«YOU WANT TO GO TOO?». BETWEEN EUTHANASIA AND INFLUENCE, THOUGHTS SPREAD AROUND THE CHARIS, TO THE THEOLOGY OF POVERTY AND THE OBEDIENCE OF THE FAITH THAT BUILDS THE CHURCH

It is evident that if I distribute only earthly food, maybe I'll be able to fill the poor man's stomach, but I will leave his heart and soul empty. If I think only of the horizontal dimension neglecting the vertical one, risk of creating dangerous artificial havens that find in some social ideas - we think of citizenship income - the demagogic claim to solve all problems well and to please everyone.

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Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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… the modern men of science in charge of directing the consciences of others

On the Sunday just passed I commented on a beautiful passage from the Holy Gospel in my homily [cf.. GV 6, 60-69]. As I normally do at every Sunday celebration, I frame the Gospel passage not only from an exegetical point of view but above all from an ecclesiological and pastoral point of view, letting the cursive reading of the Sunday Gospel speak to the faithful with the strength and incisiveness of the sword [See. EB 4, 12], at the same time avoiding an overly technical reading of the text that only a very few would be able to understand.

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The Gospel of John of the Sunday just passed appears as the conclusion of the long discourse on the Bread of Life in which Christ clearly and definitively shows the truth about himself. It is in fact a great one theophany in a Eucharistic key, in which, starting from the sign of the shared bread, Jesus presents himself as the true heavenly manna that is incarnated from heaven into human existence. He was born in Bethlehem, in that place which means House of Bread, it feeds mortal man in his search for God concealed, making himself bread.

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A revealing moment of Christ's identity, that, as I said, it is preceded by the necessary sign of multiplication (sharing) of loaves [See. GV 6, 1-15]. This sign is fundamental to understand that Jesus is really the true Lord who feeds his people on the earthly pilgrimage and not one of the many powerful on earth who seeks a personal gain of glory. [See. GV 6, 15]. He guides the new people of the Covenant no longer from Egypt to the Promised Land but from sin to the new covenant in his blood which is realized through the Easter events.

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This is why the Eucharistic sign of shared bread it becomes essential to understand divine pedagogy and the way in which God works salvation. Jesus, although he is the Lord and the Master [See. GV 13, 14], she never deprives herself of the collaboration of man by constantly questioning him within a salvific dialogue in which the creature offers to the Creator her own littleness fruit of her work so that this in God may multiply and become a paschal sign of salvation for other brothers within a logic of charitable service.

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Reason why the diaconate of the Charis in the Church it is mainly a Trinitarian mystery that allows us to contemplate the Lover, the one who is Beloved and Love to use the words of St.. Augustine refer to the mystery of God the Trinity. But at the same time it is a soteriological mystery, as the Charis it is the divine plan which took its form in Jesus Christ the Savior and which finds its genesis in the Trinity as an eternal story of love for man (See. M. Rinaldi, From the welfare state to the welfare society. Social theology and pastoral action of Italian Caritas, Effatà, 2006, p.70].

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From these necessary theological prerogatives, we understand how the exercise of Charis, it absolutely cannot be configured as a humanitarian service or sentimental philanthropism. Even when it is man who operates the Charis towards a similar one we can also see Amante's tripartite Augustinian relationship, Beloved and Love. The lover is the one who acts pushed by the Father towards the beloved in whom the Son identifies himself, within the loving dynamic of the Holy Spirit.

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The Charis Christian is necessary because it is there ratio with which from the man's body one reaches his soul so that soul and body together are saved in that harmonious anthropological unity that we see professed every Sunday in the Creed when we say: "I await the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come". That is, I await the resurrection of man in his totality, not just a part of him. What we already see realized in the Blessed Virgin Mary assumed into heaven in body and soul.

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For this reason, if it is true that the poor need to be fed on earth, such a requirement cannot make the believer fall into the pretext utopia that claims to defeat poverty once and for all; equalize the scandalous social disparities; eradicate the relentless diseases; pacify the peoples with an indiscriminate welcome; averting the ignorance of the little ones with partial truths. little ones with partial truths.

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Although today we are used to populist slogans such as "no one will be left behind" that we find abundantly on the lips of politicians as well as prelates. We must have the courage to affirm that all this is just a mirage of self-constructed salvation whose cultural and social consequences are well known and evident to all., especially in a period like the one we are going through burdened by the pandemic.

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About this it would be enough to recall the words of Jesus who admonishes us: «You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me " [Mt 26, 11] an expression that certainly points towards a preferential option for the poor but, much more, defines a very clear hierarchy of values ​​that leads us to understand that without him, true God and true man, we are too poor to help the poor and unable to offer definitive salvation. And this truth today appears rather annoying and poorly digested by the human narcissism that wants to operate without God, even when it claims to do good.

