"It would do us all good to ask ourselves: How do I want to be saved?” “By a spirituality that is good for me, but static, self-explanatory and without any risk? Or by the divine, by Jesus who always surprises us, which always opens to us the doors to the mystery of God’s Omnipotence of, which is mercy and forgiveness? ".

Vatican City (AsiaNews) -  It is Jesus who gifts us salvation but we all suffer the "drama" of rejecting God's path of salvation and instead of wanting to save "ourselves" "in our own way", "under the wing of our many man-made rules and commandments". This was the warning sounded today at Mass in Casa Santa Marta by Pope Francis in his reflection on the Gospel passage in which Jesus expresses his displeasure at being rejected by his own people.

In the words of Jesus in Chorazin and Bethsaida, "if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented", sums up the entire "history of salvation". As they rejected and killed the prophets before him, "because they were uncomfortable", they do the same with Jesus. "This is the drama - said the Pope - of resistance to salvation"  triggered by the people's leaders. "It is the ruling class that closes the doors to the way in which God wants to save us. And this helps us understand why Jesus has such heated discussion with the ruling class of his time: they argue, they put him to the test, they set traps to see if he will fall because this is resistance to salvation. Jesus said to them, 'But, I do not understand you! You are like children: we played the flute and you did not dance, we sang a dirge, and you did not weep. But what you want ? ',' We want to save ourselves in our own way!. This is the ever present closure to the way of God".

The "people of faith", however, understand and "accept" the salvation brought by Jesus. Salvation that, on the contrary, the leaders of the people reduce essentially to the carrying out of the 613 precepts created by "their intellectual and theological fever". "They do not believe in mercy and forgiveness, they believe in the sacrifice." "They believe in everything being settled, well organized, clear cut. This is the drama of resistance to salvation. We too, each of us, has in this drama. It would do us all good to ask ourselves: How do I want to be saved?" "By a spirituality that is good for me, but static, self-explanatory and without any risk? Or by the divine, by Jesus who always surprises us, which always opens to us the doors to the mystery of God's Omnipotence of, which is mercy and forgiveness? ".

"It would do us all good to realize that this drama is in our hearts." Reflect on whether we happen to confuse "freedom with autonomy" to choose the salvation which we believe is the "right one". "Do I believe that Jesus is the Master who teaches us salvation, or do I wander around looking for gurus to teach me another? Do I choose a safer  path or take refuge under the wings of the many man-made rules and regulations? And so I feel safe and thus - it is a bit 'hard to say this - with this safety do I buy my salvation, which Jesus gives for free with the gratuitousness of God? It would do us good today to ask ourselves these questions. And one last one: Do I resist the salvation of Jesus?".

 

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