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

Tuesday 30 November 2021

St Andrew, apostle

Word for today
The Gospel of Matthew 4:18-22

At once

At once, greek euthùs, is an adverb which means: “rightly, straightened, right; honest, just; at once, correct, straightway”. It is one of Gospel’s and love’s favourite adverbs. The at once of the Gospel doesn’t suggest the tension of hurry, pressure, anxiety, fear, but the energy of the love answer in its wholeness. The at once of the Gospel in time and space and in all the other dimensions and directions, is in the spirit and in the muscles, in the mind and in the feet, it’s the yes of Mary to the angel Gabriel. The evangelic at once is not an answer, but the answer, the only possible answer to Jesus’ call. At once unravels completely the heart’s energy, the intelligence’s dedication, the absence of any doubt, the questions’ silence. In the evangelic at once there is no link with the past, nor regret for what is gone, no performance anxiety, no perspectives’ tension, but only the humble and loving determination of the present. In the evangelic at once there’s all the inner choice, the being’s involvement, the heart’s abandonment together with the perfect, absolute and humble awareness of not having the strength to make that at once become at once an always. The at once of love is magnificent, but then there’s a journey, there’s perseverance, progression, love and prayer to make it become always. Only remaining joined to Him, the at once of love can become the always of the lover. Peter and his brother Andrew, James and his brother John chose and answered to Jesus with their exciting, young, fresh, powerful at once, but then through how many falls, betrayals, infidelities, fears, denials, mistakes and sins, that at once became an always in the hands of God and in the heart of those men? Before God we don’t need to be perfect in the always, but in the at once. Who could possibly be perfect in the always? Love asks for the answer of the at once, the answer of the at once to start again, to begin again, to ask and offer forgiveness. Only God loves at once and always, He will give us the strength to make into always our little, but determined, at once.