RETURN TO JESUS
All kinds of studies and diagnostics could exist. What’s certain is that the world today needs new sap to live. The Churches go about looking for encouragement and hope. The multitudes of the poor on our planet demand justice and bread. The West doesn’t yet know how to get out of that poorly covered up sadness that no well-being succeeds in hiding.
The problem isn’t just about political changes or theological renewals, but about life. We are in need of something like the «fire» that Jesus lit in his short passage here on earth: his mysticism, his clarity, his passion for the human being. We need people like him, words like his, hope and love like his. We need to return to Jesus.
From the beginning, Christians saw that he could guide human beings. With its familiar language, the fourth Gospel presents Jesus as the «shepherd», capable of freeing the sheep of the flock where they find themselves enclosed, in order to «lead them out» to a new countryside of life and dignity. He walks ahead, marking out the path for those who want to follow him.
Jesus imposes nothing. He forces no one. He calls each one «by their name». For him there aren’t masses. Each one has their own name and face. Each one should hear his voice without confusing it with that of strangers, who are nothing but «robbers» who steal light and hope from the people.
This is what’s decisive: to not listen to strange voices, but to flee from messages that don’t come from Galilee. Every time that the Church has sought to renew herself, she has unleashed a return to Jesus to follow again in his footsteps. As has been recalled so many times, «follow me» is the first and the last word of Jesus to Peter (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).
But to return to Jesus isn’t the exclusive task of the pope or of the bishops. All of us believers are responsible. In order to return to Jesus there’s no need to wait for someone to tell us to. Francis of Assisi didn’t wait for the Church of his time to make who knows what decisions. He himself changed himself into the Gospel and began the adventure of truly following Jesus. What do we need to wait for in order to awaken among us a new passion for the Gospel and for Jesus?
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
