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

Thursday 25 November 2021

Thirtyfourth Week in Ordinary Time

Word for today
The Gospel of Luke 17:7-10

Do it and do it well

Ignorance has made everything extremely complicated leading to the predominance of chance and chaos in a natural world where chance and chaos do not exist. When someone lives in ignorance and does not know how something functions or how a reality works every manoeuvre is complicated and generates anxiety. Every malfunctioning is considered a curse and generates guilt. Even normal functioning is considered the outcome of chance, and success leads to vanity and pride. We are so used to misery and ignorance that we consider goodness, health, well being, happiness pure coincidence, strokes of luck. Forests, rivers, oceans, animals, galaxies and cellular systems grow and develop in all their complexity within thousands of different ecosystems and over billions of years. They do their part to the best of their ability every moment of every day without considering a malfunction a curse or correct function a blessing.  Successful functioning is not considered a reason to boast nor are thanks expected from anyone. Ignorance has made man stupid, so stupid that people spend their whole lives competing with one another in such a way that they no longer recognize the game or even the  fun. They are so ignorant and stupid that they hurry about most of their lives searching for things which cannot in any way give them energy or joy. They are so ignorant and stupid that they spend their lives trying to meet other people's expectations and cursing themselves at each failure, edifying their castle of self-confidence on the ashes of the dust of thanks and bricks made out of the alms of satisfaction.
Knowing how a reality functions makes it possible for everything to proceed safely and comfortably, and everything is safe and comfortable when it is essentially simple. People still live for the most part in abject ignorance and lethal regression and that is evident by the way we live our lives separated from mother earth, enemies of nature, in conflict with our own rhythms and harmony. We live and think in a complicated, dangerous way, always in a rush, competing, consumed by the anxiety to perform and to meet  other people's expectations. Jesus says that in order for the first glimmer of consciousness to be lit, man needs to let himself be inspired so that he becomes aware that all that life is asking and offering him must be lived to the best of his potential and capability simply because that is what life asks and offers. Jesus invites us to do our best in all that life asks and offers us without ever, ever, letting ourselves fall to the level of running the race and competing with everyone else or needing to receive a thank you, a smile, a sign of approval. Jesus does not want us to feel like useless slaves or mere machines. His severe words show us the way to liberation from ignorance and fear. To ensure our complete happiness and total comfort, Jesus want us  to stop living kneeling at the altar of  two  demonic, destructive monsters: reward and threat. Understanding that life is what it asks and what it offers and that nothing more should be forced or sought after allows man to raise his head up and to cease prostrating himself to other people's expectations in need of approval, thanks, or smiles of complicity.
Without this realization we will always remain suspended and anxious about our reputation, distracted and saddened by other people's successes, concerned about competitors, disheartened by our failures, insecure and suspicious about anything that is unusual. Jesus wants us to learn to live what life asks and offers with all our strength without expecting anything in return, because alone and only then we will have everything and the oneness of peace, joy, greatness and simplicity.