Come down quickly (Lk 19, 5)<\/i><\/p>\n
It is not enough for us to know Jesus at the level of the intellect.\u00a0 There ought to be a deep intimacy between the Master and us.<\/p>\n
Herod the Great says he wants to see Jesus.\u00a0 Later on, Herod Antipas will have a similar desire.\u00a0 The former wants to get rid of a possible rival, murdering him thus in his heart.\u00a0 The latter will reduce Jesus to a mere object of curiosity; such treatment will turn Jesus into a silent, lifeless idol.<\/p>\n
The chief priests and the scribes are not any better.\u00a0 Fore sure, they are not ignorant of Scriptures.\u00a0 From there they know about the one prophesied by Micah and there they install themselves, showing no interest in knowing personally the perfect fulfiller of Scriptures.\u00a0 Do they not wander far from their magisterial chairs for fear of other careerists who may wrest them away from them?<\/p>\n
The Magi, on the hand, seek to know and adore the newborn King.\u00a0 They come from afar after seeing a star rise\u2014apparently not visible in Jerusalem, perhaps due to the glitter and glamor of the capital.\u00a0 These strangers do not settle for their theoretical astrological knowledge.\u00a0 They exert effort to know the Messiah in person.<\/p>\n
We Christians, of course, prefer the Magi.\u00a0 But are we really on their side? \u00a0Do we Gentiles called from far away not waste the gratuitous invitation to be \u201ccoheirs, members of the same body, copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus?\u201d<\/p>\n
Have Herodian megalomania, absolutism, triumphalism, duplicity not infected us in some way?\u00a0 The dictator\u2019s angry face repels, while those radiant with joy attract.\u00a0 He who grasps all, centralizing power in himself, loses all.<\/p>\n
Do we practice Vincentian simplicity, telling the truth, keeping our intentions pure and adopting an unadorned lifestyle, void of superfluous things?\u00a0 I find it difficult, for example, to dispense with flowery and pedantic language.\u00a0 Are we humble enough to admit we do not know everything and so need others to teach us?<\/p>\n
Do we let Pope Francis instruct us?\u00a0 Recently he canonized another companion of St. Ignatius Loyola.\u00a0 It seems to me to be one more way of highlighting mysticism, intimacy with Jesus.\u00a0 The Pope already told Father Spadaro:\u00a0 \u201cIgnatius is a mystic, not an ascetic.\u00a0 \u2026\u00a0 An interpretation of the Spiritual Exercises that emphasizes asceticism, silence and penance is a distorted one \u2026.\u00a0 \u2026 \u00a0And Faber was a mystic.\u201d\u00a0 He contributed not a little to Ignatius\u2019 mysticism.<\/p>\n
We are urged, yes, to come down from our ivory tower and leave behind Pelagian mental exercises, asceticism or athleticism.\u00a0 What matters, as St. Elizabeth Seton indicates, is that our Savior\u2019s life continues in us.\u00a0 What is critical is that there is intimacy between us and the Word made flesh and dwelling among us, through which wisdom, revelation, and every blessing in the heavens are now within our reach.<\/p>\n
And we need to be intimate with the poor in the outskirts, practitioners of true religion.\u00a0 To smell like Jesus is to smell like them.\u00a0 To pay attention to them is to discern the Body of Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"