197. Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)

Meditations no. 566 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Jesus teaches men with their own authority, not like the prophets of old.

THE LORD presented himself as the possessor of the divine word. A word full of authority that astonished the people. In the Gospel of this Sunday’s Mass, St. Mark records the reaction of those who listened to Jesus, while teaching on a Sabbath in the synagogue of Capernaum: they were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who has power and not as the scribes.

The simple people who listened to Jesus perceived from the beginning the difference between the way the scribes and Pharisees taught and the certainty and strength with which the Lord declared his doctrine. “They admired above all his power,” explains St. John Chrysostom, because “he did not speak to them in the words of others, such as the prophets and Moses, but in every word he showed that he possessed this authority of himself.” They limited themselves to repeating what the Law of Moses prescribed and the comments of the teachers of Israel. Jesus, on the other hand, does not express a simple opinion, nor does he show any sign of insecurity or doubt in explaining the divine law. He does not speak, like the previous prophets, in the name of God, but in his own name, because he is more than a prophet: he is the Messenger of God announced many centuries before by Moses: the Lord your God will raise up from you a prophet like me; to him you must listen.

Direct contact with God made Moses’ face radiant, although it was a radiance that soon disappeared; Jesus Christ, the new Moses, sees God face to face: he is the eternal Son, the true God of true God, as we pray in the Creed. No one has ever seen God, St. John would say; the Only-begotten God, the one who is in the bosom of the Father, He Himself made known. That is why He bears witness to what He has seen and heard. He is the definitive Prophet who was to come into the world, the Revealer of the Father’s Face, the one who teaches the mysteries of God’s intimate life and how relationships between men and women should be, confirming the truth of his teachings by his life and his miracles.

This is how Jesus behaved during his public ministry, also in his dealings with those closest to him. The call of the first disciples, our Father notes, is the fruit of a divine and human dialogue that transformed the lives of John and Andrew, of Peter, James and of so many others, which prepared their hearts to listen to the imperious word that Jesus addressed to them by the Sea of Galilee. Then, in the three years that followed, Jesus lived with his disciples, got to know them, answered their questions, resolved their doubts. Yes, the Rabbi, the Teacher who speaks with authority, the Messiah sent from God. But he is at the same time approachable, close: someone to whom one can open one’s heart with confidence.

Even now he continues to behave in this way. In Sacred Scripture, especially when it is read in the heart of the liturgical celebration, God speaks to each of us. The consequence is clear. When you open the Holy Gospel, think that what is narrated there - the works and sayings of Christ - you must not only know, but you must live it. Everything, every point related, has been collected, detail by detail, so that you can incarnate it in the concrete circumstances of your existence.

Following the example of Jesus, we too will behave in the same way - with his grace - in carrying out the apostolate. See to it that in your mouth as a Christian - for this is what you are and must be at all times - there is the “imperious” supernatural word that moves, that incites, that is the expression of your committed vital disposition.

The Lord continues to speak to each one in very different ways; he speaks concretely in spiritual direction.

THERE IS ONE Man who teaches us the way to the most beautiful ideal; a Man who shows us, by his example, the purest and highest model of perfection, and invites us with marvelous love to eternal glory and happiness. If men would hear his voice and know him, the world would regain its lost equilibrium and those who are now elements of disturbance would return to their old order. This is our work: to renew all things in Christ.

The voice of Jesus Christ continues to resound in the Church. If anyone does not listen to the words that he will speak in my name, I will call him to account, says the Lord to Moses as he promises to raise up a prophet like him among his brothers and sisters. And he also speaks to each one of us, personally: when we read the Holy Gospel, in the intimacy of prayer, in the ordinary events of each day, in the suggestions of spiritual direction. In this regard, St. Josemaría warns: receive the advice you are given in spiritual direction, as if it came from Jesus Christ himself. And he adds: think-you are not mistaken, because God speaks to you there-that you are like a little child, sincere!

