S TRENNA 2010

by Pascual Chávez Villanueva

THE GOSPEL TO THE YOUNG

THE FORMATION

OF THE DISCIPLES

To change people it is necessary to love them. Our influence only reaches as far as our love (Johann H. Pestalozzi).

_WWe have already reflected on the call of the disciples which was a watershed in their lives, determining the “before” and the “after” which continues with their fidelity “until death.” Now we are going to look at the common life of Jesus and his disciples. He invites them, not to learn some teaching or to discuss religious ideas but to share his mission: passion for the Kingdom and for the Rule of God/Abbà which give meaning to his whole life. However, it is not only a matter of a job to be done, but of being, at the deepest level, believers/disciples/apostles. “He summoned those he wanted … he appointed twelve … to be sent out to preach, with power to cast out devils” (Mk 3,13-15). The invitation to be ‘Jesus’ friends’ does not change the disciples automatically. The future columns of the Church had limitations, defects and sins. The Lord begins with them a long process of formation which will end only with Pentecost: “When the Spirit of truth comes He will lead you to the complete truth” (Jn 16,13).

One of the difficulties Jesus meets with in his followers as regards their discipleship is pride and the desire for power. While He begins to announce his future death they are discussing who is the greatest (Mk 9,30-37). The sons of Zebedee even get their mother to put in a good word for them: “Promise that these two sons of mine may one sit at your right hand and the other at your left in your kingdom” (Mt 20,21). The others are angry, but Jesus does not condemn this very human desire, but points out the real path to follow to be successful: “Anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve” (v.26-27). It is not easy for them to understand. On other occasions they show the intransigence of someone who feels he is superior to others: Jesus corrects them after they have prevented some one who did not belong to their group from doing good in his name (Mk 9,38-40); he reproves them when in the face of the opposition of the Samaritans in crossing their territory, they call down fire from heaven to consume them (Lk 9,51-69). In the face of these human weaknesses Jesus shows understanding, patience and compassion. But he does not compromise on the essential: faith. This is not ‘negotiable’. He is not interested in having a crowd of followers who go away when faced with his ‘hard’ words (Jn 6). Their little faith also shows itself in their inability to understand the parables (Mt 13,10s) which he is forced to explain, and when he announces his passion: “They did not understand what he said and were afraid to ask him” (Mk 9,32). It was the attitude of someone who realises that it is better not to know …

At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus questions them about the opinion the people have of him, and then puts to them the decisive question: “And you, who do you say that I am?” (Mk 8,29). It is not sufficient to know what the others say; nothing can take the place of the personal option of faith and devotion to the Lord Jesus. This lack of faith, which finds expression in their not wanting to accept the plan of God, and to the extreme degree in fact in the head of the apostolic group, Simon Peter, whom Jesus reproves with the most forceful words he has ever used: “Get behind me Satan...the way you think is not God’s way but man’s.” (Mt 16,23; Mk 8,31-33). There are situations where one cannot compromise: at stake is the very essence of what it means to be a disciple. The Gospels do not hide even the most deplorable attitude: the cowardly abandonment of the Master by the apostles on the night of his arrest, including the shameful denial by Peter. And yet, even in the dark night of the flight and the denial the flickering flame which burns in their heart is not extinguished: love for Jesus which leads Peter “to weep bitterly” (Mk 14,72) and which, after the death of the Master, will enable them to encounter the Risen One and the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1,8). We don’t know a great deal about their lives, but we do know that they were faithful to the Lord and sealed this fidelity with their blood. Except Judas: his “physical” closeness to Jesus did not become devotion. But the Church has never expressed a definitive judgement about him. We leave in silence what God Himself has chosen to keep quiet about.

Don Bosco, with his first Salesians, knew how to follow a pedagogy similar to that of Jesus. He wasn’t an indulgent grand-dad who puts up with everything; he was an affectionate and understanding father, but also demanding. “He used to close an eye, sometimes both, to the defects and the imperfections of his young collaborators,” but he was inflexible when it came to morality, because what was at stake was the good of his boys. He was not satisfied with mediocrity, but put to them a “high measure” of holiness. In this way he succeeded in producing masterpieces such as Dominic Savio and the other youngsters who died in the odour of sanctity. ◄