S
TRENNA
2010
by Pascual Chávez Villanueva
THE GOSPEL TO THE YOUNG
THE MAGNA CARTA OF THE KINGDOM
The beatitudes: here we have the constant revolution of the Gospel, here the words which unhinge all certainties, here the rules of holiness (Anonymous).
I
n Matthew’s Gospel, the first place in which Jesus introduces the Kingdom of God, he begins with a word which goes straight to the minds and hearts of his listeners then and always: “happy… happy… happy…’ repeated nine times. These are the so-called “beatitudes”. The proclamation of the Kingdom then is a promise of happiness. They are not a code of conduct or a new set of ten commandments. As I wrote in a letter at the beginning of my term of office, “the whole is unified by the central position occupied by the Kingdom: for this reason it has been called “the ‘Magna Carta’ of the proclamation of the Kingdom”, in which the fatherhood of God is not characterised by his dominion, but rather, his dominion is governed by his fatherhood; so that in the Kingdom of heaven there are no slaves and not even servants, but sons and daughters” (AGC 384, p.24). In the same letter I pointed out, however, that we often forget this, and what Jesus says later would seem to take the Old Law to its extreme, impossible to fulfil; whereas what Jesus is doing is showing us what the world and people living together in it would be like if we took his words seriously and worked together to build his Kingdom. Then in the world not only would there be no murderers, there would not even be insults or contempt for others; no adultery, no stealing; and we would trust each other so well that there would be no need for any kind of oaths taking. It is “the Utopia of the Kingdom” which I would make bold to call “the dream of Jesus.”
In Luke’s Gospel we find the opposite of the beatitudes, what someone has called the “maletudes” (Lk 6,24-26). They are not curses, Jesus wants every one to be saved, but serious warnings, variations of the same basic attitudes: pride and self-sufficiency. Mary in the Magnificat had proclaimed that: pride, power, riches (cf. Lk 1, 51-53) are obstacles to welcoming the Kingdom as a gift. With the greatest seriousness, Jesus gives a warning about the possibility of not accepting the Kingdom and as a result remaining in the darkness of solitude and failure. Some will ask, why then is the Christian life seen by many as a series of obligations, keeping the rules, a yoke from which to be freed? We remember the controversy following the appearance of the English bus with the sign: “Probably God does not exist; don’t worry, enjoy life”. It would appear that it is necessary to get rid of God in order to be happy. Where does such a radical opposition to the ‘beatitudes’ come from? The Gospel gives an answer. Examining the beatitudes we become aware that the paths pointed out by Jesus are not those the world offers. It’s sufficient to read the first Letter of John: “Nothing the world has to offer, the sensual body, the lustful eye, pride in possessions, could ever come from the Father but only from the world.” (1 Jn 2,16). And there’s an invitation for the young: “I am writing to you young men because you are strong and God’s word has made it home in you.” (1 Jn 2,14b). This does not mean that we have to despise the world and/or flee from it. On the contrary: “God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son” (Jn 3,16). Referring to this, Paul VI wrote: “The Church should love the world. But that does not mean to be like it, to become worldly.. Loving the world means knowing it, studying it, serving it.”
We can go even deeper into the meaning of the beatitudes. In the New Testament the first beatitude doesn’t appear in the preaching of Jesus, but a good while before. It can be found in the meeting between Mary and Elizabeth who congratulated her saying: “Blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Lk 1,45). And the final gospel beatitude is at the meeting between the Risen Lord and Thomas: “Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe” (Jn 20,29). It is extraordinarily significant that both these beatitudes have as their foundation the same attitude: FAITH. This allows us to understand and to accept others. Only in the perspective of faith can we understand that the path to our real fulfilment passes through the cross and death to reach the fullness of the Resurrection. Don Bosco was particularly sensitive to the joyful nature of the Christian life and in the “Companion of Youth” he draws the attention of the young to the deceit used by the devil to take them away from the practice of religion making them believe that it is a source of sadness, boredom and frustration. Nothing could be more false. The Christian life, as the following of Jesus, is the only path to true happiness. That is what Don Bosco was tireless in preaching; and that is what was understood by his boys such as Dominic Savio who coined the typically Salesian motto: “We make holiness consist in always being cheerful.”
