Between intimate struggle and not opposing the evil one
(Mt 5:43-48)
In his first encyclical Pope Benedict wrote:
"With the centrality of love, the Christian faith has taken up what was the core of the faith of Israel and at the same time has given this core a new depth and breadth. The believing Israelite, in fact, prays every day with the words of the Book of Deuteronomy, in which he knows that the centre of his existence is enclosed: Listen, Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength' (6:4-5). Jesus united the commandment of love of God with the commandment of love of neighbour, contained in the Book of Leviticus: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself" (19:18; cf. Mk 12:29-31), making it a single precept. Since God loved us first (cf. 1 John 4:10), love is now no longer just a "commandment", but is the response to the gift of love, with which God comes to us.
In a world where the name of God is sometimes linked to vengeance or even the duty of hatred and violence, this is a message of great relevance and very concrete meaning" [Deus Caritas est, n.1].
The "victory-or-defeat" alternative is false: we must come out of it
Jesus proclaims that our heart is not made for closed horizons, where incompatibilities are accentuated.
He forbids exclusion, and with it resentments, difficulties in communication.
There is something more in us than any facet of opportunism, and the instinct to strike back blow after blow... to even the score... even to close oneself within one's own exemplary group.
In Latin perfĭcĕre means to fulfil, to complete, to lead to perfection, to do completely.
We understand it: here it is indispensable to introduce other energies; to let mysterious virtues act... between the deepest spaces that belong to us, and the mystery of events.
How for us to reach the summit of the Mount of the Beatitudes. For a new Birth, a new Beginning.
Impossible, if we do not allow an innate, primordial Wisdom to develop - magmatic, yet far more intact and inapposite.
Venturing away from one's enclosure - even out of the worldly chorus - may not make one original, but it does begin to cure our eccentric exceptionalism.
Otherwise we would assimilate an external model of integrity, which does not spring from the Source of being and does not correspond to us in essence.
Within the paradigms of perfection, the captive uniqueness would no longer know where to go. It would go round in circles believing it would climb [in religion, as on a spiral staircase, which leads to nothing: a typical mechanism of ascetic forms].
In the exasperation of models outside ourselves, we subject the soul to the style of (even ecclesiastical) celebrities.
The anxiety produced by the narrowness of charisma, of champions, of roles lacking deep harmony, will then be ready to attack us; it will present itself around the corner as an invincible adversary.
Perfect seem like diamonds - from which, however, nothing is born: God's perfect are those who go all the way.
The Tao says: 'If you want to be given everything, give up everything'.
"Everything" also means the image we are accustomed to present to others, to be liked at any cost. One has to come out of it.
A transgressive Jesus meets the Wisdom of all times, even the natural one - absolutely not conformist.
He does not want the existence of Faith to be marked by the usual hard extrinsic struggle [typical of the 'spiritual' mentality] made of intimate lacerations.
Even today - unfortunately - in many believing realities, one is still trained in the idea of the inevitable opposition between instincts to life and decent standards.
The Lord glosses over the addictive idea of devout toil, and does so by daring to supplement the ancient Scripture, almost correcting the roots of the civil and venerable identity of the people, identified in the Torah.
Several times and in succession he suggests modifying the sacred and unappealable treasure of the Law: 'It was said [...] Now I say to you'.
The differences are there, yet Jesus commands to subvert the customs of ancient wisdom, the divisions involved: acceptable or not, friends or foes, near or far, pure and impure, sacred and profane; so on.
The Kingdom of God, that is, the community of children - this offshoot of an alternative society - is radically different because it starts from the Seed, not from outward gestures; nor does it use sweeteners, to conceal the intimate clash.
It is not 'new' as the latest of wiles or inventions to be set up.... But because it supplants the whole world of one-sided artifices.
In this way: souls must take the pace of things, to grasp the very rhythm of God, who wisely creates.
Events regenerate spontaneously, outside and even within us; it is useless to force them.
The growth and destination remains and will become magnificent, even through the mockery and constraints set up against it - by the most blatant and insincere exhibitionists, or by those who seem close.
Surrendering, giving in, laying down the armour, will make room for new joys.
Fighting the 'allergists' confuses the soul: it is precisely the stumbling on the intended path that opens and ignites the vital space - normally too narrow, suffocated by obligations.
In the Tao Tê Ching we read: 'If you want to obtain something, you must first allow it to be given to others'.
The blossoming will follow the natural nature of the children: it will be without any effort or recitation of volitional, overburdened holiness (sympathetic or otherwise).
Subtle awareness and Perfection that distinguishes the authentic new man in the Spirit from the barker who ignores the things of the Father and seeks laboured shortcuts, passing favours and 'bribes' in order to immediately settle his affairs with God and neighbour.
Love the enemy who [draws us out and] makes us Perfect:
If others are not as we dreamed, it is fortunate: the doors slammed in our faces and their stinging are preparing other joys for us.
The adventure of extreme Faith is for a Beauty that wounds and an abnormal, prominent Happiness.
Here, only those who know how to wait find their Way.
To internalise and live the message:
What awareness or purpose do you set yourself in engaging time, perception, listening, kindness?
To appear different from your nature, to please others? To make yourself accepted?
Or be perfectly yourself, and wait for the developments that are brewing?
