of another exercise course done in Trieste on faith. After faith comes hope. The Lord wants me to continue this topic, a very important topic, also because the primary purpose of the community is to tend toward God through the exercise of the theological virtues. Having spoken of faith, it is imperative that we speak of hope. Faith is the foundation, charity is the goal, but the whole journey is covered by hope. Without hope, there is no movement.
Hope is the dynamic virtue par excellence. In faith the soul contemplates God and fixes itself in him; charity finds its rest in God. Hope instead is the force that drives us, it is the virtue that sustains us along the entire journey, it is that virtue that leads us to realize God’s plan. Without hope, the soul lies motionless, still, lifeless. It is hope that gives us the strength to ascend, but also simply that of walking.
The last suggestion that the sacred text gave me is the word that the devil addresses to Jesus in the passage of the Gospel: “Why do you come to torment us? I know who you are: the Son of God.” Jesus reproaches him: “Be quiet.” Why doesn’t Jesus want it to be said that he is the Son of God? Wasn’t it proper and right to proclaim his divinity from the very beginning?
Two things we must note about this text: first, that it is the devil who proclaims the divinity of Christ; second, how the proclamation itself takes place. These two points tell us the reason why Jesus rejects this proclamation.
Let us start with the second reason. Jesus wants the disciples to enter slowly into the mystery of his person – so slowly that only with the gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost will they have firm faith in his divinity.
Peter’s own words: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” are not yet the proclamation of the divinity of Christ. “Son of the living God,” in the mouth of St. Peter before the Passion, is only an indication that he wanted to mean that Jesus was the Christ. In fact, in Luke’s Gospel it simply says, “You are the Christ.” Christ was the son of God, but in a broad sense and not in a natural sense; that is, he meant that he had been chosen by God from among all and that God had made him a sharer in his power. The “Son of God” in Judaism was the king, he was the prophet, he was whoever God called to some mission. He was a son as he represented God. Recognition of the divinity of Christ by the disciples would require the gift of the Holy Spirit. Except for the affirmation of Jesus in front of Annas and Caiaphas, there is no affirmation of his divinity in the Synoptic Gospels. Affirmations of divinity in the proper sense are instead in John; but here arises the problem of how we should interpret this Gospel.
Perhaps John gives the words of Jesus a depth, which now, in the heart of the disciple, these words have acquired as a result of the gift of the Holy Spirit. There is no doubt that the Gospel of John has a language of its own, quite different from that of the Synoptics. Jesus remains the same, but the disciples have changed. Now the disciples understand and therefore translate into a more proper language what Jesus could have said. And then the Gospel of John expresses the mystery in a more direct and complete way.
(From “Che Dio vi parli,”Chorabooks 2016, translated by Aurelio Porfiri)
(Photo: Pexels at Pixabay)
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