A FULL YES TO CHRIST AND HIS CALL – (IN THE HEART OF MISSION)
“Almighty and ever living God, your Spirit made us your children, confident to call you Father. Increase you spirit within us and bring us to our promised inheritance”. (From the Liturgy)For the following meditation I took inspiration from Holy Scripture (readings from the XIX Sunday, TO-C), from the Writings of St. Daniel Comboni and from an article of the biblist, Alberto Maggi, titled “Why to choose Jesus?”( in ‘Testimoni’ feb. 15, 2010).
1. The first reading and the responsorial psalm (XIX Sunday, TO-C), offer us the possibility of proclaiming a wonderful truth which is beyond any possible human expectation: “God has called us and has chosen us as his own; He has made us blessed, that is joyous, and has saved us in Christ Jesus”.
2. He renews this call, this gift, continually, but never imposing Himself; in fact God’s action is always and only in the context of a great proposal. And so, in order to have a true experience of God’s saving action, our acceptance of it is necessary; I would even use the term hospitality towards God and his gifts of salvation. Very often, especially when one’s life does not run according to the person’s expectations, I hear many people quote the old saying: “Man proposes and God disposes”. I believe that within the context of the divine plan of salvation, there is no truth in that saying. The contrary is true: “God proposes and man disposes”. God proposes himself and his gifts of salvation and either we open ourselves with a welcoming attitude or we withdraw within ourselves.
3. Here is then the gospel invitation of Jesus to be vigilant, trusting in the strength of his love: ‘You must be ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect’. We must be vigilant so as to welcome him. As one of his ministers, I have good news for myself and for you: the time of Christ’s coming in our life, the time of his proposals to us, is now. Let this time be also the time of welcoming him and his gifts, the time of that kind of hospitality I mentioned above.
4. Why do I believe that it is important and even necessary for us to welcome Christ Jesus? The refrain of an English song I often quote, helps us to give an answer in a concise and lively way: ‘Great things happen when God mixes with us’, that is to say when God’s initiative encounters our correspondence.
5. I am a missionary priest and with deep joy I share with you the reasons which led me to say YES to Christ and to his call. I still remember the questions that many young people and adults, both in Africa and Asia, asked me. ‘Why did you choose Christ and not Mohammed or Budda or others..? Why do you often say that Christ is the heart of life? What makes Jesus different from other religious leaders? Which is the originality of his message? Here is the answer I used to give to those questions and today I propose it to you the way I have developed it through prayer and reflection. I hope it will help you renew your commitment to Christ Jesus.
I have become his follower in the full awareness and conviction that in order to celebrate our life, that is, to live with enthusiasm and creativity, we need that God who, in Christ Jesus, has revealed himself in a wonderful and fascinating way:
He has revealed himself to us not as a great despot, but as the One who is at our service and at the service of all humankind.
Exactly! Instead of us being at the service of God, God is at our service in Christ Jesus and with the power of his Spirit!
“You Know that those who are considered rulers of the heathen have power over them, and the leaders have complete authority. This, however, is not the way it is among you. If one of you wants to be great, he must be the servant of the rest; and if one of you wants to be first, he must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served; he came to serve and to give his life to redeem many people” (Mc 10,45). “I am among you as one who serves” (Lc 22,27).
Don Tonino Bello, was fascinated by the image of Jesus wearing an apron, just like a servant. This saintly bishop often used to contemplate the scene of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet (Jn13,1-17).
In Holy Scripture and in the whole history of Salvation, it is clear that Christ serves us in order to save us and to make able us to serve each other with the same spirit of respect and love for all that he had. Don Tonino used to speak of ‘the Church of the apron’ that is of the Church called not to dominate but to serve humanity, accepting it the way it is: dirty with sins, stubborn in keeping keep God aside and, at the same time, in such a great need of salvation.
What an inspiration we can find in the spirit of service expressed by St. Daniel Comboni in the homely he pronounced in Khartoum the 11th of May, 1873:
“Yes, I am now your father, and you are my children and as such, for the first time I embrace you and press you to my heart…I have returned among you never again to cease being yours and all consecrated for your greater good in eternity. Come day come night, come sun come rain, I shall always be equally ready to serve your spiritual needs : the rich and the poor, the healthy and the sick, the young and the old, the masters and the servants will always have equal access to my heart. Your good will be mine, and your sorrows will also be mine. I make common cause with each one of you, and the happiest day in my life will be the one on which will be able to give my life for you” (Writings 3157,3158,3159).
He revealed himself not as one who lowers and humbles man, but as the One who seeing man in his preciousness, raises him to Himself and makes him trustful.
In Jesus, the Man-God, in whom the Father’s Love shows itself in all its fullness, we see that God does not present himself and does not act as a great competitor of man, but as his allied; doing so he makes man trustful even before death. How much am I attracted by the following passages of Scripture:
“ The Lord is my shepherd…” (psalm 23). “Do not be worried and upset. Believe in God and believe also in me” (Jn14,1). “Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace. With my own eyes I have seen your salvation” (Lc 2,29-30).
