"Prayer of imploration, of petition"
“Prayer of imploration, of petition”. We can be seated and then adopt the posture that is most comfortable for meditation. To address myself to God asking for the gifts of the Spirit: hunger and thirst for justice; the gift of mercy: “Lord hear the voice of my pleading” ¿Psalm 27, 2? We can place ourselves before Jesus without deceit, or pretence, we can tell him what concerns us, our wishes… Jesus listens.
Topic: to come near to Jesus
The primitive Christian community always lived the Charismas: special grace for the good of the Community, for evangelization. Evangelization in the school of Jesus.
We can start by reading Luke 4, 16-30 and 24, 13-35. Jesus, a failed evangelizer:
He goes to Nazareth… (What we have read in the text)
I think that if we had wished to present an evangelizer, we would do so with fine words. Here it isn’t like that: no, he starts with a failure.. He had to leave quickly. Why does Saint Luke start with this passage of the public life of Jesus? Starting from v . 30: “Passing through them, he went on his way”. Has this never happened to me? To be rejected!! Jesus goes away certainly beaten: persona non-grata. His Mother, Mary, must have suffered badly, as on so many other occasions...
There are other similar scenes in the Gospel. If Saint Luke put this here it is because it is a constant of the Kingdom of God: that it suffers violence. Acts 13,45: Barnabas and Paul had to leave. Their word was not listened to. Jesus says: “I will make you fishers of men”, but le doesn’t give them false hopes or promise that they will be successful. Paul, 11 Cor. 1, 8-9: “down-cast to the point that we couldn’t take any more. To death.
Acts 14, 22 “They strengthened the believers and encouraged them to remain true to the faith. <We must pass through may troubles to enter the Kingdom of God”.
Lucas wanted to make us think. They are the usual expectations: “To monopolize the Prophet”, “to be in the photo”. To see some miracle or other!!!
On the one hand people want the success; we want things to go according to our interest. On the other, the extreme freedom of Jesus: indifferent to what may happen, HE SPEAKS AND ACTS freely: provokes, even points out other interests, other HORIZONS. Jesus appears as an evangelizer with a gift for freedom, with the horizons of God.
Called to be like Jesus. What does he teach us?
To evangelize IS NOT TO DO SOMETHING, obtain some result, put in place a stone.
It means to participate in HIS FREEDOM. To enter into the richness of this extraordinary freedom. IT IS A NEW WAY OF LIVING. Jesus lives this freedom. He is freedom.
This first preaching of Jesus, more than a message is a teaching about the MESSENGER: “You have sent me”.
Concretely: YOU CALL US NOT TO SAY OR DO SOMETHING But to BE SOMETHING, WITH YOU. That is: to participate in your freedom and in your MISSION.
Before thinking: what should I do, what should I say, what results should I get? it is necessary to BE WITH YOU, PARTICIPATE IN YOUR MISSION. It is the base of the evangelists call.
Saved by the Providence of God, the love of God; to have GRACE and the courage to REMAIN IN HIM.
Why did the people of Nazareth not listen to him? They had other expectations, other interests.
What do I not listen to him? What stops me from listening to him? Jesus, is he good news for me? In fact, one of the great challengers of the Church is to be not listened to.
Conclusion: Give thanks for being able to do this meditation.
An “Ave Maria” that the Mother of Jesus and our Mother be with us on the road; on the road of the Church of today