BLESSING
According to the intriguing story of Luke, Jesus returns to his Father as he «blesses» his disciples. It’s his last gesture. Jesus leaves behind him his blessing. The disciples respond to Jesus’ gesture heading to the temple full of joy. And there they are «blessing» God.
Blessing is a practice found in almost all cultures as the best desire we can awaken toward others. Judaism, Islam, and Christianity have always given it a great importance. And though in our days it has ended up reduced to an almost unused ritual, more than a few emphasize its deep meaning and the need to recover it.
To bless is, above all, to desire the good of the people we go about encountering in our journey. To want the good unconditionally and unreservedly. To want health, wellbeing, joy… all that can help them to live with dignity. The more we desire the good for everyone, the more possible is its manifestation.
To bless is to learn to live from a basic attitude of love for life and for others. Those who bless, empty their heart of other attitudes that are hardly healthy, like aggression, fear, hostility, or indifference. It’s not possible to bless and at the same time to go about condemning, rejecting, hating.
To bless is to desire good for someone from the depth of our being, though we aren’t the source of the blessing, but only its witnesses and carriers. The one who blesses does nothing but evoke, desire, and beg the wonderful presence of the Creator, the source of all good. That’s why you can only bless in an attitude of thankfulness to God.
Blessing does good to the one who receives it and to the one who practices it. Whoever blesses others blesses themselves. Blessing ends up resounding in our interior as a silent prayer that goes about transforming our heart, making it better and nobler. No one can feel good about themselves while continuing to curse another from the depth of our being. We followers of Jesus are carriers and witnesses of Jesus’ blessing to the world.
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