Let’s listen again to St. Daniel Comboni whose trust in God was unconditional: “It is true that the times are difficult and that human society is confused and overwhelmed; but it is also true that ‘manus Dei non est abbreviata’, and that while hell is striving to destroy, the hand of the Almighty succeeds in building (Writings1559). “ The tempests bearing down upon me are so many…but I feel so full of strength and courage and trust in God and in the Virgin Mary, that I am sure I will overcome everything and will be prepare myself for other greater crosses in the future” (Writings1709).
He revealed himself not as one demanding in a strict or even cruel way, but as the One who rather than demanding, gives freely.
God’s new face proposed by Jesus is that of a Father who gives himself and offers that kind of salvation leading to full life; he does that freely. Woe to us if we had to merit or pay for God’s gifts; we wouldn’t make it because God’s gifts have an infinite value. A wonderful example of God’s gratuitousness is the answer Jesus gave the good thief who was asking him for mercy; he did not ask him for an examination of conscience first, he didn’t reproach him for his life of robbery, he did not as him for penance… He only gave him his gratuitous merciful love: “And he said to Jesus, ‘Remember me , Jesus, when you come as King!’ Jesus said to him: ‘I promise you that today you will be in Paradise with me.” (Lc23,42-43.
All that we are called to live and do in the context of prayer, of spiritual discipline, of social commitment, etc. remains necessary, but not to pay for God’s gifts; they are necessary to make us open our hearts to welcome God and His gifts, to cooperate with in all the aspects related with our being His sons and daughters and of our being disciples of Christ Jesus.
He did not present himself as one who welcomes only some people and leaves out the others, but like the One that welcomes everybody with an ‘incredible’ love.
Jesus presents a God whose heart is infinitely greater than the world itself, a heart embracing people. Jesus presents a Father who “makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil” (Mt 5,45). Moreover his care for each person is total, as if that person were the only person in the world to care for. Here are some beautiful passages from Holy Scripture: “Here on mount Zion the Lord Almighty will prepare a banquet for all the nations of the world – a banquet of the richest food and the finest wine. Here He will suddenly remove the cloud of sorrow that has been hanging over all the nations. The Sovereign Lord will destroy death for ever! He will wipe away the tears from everyone’s eyes” (Is 25,6-8). “The whole mankind will see God’s salvation” (Lc3,6). “Go throughout the world and preach the Gospel to all mankind. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mc16,15-16).
We find surprising not only Jesus’ Word, but also his behavior with which he scandalized the Pharisees; according to them the Messiah should only relate to good persons and love only the just, not the sinners and the publicans. Poor fellows, they had completely misunderstood Jesus’ mission. The Father had sent Him not to put together all the just and form a highly privileged cast with them. No, in the Gospel we often see Jesus welcome persons that the people of Israel considered as being at the edges of society, out of God’s healing and tender embrace. Example: The ten men with the dreaded skin disease (Lc 17,11-19)and the tax collectors (Lc,1-10).
He revealed himself not as one always ready to punish the sinners with a heavy hand, but as the One always ready to forgive.
The God who reveals himself in Jesus is the God who forgives. Not only that! God is Mercy itself and feels great joy in forgiving. Let’s remember Jesus forgiving the sinful woman (Lc 7,36-50) and the three parables: the lost sheep, the lost coin, the merciful father (Lc 15). Forgiving is the most privileged expression of God’s Love.
Considering this great reality, we should become more and more aware of the power we have; the power to give joy to the heart of God. And we give joy to Him when we recognize our need to be saved by Him, when we proclaim Jesus as Savior of all and when we welcome Him and his forgiveness with gratitude. We should also be more and more aware that if God is never tired of forgiving us, he also asks us to be ready to forgive “not seven times seven, but seventy times seven” (Mt18,22), that is to say..always. How many times I wonder when I consider the invocation Jesus puts on our lips and in our heart whenever we pray the ‘Our Father’: “ Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us”. Jesus wants us to pray like that because He wants us to understand the importance of forgiving each other. But I often ask: “What would happen if God listened to our invocation every time when we pray in that manner? So, we better learn to pray also this other way: “Give us the grace to forgive others the way you forgive us”.
These notes I have presented in simplicity, have given us the opportunity to meditate on the Good News, announced and lived by Christ, on the Good News I have always proclaimed and have always wished to live in my life as a missionary. I have proposed them to you in the certainty that you have a strong desire to live your life to the degree of its fullness.
I pray that all of us may find that fullness only in Christ. I pray that we may be confident to find the answer to our expectations only in him, the one who can never disappoint us, if we only open our hearts and minds to him in total surrender.
Amen!
Fr. John Taneburgo
Missionario Comboniano
