In this section you can find a daily commentary on the Gospel of the Day.

Monday 27 September 2021

Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Word for today
The Gospel of Luke 9:46-50

The greatest?

Who's the greatest? Jesus answered: the one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest. But who is the least? Is only the humblest person everyone's servant? When he answered John, Jesus also aswered that question: whoever is not against you is for you. The least, who is the greatest before God, is the one who humbly does what he ought to do, without dividing, causing separation, or building walls.
Pride leads to the need to become important, great, visible and recognizable in the eyes of others. Pride generates competition, which generates classification, which generates belonging to the the group, the association. In order to stand out and to guarantee survival, the system of belonging builds barriers against intrusion which are also against evasion, against sharing, and against relationships. The first kind of barrier is the inquisitive gaze that never sees with wonder or gratitude. It is the judgmental gaze of prejudice and convention, the poisoned and proud gaze of the disciples who gloried in revealing to Jesus something about an alleged enemy that He seemed not to have noticed : Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name. The more that inquisitive gaze felt it needed to replace and correct the divine gaze's carelessness, the more it became stupid and evil.  After that inquisitive, judgmental gaze they were filled with the desire to show off their power and omnipotence by ordering a block to be put up. Managing to block what is considered diverse, heretic, not belonging, not conforming, is the apotheosis of the delirium of omnipotence: and we prevented him. At this point they tried to present an hypocritical defence of their action through legalization and by loudly listing the values and truths that this destructive process was supposed to protect. In fact, foreseeing that Jesus might request some clarification, they justified their behaviour saying: because he does not follow in our company.
In a vortex of delirium and omnipotence, arrogance and vanity push towards discrimination, shattering, dismembering, dissociation, disgregation in the name of unity, in the name of their unity and belonging. It is in the name of unity, of their unity, that the disciples built blocks and separated: because he does not follow in our company.
Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you Jesus' answer is a perfect summary and synthesis of the gospel's spirit and divine behaviour. Do not prevent him means do not take the place of God in judging, do not investigate as if God were distracted, do not block what God is letting ride. For whoever is not against you is for you means that any person who moves in the frequency of God and His love cannot possibly be, despite apperances, time and space, outside perfect resonance with the gospel and with Jesus.