He who is in love is always “out of himself with joy.” He goes out of himself; he forgets himself by an irrepressible impulse to go to meet the other. The one who loves cannot remain in oneself; he or she must go out and give himself to the loved one. It also happens to God, infinite Love and therefore totally “outside himself.”
The Lord who comes out of himself and presents himself to us is an invitation to ecstasy, to go out of ourselves and go to our brothers and sisters. The lover has no other way to express all his love than to throw himself into the arms of a loved one. This is what God has done: he turned himself into the hands of people, knowing that they would do to him what they wanted.
“The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men.” What a beautiful image of love – God the lover throws himself into the hands of his beloved, even if it would involve rejection, torture and killing. If God remained in heaven, he might have been forgotten, or at best, blasphemed, but since he decided to come down to earth and put himself into the hands of the humans, he consigned himself to death.
The disciples are not able to understand this love of the Lord. Their thoughts are too far removed from those of God, and they are afraid to ask Jesus for clarification (v.32). How to comprehend the defeat and even the death of the Son of Man? No wonder that even after hearing the second time for the same announcement, the disciples have not understood it, that is, they are not able to accept the scandal of the passion of the Messiah. They continue to follow him to Jerusalem, but just along the way that leads to the cross, they cultivate dreams as opposed to those of Jesus.
Questions of hierarchies and precedence were a topic of much debate among the rabbis. At the table, in the synagogues, in the street, in the assemblies the question of the place of honour always came up. But, in the new law of Jesus, positions of prestige are assigned to the righteous.
Once in Capernaum, the Master asks them, “What were you discussing on the way?” (v.33). The disciples are silent, they feel exposed, ashamed. They realise that they have committed something senseless. The Church is not a stepping-stone to get to positions of prestige, to emerge, to gain control over others. It is the place where everyone complies with the gifts he has received from God, celebrates their greatness in humble service to others. In God’s eyes, the greatest is the one who most resembles Christ, who is the servant of all (Luke 22:27).
For your reflection
Do I have resentments, jealousies, conflicts, kept in my heart? What consequences do they bring to my personal life, to my family, to my community? Good or bad? What would happen if I really followed Jesus’ advice about service? Would I live better and happier?
Father Fernando Torres CMF
www.ciudadredonda.org
Translated by
Father Alberto Rossa CMF
