Announcement
What a strange announcement. Why make an announcement to the poor, the prisoners, the blind, the oppressed? Why to them? What is the announcement? What are the good news to the poor? Who offers liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind? From whom are the oppressed to be freed? In what way would that year be acceptable to the Lord?
For this Annoucement God became flesh in a cave, Jesus is indeed the Announcement become flesh. It is Jesus himself who proclaims this of himself and concentrates and expresses all his mandate and his entire mission in this Announcement. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings. Because of this Announcement Jesus was considered the prince of demons, a blasphemer, he was chained, scourged, crucified and killed. Maybe someone thought that an announcement like this, just because it was made flesh, could be killed and silenced in a tomb.
For that Announcement Jesus rose calmly from the dead, appeared to his disciples, anointed them with the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, and sent them into the world. For that Announcement Jesus filled his disciples with the power of the Holy Paraclete to cast out demons, to heal any illness and to work miracles. For that Announcement the church has been given a divine voice, an inspired word, a heavenly power on earth. The moment the church and the disciples of Jesus do not announce this announcement, they are swallowed up by silence and ridocule, they lose all of their spiritual flavor and immediately become trampled on by history and mankind.
This Announcement is a destructive announcement, the most destructive ever uttered or heard. This Announcement is a constructive announcement, the most constructive ever uttered or heard. This announcement is the beginning and the end of everything and anything. The most horrible and frightening for some and the most beautiful for others. In these words there is the seed that will destroy all human empires founded on injust wealth, and it will build the empire of true wellbeing of all men according to God's heart.
It is obvious that the One who proclaimed and embodied the end of all human kingdoms based on power and injustice did not find room; there was no room for that newborn, even in a small accomodation, but as soon as possible room was found for Him on the cross.
The Announcement is addressed to very specific categories.
The poor are those who live in poverty and misery, unable to satisfy their basic needs such as eating, drinking, sleeping, clothing themselves, much less to realize their aspirations.
The captives are those who, the fruit of a sick society, are guilty of actions and behaviors that are not vital or dangerous and therefore they were put in prison.
The blind are not only those who are sightless but also those who lack vision, intellectual orspiritual wisdom, those who live in total ignorance of everything man needs to live a good life.
The oppressed are slaves crushed by every kind of tyranny and arrogance.
In every corner of history and in all religions a messiah, a prophet, a king is expected to free the poor, unchain prisoners from their chains, and start a bright new era. A liberating Messiah with overwhelming power who can relieve the poor in a miraculous and magical way. This idea of a Messiah is a very comforting idea for the powerful, helping them illude the people and keeping them totally resigned.
The Messiah is the Father's gift to mankind, but it is easy to turn Him into a drug for the people, someone who offers spiritual comfort while they suffer the pangs of hunger, fear, ignorance. A messiah of this kind was very convenient also to the leaders of the Jewish people over the centuries to absorb the discontent of the people and to turn every rebellion into submission and every request for justice into resignation. Indeed the Jewish religion bases its hope on the coming of a Messiah who will restore balance. So after such a long wait it was certainly not easy for the people's leaders to welcome Jesus as the Son of God, because even though Jesus clearly manifested His divine origin, He was not the messiah that satisfied their expectations.
How then, can Jesus the Messiah through this Announcement free His people from poverty, imprisonment, ignorance, slavery?
Jesus's announcement is not consistent with any human spiritual proposal in which the poor, the prisoners, the ignorant, the slaves are taught meritocratic spiritual ideologies useful to get to heaven while remaining weak and poor. We are taught that in our society the poor are a physiological and historical reality needed to create a balance. The poor are taught to sniff the air of eternity while they strive to become rich and virtuous spiritually, by being resigned and submissive, chained and poor. We are taught the way of surrogate-charity, the way in which a few who hold almost all the earth's resources periodically give something to the poor who have nothing. That kind of charity can be helpful in cases of total emergency, but it cannot restore social balance in an orderly and harmonious way. Charity lifts up but it cannot inspire people to become the protagonists of wealth and well-being. Helping others in need is one of Jesus' most powerful and undeniable admonisments, the Beatitudes claim that there is total and perfect bliss for all those who, to follow the gospel, give up everything to live in poverty hunger, accepting persecution. But it is clear and obvious more than the sun that Jesus in no way defends poverty and misery as a situation desired by God. Charity, in short, is sacred, but the poor are given the announcement that there is happy news for them.
Jesus' happy news is not a revolution, it is much, much more, it is the seed. Jesus' happy news is that poverty and misery are not necessary in any way, they are not desired or supported by God. There is no poverty and misery in God, they only exist in people's minds. Jesus' happy news is the seed of knowledge that reveals the spiritual and intellectual procedure so that everyone can live in prosperity and peace.
It is the indestructible seed that will inspire people to start desiring correctly and in a bright and divine way to live on this earth proud and humble, intelligent, healthy, non-violent, in prosperity and peace.
Jesus announces, or more precisely, He himself is the Announcement that reveals to the poor that their poverty certainly depends on the injustice of the powerful and the rich, but that it also depends on the fact that they ignore the proper procedure to live their life according to different inspirations and thoughts. This announcement reveals that living well or bad does not come from a higher destiny, but it is a deep, inner choice depending on the power and depth of our desires. Poverty, imprisonment, ignorance, slavery is not a fate to which we must submit, but a mathematical consequence of our desires, desires that were not inspired by God's desires, but deceived by men's illusions.
The Announcement reveals to the ignorant and to the blind that the procedure to live well, full of God's goods on earth exists and lies in the knowledge of Jesus' Word, it lies in Jesus Himself. There is a procedure to live in prosperity without competition, without destroying or ruining the lives of others or of the earth we are living on. The poor, defined by Jesus as captives, the blind-ignorant, the oppressed-slaves are the result of empires founded on poorly distributed wealth, unjust management of assets and resources, but more than this, they are also the result of incorrect, petty, faithless desires. They are the result of ignorance, not knowing and/or not using the divine procedures which, according to God's wishes, can allow us to live in peace and prosperity.
The Announcement is that the rich have to help the poor, but the poor receive the announcement that wellness and beauty are for everyone, that everyone can and must become rich and happy in accordance with God's richness and man's beauty.
It is not the rich who have to cancel poverty, it is the poor who have to find in God new lights and insights for their lives and destinies.
And all this is not meant for a selfish and inevitably superficial well-being, but to glorify the name of God and carry out His kingdom of harmony and of extraordinary beauty for everyone.