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This discourse allows us to formulate a correct theological approach to poverty which has nothing to do with the revolutionary pauperism so dear to a certain leftist thought or comparable to the popular social demands of the South American liberation regimes, nor to that pretext pauperism of which Judas Iscariot himself spoke, about which we refer to our video lesson: The gold of the Magi and the false love for the poor of Judas Iscariot.

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Much less can we approach it with blunders social the various influence who harangue the people of followers maintaining a standard of living that is light years away from evangelical sobriety and that does not come close to that dignified poverty of the average Italian worker or pensioner.

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If we want to be honest, this theological approach has nothing to do with the various models that impose themselves on public opinion and see, in the various saviors of the people, put well in the foreground by mainstream, the beginning of a new renaissance and secular humanism. Because it remains evident, in all this theological reasoning, the graft with the purest Christology in which the kenosis of the Word constitutes the visible and most eloquent self-denial through which we can find "that God who made himself poor for us, to enrich ourselves through his poverty " [See. 2Color 8, 9; Benedict XVI, Speech at the inaugural session of the 5th General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops, 13 May 2007, 3: AAS 99 (2007), 450]. If Christ strips himself of his equality with God to save me, to accept this salvation I can only do the same, just as Francis of Assisi did before the bishop [See. Franciscan Sources n ° 1043].

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To any poor person and in the face of any poverty, more than the food that perishes, food that does not perish but lasts for eternal life must be guaranteed [See. GV 6, 22-29]. This does not mean giving side to easy integralist proselytism, quite the opposite, it is a missionary proclamation of salvation that calls every man of good will to action, be it secular or consecrated, to announce all that Christ has told and commanded us [See. Mt 28, 20]. Preaching Christ is not a boast, not even a duty but an urgent necessity [See. 1Color 9, 16].

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It is evident that if I distribute only earthly food, maybe I'll be able to fill the poor man's stomach, but I will leave his heart and soul empty. If I think only of the horizontal dimension neglecting the vertical one, risk of creating dangerous artificial havens that find in some social ideas - we think of citizenship income - the demagogic claim to solve all problems well and to please everyone.

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"Get busy" [cf.. GV 6, 27] says Jesus, but to do so it is necessary to go out on a mission with his authority, following the example of those seventy-two disciples who, invested with all power, they returned home full of joy [cf.. LC 10, 17] having noted firsthand that when the revelation of Christ reaches the poorest and the least [cf.. LC 10, 21] the Kingdom of Heaven is established with power. «Get busy» Jesus says again, but only after having made a decisive and privileged choice that gives Christ the primacy over our life. Jesus is the breaking point between the truth of God and the illusion of the truth of the world and whoever does not know and recognize this truth is doomed to scandal, to confusion, to escape even within the communities of believers in which one can be alone and only following the demands that Christ dictates.

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This is why it appears urgent and necessary to reflect as a Church on that question that Christ poses to his disciples and to operate a serene discernment. «You want to leave too?» [See. GV 6, 67], question that sounds like a warning to the obedience of the faith that cannot find substitutes or surrogates in other people or ideals.

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How many baptized Christians today have the thought of Christ and the Church and profess filial obedience? Few, indeed very few. Syndicalist priests are in fashion, psychologists and social workers. I cardinals electricians and LGBT friendly, lay people intent on social claims, ecclesial groups with party cards, those who fight on social networks for free and tolerant love, for the most humane and liberating euthanasia. Those who still, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, orphans of Sol of the future, they returned to the Catholic home through the window and are now being pointed out as adult Christians and teachers. In the end, there are those who in the name of tradition, strong of the Mass of all time and of the of the Latins, adorned with veils of lace, lace and lace would also be ready to dismiss a Pope in the name of their fidelity to the Church. In short, a difficult to manage situation that many parish priests know but that they are unable to contrast and reclaim because the Vaffa-day it is not just the prerogative of grilline squares but also of those Catholics who on the first occasion send the priest to that country, guilty of having tried to announce the harsh word of Christ which refuses compromises and imposes a choice.

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Sad to say, this kind of Catholic will never give way to Christ and his Church because they were unable to profess the words of the blessed apostle Peter «Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we believe and know that you are the Holy One of God " [See. GV 6, 68-69]. Much better it would be for them to recognize the beating of the heart and go there, where this leads them, leaving the Church and the Gospel in good order in favor of those who really wish to know and believe in Jesus but who are prevented from doing so by these sad figures.

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Indeed, if as Christians the principle for discernment is not Christ but the parliamentary principle of the majority will never establish the Kingdom of Heaven. If the demands of the world are more attractive than those of the Gospel, the value of obedience and faith will never be understood. It's still, if the word of the Magisterium is decidedly less influential than that of the various Ferragnez, Saviano, Fazio, Zan and the various gurus who appear before us every day is vain the hope of expecting a serious laity who knows how to enter the folds of the world by announcing the newness of the Word..

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Laconi, 28 August 2021

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