To recognize God’s voice, it is necessary to turn to spiritual direction with a profound disposition of humility. I insist that you allow yourselves to be helped, guided, by a director of souls, to whom you entrust all your holy illusions and the daily problems that affect the interior life, the setbacks you suffer and the victories. Without docile and sincere spiritual direction, it is not possible - or at least it is very difficult - to listen to God’s voice, to have a true interior life, to have assiduous contact with God, friendship with him. See that the Lord is waiting for all of us - all of us! - and he calls us to his friendship: the single, the married, the widowed, the children, the least children, those who have already turned twenty-five, those who have turned twenty-five three times: everyone.

Spiritual direction, I insist, aims to bring us closer to God, to make us deal with Him, to indicate to us what are the good changes to reach a friendship of intimacy with Our Lord. And we can all arrive at any time, because the way is to be souls of prayer, to be souls of the Eucharist.

This is how we want to proceed. We can now say to the Lord, because we want to be amenable to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, the only one capable of transforming our lives, to teach us to recognize him in the advice we receive in sacramental confession and in fraternal talk. Our Lord, here you are ready to listen to whatever you want to tell us. Speak to us; we are attentive to your voice. May your conversation, falling on our soul like a burning dart, inflame our will so that it will fervently launch itself into obedience to you.

Docility and sincerity in recognizing the voice of God in the fraternal talk.

THE WORDS of Jesus are full of life, they penetrate to the depths of the soul. When we open ours, with sincere and generous disposition, the light of the Incarnate Word will also penetrate our understanding and transform our lives.

Benedixisti - we read in Sacred Scripture - Domine, terram tuam; avertisti captivitatem Iacob (Ps 84:2); Lord, you have blessed your land, you have destroyed the captivity of Jacob (…). We no longer feel like slaves, but free: everything leads us to God. And in this walk along the path of Opus Dei, we are safe, because we have the direction that makes it impossible for us to make mistakes: Confession and confidential conversation with your brother, if they are sincere, if there is no room for the mute devil. In our spiritual journey we have, at every moment, something similar to those signs that are seen on the roads, to guide travelers. It is not possible, I repeat, in any way, for a member of Opus Dei - if he is faithful to our spirit - to get lost in the twists and turns of his interior life.

The teachings of Jesus contain an infinite wisdom that, when it is well received, is understood by the philosopher and those who have no letters, young people and children, men and women… everyone. He speaks of the most sublime in the simplest words; his doctrine-profound as there will never be-is available to all. In his preaching he often resorts to figures and images known to the people, which give his speech an incomparable beauty and attractiveness. Then he explains this doctrine to the Apostles in greater depth. And they, when they do not understand, have no qualms about saying: Lord, explain the parable to us. They are not ashamed to recognize its limitations.

The same can happen to us. If on any occasion we do not understand what God is asking of us through personal spiritual direction, we must behave like the Apostles, expound our hesitations simply, with an open soul to receive the appropriate advice.

This was always our Father’s recommendation. Children, be clear in spiritual direction; when you speak in the Confidence, when you speak in the Confession, do not keep silent about anything, say first of all what you are most ashamed of. As long as you do not tell it, you will not be happy. When you say it, how happy you will be! How easy you will be to give your directors to give you their hands and lead you along the paths that are pleasing to the Lord! (… ).

We must tell the truth with simplicity, with simplicity. Shame … My mother used to say to me, when I was little: my son, shame, to sin! Not to go to confession. When talking to the doctor, you have to say everything. In Confidence, you have to speak; in Confession you have to say things as they are in our soul, as they are in our lives. And then, they help us and form us, they remove what is in the way and put in what is missing; thus a great crucifix comes out of each one of us, a beautiful crucifix. God himself becomes life in our hearts and in our lives.

Firm purpose: sincerity, simplicity, to quickly vomit what we do not want to be known. Who does not want it to be known? Satan, who rejoices in our present misfortune and would like to see us fall into hell. Speak clearly, tell everything, and you will live joyfully and happily on earth and then you will have eternal happiness, the joy of enjoying the love of Jesus and Mary for eternity, forever.

Let us turn to the Blessed Virgin. She will teach us to imitate her in her attitude to the Lord’s words and the events of her life: she kept all these things by pondering them in her heart.