Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C-2013

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Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us (Mt 6, 12)

“It is not enough for me to love God, if my neighbor does not love him,” says St. Vincent de Paul in the conference that I referred to last week (Coste XII, 262). Those “chosen by God as instruments of his immense and fatherly charity, which desires to dwell and expand in souls,” are to go “not to a parish, not just to a diocese, but throughout the world.” Their mission is the same as that of Jesus, “who came to set the world on fire in order to inflame it with his love.”

It is not enough, therefore, for those who try to follow the Missionary Evangelizer of the poor to seek fellowship with him, if their neighbor is deprived of it. They cannot be like the Pharisee who invites Jesus and then casts doubt on his guest because the latter lets himself be touched by a reputed sinful woman. Those who are really interested in Jesus, and appreciate him, are not indifferent even to sinners, nor do they despise them.

Slighting a sinner smacks of self-righteousness. One steep in it acknowledges God, yes, and prays, “O God, I thank you.” But when he immediately declaims, “that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector,” then he gives himself away as someone looking for recognition, rather than someone giving it to the one he supposedly honors. A Pharisee of this sort does not feel any need for repentance or forgiveness. He thinks of himself as justified by his religious observance, not by grace or by faith in Christ. It should not be so for Jesus’ followers.

Genuine disciples are very well aware of the humble and wicked situations from which Jesus has rescued them. They confess that they are powerless and helpless without God’s grace. They admit that their adulterous acts are grave sins because they constitute breach of trust and abominable injustice against women, reduced into mere objects of pleasure, and against men, treated as wholly expendable.

Hence, those who are truly contrite, finding themselves forgiven, cannot but seek forgiveness for others. And the more they recognize their innumerable and enormous sins, and proclaim God’s immeasurable and overflowing grace, the more unabashed love they show for God and for a sinful neighbor; they give thanks all the time and celebrate. Forgiving, they are guaranteed forgiveness themselves, even if they might have sinned heinously like the greedy and unjust rich man who took a poor man’s only and highly cherished possession (2 Sam 12, 1-4).

So then, worthy of Jesus is a fellowship meal in which those scorned by society are also welcomed and attended to. Experiencing the love that never gives up and endures all things, the partakers are impelled to see to it that they have “this esteem and tenderness for the neighbor” and practice “this charity which chases away the first feelings of scorn and the seed of antipathy” (Coste XII, 265).


VERSIÓN ESPAÑOLA

Domingo 11º del Tiempo Ordinario C-2013

Perdona nuestras ofensas, como también nosotros perdonamos a los que nos ofenden (Mt 6, 12)

«No me basta con amar a Dios, si no lo ama mi prójimo», dice san Vicente de Paúl en la conferencia a la que me referí la semana pasada (XI, 553). Los «escogidos por Dios como instrumentos de su caridad inmensa y paternal, que desea reinar y ensancharse en las almas», han de «ir, no a una parroquia, ni solo a una diócesis, sino por toda la tierra». Su misión es la misma de Jesús «que vino a traer fuego a la tierra para inflamarla de su amor».

No les basta, por consiguiente, a los que pretenden seguir al Misionero Evangelizador de los pobres con buscar convivencia con él, si se priva de ella el prójimo. No pueden actuar como el fariseo que convida a Jesús y luego pone en duda al mismo convidado porque éste se deja tocar por una reputada pecadora. Quienes realmente se interesan por Jesús, y lo aprecian, no son indiferentes incluso a los pecadores, ni los desprecian.

El tener en poco a un pecador huele a pretensionses de superioridad moral o religiosa. El empapado de ellas reconoce a Dios, sí, y ora: «¡Oh Dios!, te doy gracias». Pero al declamar inmediatamente: «porque no soy como los demás: ladrones, injustos, adúlteros; ni como ese publicano», entonces se delata como quien busca el reconocimiento y no como quien se lo da al que supuestamente honra. Un fariseo de este tipo se siente sin necesidad ni de la conversión ni del perdón. Se cree justificado por su observancia religiosa, no por la gracia de Dios ni por la fe en Cristo. No, así no pueden ser los seguidores de Jesús.

Los auténticos discípulos son muy conscientes de sus situaciones humildes e impías, de las que les ha librado Jesús. Se confiesan impotentes e indefensos sin la gracia de Dios. Admiten que sus actos de adulterio son pecados graves constando de abuso de confianza e injusticia abominable contra mujeres reducidas en meros objetos de placer y contra hombres tratados como prescindibles del todo.

Es por eso que los verdaderamente contritos, encontrándose perdonados, no pueden menos que buscar el perdón para otros. Y cuanto más reconocen sus innumerables y enormes pecados, y proclaman la gracia inmensurable y abundante de Dios, tanto más amor sin reparo muestran para con Dios y para con un prójimo pecador; dan gracias a cada rato y celebran. Perdonando, reciben garantía de que quedan perdonados, aunque hayan pecado atrozmente como el rico codicioso e injusto que le quitó a un pobre su única y muy valorada posesión (2 Sam 12, 1-4).

Así pues, digno de Jesús es el convivio en el que se les acoge y se les atiende también a los menospreciados por la sociedad. Experimentando el amor que todo lo disculpa y aguanta sin límites, los partícipes se apremian a procurar «este afecto y este cariño al prójimo» y a practicar «esa caridad que expulsa los primeros sentimientos de menosprecio y la semilla de la antipatía» (XI, 556).