The Gospel lived and spread to others who live it too - this is the way to transform the world so that on earth it is as in heaven.

Whoever practises and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
(Matt. 5:19)

Jesus, surrounded by the crowds, went up the mountain and gave his famous sermon. The opening words, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek…’ already show what was new about the message he had come to bring.

They are words of life, of light, of hope that Jesus passed on to his disciples to enlighten them and give flavour and meaning to their lives.

Transformed by this great message, they were invited to hand on to others the teachings they had received and translated into life.

Whoever practises and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Our society today, more than ever before, needs to know the words of the Gospel and to let itself to be transformed by them. Jesus should be able to say again: Don’t get angry with your neighbours; forgive, and you will be forgiven; tell the truth without having to take an oath; love your enemies; recognize that you have only one Father and that you are all brothers and sisters; do to others as you would have them do to you. This is the sense of some of the many words from the ‘Sermon on the Mount’. If they were put into practice, they would be enough to change the world.

Jesus invites us to proclaim his Gospel. But before ‘teaching’ his words, he asks us to ‘practise’ them. To be credible, we ought to be ‘experts’ in the Gospel, a ‘living Gospel’. Only then will we be able to witness to it with our lives and teach it with our words.

Whoever practises and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

What is the best way to live these words? By allowing Jesus himself to teach them to us, drawing him to us and among us through our love for one another. He will suggest the right words to use when approaching people, he will show us how to reach people’s hearts, so that we may witness to him wherever we are, even in the most difficult environments and the most entangled situations. We will see the world change. That small part of the world where we live will be transformed and converted to harmony, understanding, peace.

What is important is to keep his presence among us alive through our mutual love, to be pliable as we listen to his voice, the voice of conscience that always speaks to us if we know how to silence the other voices.

He will teach us to ‘practise’ even the ‘smallest’ commands with joy and creativity, so as to polish to perfection our life of unity. May it be said of us as was once said of the first Christians: ‘See how they love one another, how they are ready even to die for one another.’ The fact that the Gospel is capable of generating a new society will be made clear from the way our relationships are renewed by love.

We cannot keep the gift we have received to ourselves. We are called to repeat with Paul: ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!’ (1 Cor. 9: 16). If we let ourselves be guided by the inner voice, we will discover ever new possibilities to communicate it, by talking, writing, entering into conversation. May the Gospel shine out again, through us personally, in our homes, in our cities, in our nations. Then a new life will flourish in us too. Joy will grow in our hearts. The risen Lord will blaze forth with greater beauty, and he will consider us ‘great in his kingdom’.

The life of Ginetta Calliari demonstrates this in an outstanding way. When she arrived in Brazil in 1959 with the first group from the Focolare Movement, she was shocked by the nation’s tremendous inequalities. She resolved to live mutual love, putting God’s Word into practice. She said, ‘He will open the way for us.’ As time passed, a community grew up and developed around her, a community that today counts hundreds of thousands of people of every social class and age, inhabitants of the favelas (slums) and members of the well-to-do classes, who put themselves at the service of those most in need. A small united ‘people’ that continues to show that the Gospel is true: this is the dowry that Ginetta took with her when she left for heaven.

Next Month: For me it is meat and drink to do the will of him who sent me until I have finished his work. (Mk 7: 37)

Meditation:
Tertullian, The Apology, 39:7.

 

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