THE CALL OF
RECONCILIATION ( ...page
5
)
THE CALL OF
RECONCILIATION ( ...page
5
)
October 9th 1998
Luke 11, 14-26
Jesus
was driving out a demon that could not talk; and when the demon went out, the
man began to talk. The crowds were amazed, but some of the people said «It is
Beelzebub, the chief of demons, who gives him the power to drive them out.»
Others wanted to trap Jesus, so they asked him to perform a miracle to show that
God approved of him.
But Jesus knew what
they were thinking, so he said to them, «Any country that divides itself
into groups which fight each other will not last very long; a family divided to
be against itself falls apart.
So Satan's kingdom has groups fighting each other, how can it last? You say that
I drive out demons because Beelzebub gives me the power to do so. If this is how
I drive them out, how do your
followers drive them out? Your own followers prove that you are wrong!
No, it is rather by
means of God's power that I drive out demons, and this proves that the Kingdom
of God has already come to you. «When a strong man, with all his weapons ready,
guards his own house all his belongings are safe. But when a stronger man
attacks him and defeats him; he carries away all the weapons the owner was
depending on and divides up what he stole. »
«Anyone who is not with me is really against me; anyone who does not help me
gather is really scattering»
"When an evil spirit goes out of a person, it
travels over dry country for a place to rest. If it can't find one, it says to
itself, `I will go back to my house'. So it goes back and finds the house clean
and tidy. Then it goes out and brings seven other spirits even worse than itself,
and they come and live there. So when it is all over, that person is in a worse
state than he was at the beginning"...
Meditation
Jesus drives out a demon that
could not talk. The man starts talking and the crowd is amazed.
To drive out devils is not necessarily an extraordinary
thing, something miraculous and impressive. It is not magic.
Here Jesus drives out a demon that could not talk.
You know that there are lots of children and teenagers who
do not dare to talk, and one notices often that they keep quiet. How many
children are there, who take refuge in silence? IT is because there is nobody
who bothers or takes the time to listen to them. You need a lot of attention an
a continuous presence in order to get them to speak! There are demons to be
driven out.
How many families or villages are there, who are speechless because nobody gives
them the right to speak?
The process of reconciliation starts with the capacity
for listening: listening to the other, giving him back the ability to speak,
that had been taken away from him. He has the right to speak and his word is as
important as that of the others. The word of a child is as important as the word
of a king.
This was Baden Powel's deep conviction when he founded
Scouting.
Jesus says: listen to the children, let them
come to us.
What is so wonderful about this, it is that he who
believed that he could not speak discovers that he can speak, that he exists.
Each time you do this particular work, you drive out the demons, the demon that
locks you in, that condemns you to solitude. The work of an educator is to drive
out the demon.
Educate
is to set free.
Some of the people who surrounded Jesus then started to
murmur and to gossip. They said that if he drives out demons it is because he
himself is a friend of demons, but if he drives them out, the demon is lost,
because he fights against himself. He defeats himself.
Evil is always in agreement with himself. Those who fight
wars do always agree with wars. Those who want to kill always agree to kill. But
those who want peace, are they able to wish for peace?
But if it is true that demons, evil will be ruined through division, this is also true peace!
If all those who want peace don't build it together, then nothing will be achieved, just new ruins, new deserts.
And Jesus says, it is by the means of God's power that I drive out demons, and this proves that the Kingdom of God has already come to you. You can see that Jesus doesn't reason as we do. One would have said: if I am able to drive out demons this is the proof that I am the strongest one!
Jesus, son of God,
who is God himself doesn't boast of his power, but acknowledges the power of his
Father; he says that peace is a gift, that reconciliation is a gift from God.
We are not the masters of the world. I am not the master of peace. I am not the one who knows everything. I am the servant of peace. Peace is one of the names of God. It means that the tenderness of God is with us. He came to tell us about his love.
Reconciliation means that one sees beyond oneself, that one goes beyond one's universe in order to receive, to discover. This doesn't mean that I am the strongest one. This means that God loves us.
When a strong man with his weapons protects his castle, he is secure, but when a stronger man appears, he can take all his weapons from him and the former looses all his goods.
Here we must ask ourselves, "how does one become the strongest?" Even if I have all the weapons, there might be others that will have more than I do. Therefore, in what can I trust? Particularly, if you look into your soul, you will clearly see that you are at the same time your own friend and your own enemy, the one who wants day and the one who wants night. The one who asks for sunshine and rain.
Each of us is in conflict with ourselves.
Often one tends to think that the best way to win, is to
keep up appearances, when inside there is plenty of noise. I cannot start a war
against myself. I cannot force silence upon myself. I must live all my life with
myself without condemning myself all the time, despising myself, humiliating
myself. Each time we humiliate ourselves, it is God the one who we humiliate.
God made me, created me, gave me life.
Respecting oneself is respecting God. To accept oneself as one is giving God our
contentment. If I fight against myself, it will happen what happened to that man
of Luke's. I will always have the impression that I'll never find a way out.
When one is with one who is stronger, it is not worth
taking risks. It is better to negotiate. I'll have to accept that I'll loose a
little. I cannot rule, direct everything. I am with the others, and I have to
share.
It is not in arms that I have to place my trust. God is not in War. God is in peace because he is love.
This Gospel tells a final story, the story of a man inhabited by an evil spirit.On his arrival to the house, he finds it clean and tidy. This means that in order to find its place, war needs chaos and disorder.
To see
conflict is to see division. The evil spirit brings seven other spirits even
worse than himself, they create disorder and in the end that person is in a
worse state than he was at the beginning.
The contrary of disorder, of chaos, is dialogue, it is
never to loose sight of possible links, never throw someone out. It is never a
solution to tell a guide "you are worthless, you are not good enough, go away!"
Guiding is
made for those who don't know, who don't manage. Tell this to your guides: there
can only be peace if the poor are admitted amongst us.
For the general appearance, for the sake of appearances, it is better if guides
come from rich families, but for the Gospel, there is no peace if the poor are
not with us. It is the poor, and not those who are the strongest, those who
crush the world, that will bring us peace.
Reconciliation, is first thing of all to be reconciled
with the poor, and perhaps the first in the ranks of the poor is myself. And
perhaps I will begin to reconcile myself with myself.
Reconciliation is always the road leading to the poor.
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