STRENNA
2010
by Pascual Chávez Villanueva
T
HE
GOSPEL TO THE YOUNG
THE PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM
Even the most intelligent of men needs parables to understand something about God (Anonymous).
After having presented various parables of Jesus, the evangelist Mark sums up: “[Jesus] using many parables like these spoke the word to them so far as they were capable of understanding it. He would not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything to his disciples when they were alone.” (Mk 4,33-35; Mt 13,34-35). This statement constitutes one of the most historically accurate descriptions of Jesus’ teaching. Here are some characteristics of the parables. Above all, the everyday and practical language which emphasises its closeness to the real daily life of the listeners, even the most ordinary: a housewife who loses a coin a searches everywhere until she finds it and rejoices; a shepherd who loses a sheep, a sower casting the seeds in various sorts of soil, a fisherman who separates the good fish from the inedible ones, a father who is worried about his sons’ situation... The use of images and stories, drawn from everyday life or made up to explain the message, serves to communicate the Good News in a clearer and more incisive way than could be done in an abstract discourse. What is important is that the story makes people think about what he is really talking about. I have had this sort of experience myself: when people I meet talk about the yellow umbrella, or the picture of “Don Bosco the puppeteer” (which represents one of the much moving of Jesus’ parables) figures I used in recent Strennas. You learn a lot more from images than from “theoretical” reading or listening to abstract ideas.
It should also be underlined that unlike what happens in the “world of images,” Jesus doesn’t spare the listener the effort of trying to find the meaning of the story; some people talk about a language which is sometimes ‘enigmatic’ on the Lord’s part, so much so that the disciples themselves ask him to explain it, and two evangelists even come to the point of interpreting a comparison made by Jesus in two different though complementary ways (Mt 12, 38-40 and Lk 11,29-30). In addition, Jesus often goes beyond the story, and invites them not to be satisfied to be passive listeners but to let themselves be challenged by it. How often, for example, do we not get worked up and worried about what happens next in our favourite television ‘soap’, without being at all concerned about what is taking place around us, sometimes even in our own family! In the Sacred Scriptures we find examples of this danger: King David, listening to Nathan’s story become angry, without realising that the prophet is talking to him in the form of a parable about his own conduct and his twofold sin. How often we need someone to say to us, as to David: “You are the man, you are that woman!” (2Sam 12). In Luke’s gospel we find the Pharisee Simon who, having heard a short story by Jesus about two debtors, judges correctly, without realising that he is “putting his own head in the noose.” (Lk 7,36-50). We are quite capable of judging others but not of recognising our own position.
The parables are an encouragement to a change in one’s way of thinking, without which they would seem unacceptable or o scandalous: think of the master of the vineyard who gives the same pay to the one who worked for eight hours and the one who only worked for one (Mt 20,1-16); or the dishonest steward who fiddled the accounts (Lk 16,1-8), or the wonderful (but disconcerting by human standards) figure of the good father and his two sons. If they do not awaken in us surprise and even uneasiness, perhaps it is because we are too familiar with them... Nowadays there are writers who for the conclusion of their novels prepare different endings, giving the reader the possibility of “choosing” the one they prefer. It would appear that Jesus was doing something similar but for a different reason: some of the parables remain “open” because they appeal to human freedom, in other words, to conversion. In that of the prodigal son (Lk 15,11ss), we don’t know whether, in the end, the elder son takes part in the celebration, but we know that those like him, that is, those listening to Jesus, (Lk 15,1-2), are being invited to accept the love and forgiveness of God. We can say more or less the same thing about the parable of the good Samaritan (Lk 10,29ss): faced with a theoretically “correct” answer by the doctor of the Law, Jesus invites him to put it into practice: “Go and do the same yourself” (v. 37). The parables are the quintessence of his message, concentrated on the marvel of the love and the mercy of the Father (Abbà) for everyone. Don Bosco understood perfectly this typical feature of the preaching of Jesus in the education of his boys; rather than write abstract books about it he gave examples taken from Scripture or from historical events or he made up stories and parables. In particular, when he was inviting the boys at the Oratory to live in the love of God and to love their neighbour, which constitutes genuine youthful holiness, he did not write about ascetics but he gave them models of life: I am referring to the Lives which present this path of holiness in terms of flesh and blood, very different by character and family background. We can think of Saint Dominic Savio, of Michael Magone, of Francis Besucco... ◄
