MEDITAZIONI SUL VANGELO DI LUCA PER LA FAMIGLIACampione

"MEDITATION 21: Jesus Returns to the Father but Stays with Us." The story, so to speak, is over. The disciples met Jesus, followed him, saw his wondrous healings, attended his disputes with the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, and listened to his teaching. On a good number of occasions they could not grasp, at least in all its depth, what he meant. They knew he loved them and they, in their own humble way, loved him too. Then came the chaos: betrayal, abandonment, a trial and a death sentence between two evildoers, and silence. All of a sudden, everything changed again: he was alive, he shared a meal with them, they recognized the way he broke bread, they recognized his voice. Had the kingdom of God finally arrived? No answer to that idle question, but a new epoch was ahead of them, a mission to fulfill. It was not the same kind of assignment as when Jesus had sent them, two by two, to proclaim the kingdom, to heal the sick and cast out demons (9:1-19). He was leaving them, (all by themselves, at least at first sight), and the mission was more complicated. He would not be there to answer their questions or offer his help. But we are going too fast. First, he had to open their minds and make them understand that everything that had happened was not an illusion or the product of the dreams of a street preacher. They had to understand that “everything written about him” in the Scriptures had to be fulfilled, and had been fulfilled! He had to explain to them the meaning of all the events they had witnessed but not fully understood; that he, the Messiah announced by the prophets, had to have undergone the sufferings that he had freely accepted. And he had to explain that his story, and he himself, is the way to reconciliation with God. Then, they had to understand that they were not just by-standers who had seen all those things. As the privileged witnesses of that story, a history of salvation and mercy, it was incumbent upon them to proclaim Jesus as the Lord and to preach repentance, not to condemn the world, but to lead the people to the forgiveness of their sins. Furthermore, they could not limit their mission to a city, Jerusalem, but had to take their message to all nations. Sure, there were too many things for a single message, too tremendous a task to be undertaken by a bunch of men and women called from among the humble people of Israel. But there is a last detail of reassurance. They had to wait for the sending of “the promise of his [Jesus’] Father,” the Holy Spirit, to be clothed with power from high. That will be on Pentecost, when a new age, the age of the Church, will begin… and that belongs to the future, our present. Rev. Fr. Mariano Perrón, Roman Catholic priest, Archdiocese of Madrid, Spain