Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Gospel tells us how Jesus walked the roads of Galilee and Judea in order to announce the Good News, to heal people suffering from all kinds of disease, to free those trapped by the evil power of Satan, to give each and every one, the Daily Bread of His Word and His salvific Presence.
His apostles follow him, listening, watching and marvelling, like the people around, at the wonders worked through Him by the Father. At times they were speechless, other times they spoke too much. Rather than remain silent, they spoke before first listening to the voice of the Spirit deep in their hearts, telling them the meaning of Jesus' every word, every action and every sign.
Very often the Apostles, and we ourselves, 'treat' the Lord badly: how often do we undervalue Him, or ignore Him. There are even times when we think we know better than He does, as if poor sinners, as we are - could “teach” Jesus anything!
“ How rich and deep are the wisdom and the knowledge of God! - exclaims Saint Paul - We cannot reach to the root of his decisions or his ways. Who has ever known the mind of the Lord? Who has ever been his adviser? Who has given anything to him, so that his presents come only as a debt returned? ” (Rom 11, 33-35).
The temptation to put on airs in front of God is always lurking. We must pray to the Holy Spirit to render our hearts willing to walk the path of life which the Lord has planned for us. It is without a doubt the easiest and safest path to holiness and therefore to Heaven!
He walks ahead, all we have to do is to keep right behind Him, arming ourselves with 'holy patience', especially when the solution or the answer we expect from the Lord is late coming or differs from what we wanted. “Patience obtains everything” says Saint Teresa of Avila, who was well aware of how mysterious the 'ways' of the Lord can be.
“Come, follow me” (Mk 10, 21) Jesus continues to say to anyone wanting to meet him in the faith and to become his disciple, remaining in communion of life with Him through love of God and love of neighbour. The way is not always easy, but we are never alone if we keep right behind Jesus by being faithful to his teaching.
The fact that sometimes even the Apostles gave in to the temptation to 'resist' or even 'rebuke' Jesus, should warn us not to undervalue those situations in life - and they many – when our heart is unhappy with the Lord. Unless we correct this sentiment in time it can lead to a 'hardening' of heart towards Him.
How often through His prophets God complains about the pride which deviates the heart of his people leading them to rebellion. But He is always ready to forgive, as we are told in Psalm 77: “…they tried to hoodwink him with their mouths, their tongues were deceitful towards him; their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant. But in his compassion he forgave their guilt” (Ps 77, 36-38).
With our grumbling against God, we are making room for Satan and losing our bearings on our way to the Kingdom. Last Sunday we heard Mark's Gospel on the 'diabolic' misleading of which Saint Peter was a victim, immediately after his splendid profession of faith in the Christ. On hearing Jesus clearly prophecy his passion and death, Peter, gripped by fear of suffering, rebukes the Lord.
“ Then he began to teach them that the Son of man was destined to suffer grievously, and to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise again; and he said all this quite openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter tried to rebuke him. But, turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are thinking not as God thinks, but as human beings do.'” (Mk 8, 31-33).
Simon Peter and the other Apostles could not forget those words, and in fact the Evangelists included them in their faithful testimony, so that disciples of Jesus, in every time, would receive that lesson given by the Lord. Holy Scripture tells us to accept rebuke, for example from a wise person (cfr. Ecclesiastes 7, 5), but it never tells us to rebuke the Lord!
In situations of suffering, fear and anxiety, which cause our fragile human hearts to tremble, we must resist the temptation to scold God, instead, following the example of the saints, the Blessed Virgin Mary first of all, the silence of adoration should take the place of noisy protest. “ This is important for us today too, even though we are not monks: to know how to make silence within us to listen to God's voice, to seek, as it were, a "parlour" in which God speaks with us” (Benedict XVI, General Audience 9 September 2009).
May the Stabat Mater hymn be for all of us in times of trial, a model to imitate: Our Lady stood at the foot of the Cross (cfr. Jn 19, 25) without protest, because she believed, as she had always believed, in the Word of Jesus: after every night of grief, there comes the bright dawn of the resurrection! (Agenzia Fides 18/9/2009; righe 61, parole 918)
