OMELIE / Omelie EN

01 nov 2023

01/11/2023 – All Saints

01/11/2023 – All Saints

Reading 1 REV 7,2-4.9-14 Psalm 23 Reading 2 1JN 3,1-3 Gospel MT 5,1-12

In the solemnity of All Saints we can listen to the words Jesus, in the Gospel according to Matthew, introduces Himself with to the disciples and the crowds. He climbs up the mountain, and with Him everyone else climbs. If we were Jewish we would understand that this is per se an exceptional and revealing event. Climbing the mountain is what Moses did, when he was called to meet God who wanted to speak to him. Moses could go up by himself, while the people had to wait at the bottom. Instead, Jesus goes up bringing everyone with him: alle men, with Him, can meet God and listen to His words. And on the mountain Jesus talks sitting down, with the authority of a master: His words are the message God wants to address the men with.

In front of Jesus there are only sinners, invited to repent and convert by John the Baptist. Jesus talks to sinners, but he has no words to rebuke them. It really looks like He only wants to love them with tenderness and mercy. He does not tell them to look at their sin; He does not tell them to carry on with their life as always either. He speaks in a way to change their desires, to give them new horizons, to make them aware that this world can be different from the way it looks.

After listening to Him, those disciples and those crowds have started breathing in a new way, seeing a new meaning in their life, a use for their sufferings, the chance for their desires of justice and togetherness to become true, being certain that the world they have always dreamt of is possible, because it is the same God wants as well.

The sentences Jesus uses, all start like the most beautiful in the Sacred Scriptures:

Blessed those who act according to justice,

Blessed those who have hope in Him,

Blessed those who wait patiently,

Blessed the man who meditate on wisdom and reasons using his intelligence,

Blessed the man who listens to me, standing guard daily at my door,

Blessed the man who fears the Lord and walks in His ways.

Blessed the man who trusts you,

Blessed the man who takes care of the weak.

In this way Jesus makes clear He is not starting anything new, but He is only fulfilling what God has always wanted, if only He had found attention and cooperation. Now He wants to show how great it would be to live as God wants. Will there be someone to listen to Him and to follow Him? Will there be, among many, someone to accept the newness of God’s life, of life with God and for God? This is the news, because from the life need to disappear what brings sin, and therefore makes people suffer.

Jesus then says: Blessed are the poor in spirit, people who are not putting their hopes in wealth, which is always treacherous, so they do not even desire it. Blessed are they who mourn, sad for their own sin and others’, so they are entrusting God with their life and their suffering: He will be the one to take care of them and to give them consolation. Blessed are the meek, who have no wants either for men or for God: they know how to enjoy the little they have on earth.

Jesus continues to declare the bliss of those who do not look for revenge, because they overcome men’s evil with mercy. And the bliss of those who desire ardently to be just towards God and men: they will certainly be rewarded by God.

Jesus does not rebuke the sinners, but He brings them to desire what will not make them sin again, and instead will save them from the poor situation in which they find themselves.

Even now those who listen to Jesus are sinners: we are sinners. Jesus is not rebuking us, He lays in front of us a new set of desires. If we continued to desire wealth, ambitions, human justice, we would be under the influence of sin. By desiring heavenly things we break free from what is steering us towards evil and we put ourselves under the influence of the blessing of the Father, of the obedience of Jesus and the holiness of the Spirit!

The Saints have listened to Jesus and have acted upon the required change of their desires. So their life has been “conformed ” to that of the Son of God. We are in a position to admire them, to enjoy their testimony and their love: today we ask the Father the grace to be able to imitate them, to follow their examples, to continue the works they have started.