And worrying about numbers

(Lk 14:25-33)

In his commentary on the Tao Tê Ching (vii) Master Ho-shang Kung writes: "The saint is devoid of self-interest and does not care to give himself importance: therefore he can realise his interest".

Jesus is worried about seeing "many crowds" around him [v.25 Greek text]: having so many admirers is a strange thing for one who proposes to involve himself and not give in to indifference.

Unusual that a proposal of total gift and risk of one's entire life (goods, relationships, prestige, hopes) can find oceanic consent.

Truly unusual, perhaps grotesque, that so many people wish to gamble everything, even their health, for an ideal that generally does not 'sell' much.

Those who make genuine choices know well that sequela Christi is not to take part in a triumphal procession.

Indeed, there are not a few who do not know 'where' it goes....

Not to seize power and share it - alongside the spoils - with friends in his circle!

At best, they have misunderstood him, imagining that they are able to sacralise a quiet and smooth experience - with Him on the bedside table.

That is, picturesque and brilliant in society - intimate inside (with Him in the little heart). All hoods that soften the overhangs of principle.

Jesus notices those who follow Him for induced reasons, almost like enthusiastic festivals, or even venal, opportunistic ones, and only want to share the spoils of the new King of the Holy City. 

He understands why he has so many crowds around him. They have not grasped that God is beyond their reach.

Even in our days, the many crowds that attend the appointments of the 'Church of events' - Pope Francis would say - amaze.

For this reason, Christ sends and makes verifications, challenges and continues to incite the crumbling of any reflexive, quietist, external, self-interested or facilitation illusion - which, however, aggregates.

The first disposition of mind that presses and stings is the integration of affections, even 'family' affections. Not to make us give up living.

They can detach us from the boundless demands of a relationship between people who share great ideals across borders.

The hindrance of old feelings and ties must indeed be relocated, acquiring a new light.

The goal is authentic celebration. Not the useful and immediate; not even the pious mortifications or the abstract perfectionism of those who chase after frantic and contrived acts of strength.

No one is so heroic that he can no longer think of himself and his own, but a perspective dimension takes over; as well as the experience of the Father, who provides for wiser turns.

All the logic of common sense and balance is enhanced, yet takes on another meaning. In view of a Love in which every other good acquires full value.

Even the attachment to one's own image and reputation: "to take up, lift up and carry the arm of the Cross" [v.27 sense of the Greek verb].

It was a time of utmost loneliness and perception of failure, personal, religious, social.

He who is agitated by the opinion-around him limits himself, does not initiate paths, does not rely on his own talents, nor does he discover them; he does not learn to take the pace of what is happening, nor does he subvert what is to be detested.

Paraphrasing the encyclical Fratelli Tutti (n.187, "The sacrifices of love") one could say that precisely "from there, the paths that open up are different from those of a soulless pragmatism".

It is not enough to accept the normal contrarieties.

Those who remain attached to the idol of quiet expectations, looks, cheering crowds and the (invigorating) opinion of others cannot be in the Christi sequel.

Lies, but precious ones at heart - inside out. Because this is not the enthusiasm we seek.

We experience it inside: the lust for prestige does not listen to authentic needs, does not reinvent the present.

Subjection to the fear of social scorn [this is the proposal of the Cross] does not build the breakthrough that belongs to us; it loses it.

Despite the hubbub of outward appearances, conformists and qualunquists do not discern the authentic Sacred in the judgement of the Gospels.

The Word of God does not declare certain faith "how much we need" or what we can "sell".

Traditional discipline and discernment - but also the great disembodied ideas of fashionable thinking - never want to make important what characterises the real woman and man.

According to current sophistication, they will first have to be content to be numbers, to follow custom, to adapt.

In this way, at first glance the critical witness might seem wrong or unequal: one would have to align oneself - are we not for an ecclesiology of communion?

But the very conviviality of differences, even within the same family, demands it.

What is valid is harmony that recovers the whole human being, including the opposite poles.

They complete us, and will have to come into play sooner or later; although they do not correspond to the fundamental trait of every character.

We see it: characters who, in order not to feel devalued and unappreciated, readjust to all seasons - but only to settle down.

They do not value their own energetic contradictions... with the sole purpose of living.

They think: when life seems to be stronger than us, we might as well get even - without ever attempting to objectify their own innermost, unprecedented, personal, disproportionate aspirations.

The appointment with the Unexpected does not settle for neat, contrived, or cerebral and schematic things, which dampen the potential for growth.

We are forced to put back into circulation forces, virtues, resources, even the sharpest, most eccentric and unpredictable ones - that we did not even think we had.

The contrast with the strong powers that demand the usual double-edged loyalty, and the aversion of the tenants of the papier-mâché castles, is simply to be reckoned with.

Power seeks useful idiots and servile office-bearers, not apostles who enjoy the varied expressions of life.

We belong to another planet: we are not interested in careers, management and consideration, but in the Calling by Name, which activates unknown capacities - those that multiply energies and set things in motion.

There is no better alternative path, to overcome even the global emergency, which grips life today and the world: it is asking us to regenerate, not to go back to the way it was.

Third "commitment" (v.33): excess goods are only for building Relationship. This is the threshold of Happiness: it makes one like God.

An absurd affair, but a source of unconditional joy, which brings us far more than emotion. So you have to open your eyes wide.

Because on a mission we do not live on adrenalin, but on convictions that reflect the intimate life and fullness of being - the heavenly condition.

We will no longer dream of changing smartphones, or the stripe or tear in our trousers, and still have fun: we will widen spaces, invent roads, plant a seed of an alternative society.

He who puts his face to it to make the world wise and transparent, even the ecclesiastical world, must however first meet and measure himself very very thoroughly, for he goes as if to war (vv.31-32).

This is also why one must learn to put a whole new mind into the game and not just combing parlor trinkets, as if caught up in the squalor of the chase - instead of the poignant and sacred goals.

There is no joking here: the gendarmes and the various established clans guarding their ancient or à la page are capable of all the worst there is, to continue to give themselves importance and occupy positions that matter, and yield.

One pays in person. One is rejected. But the Faith sustains: it believes that the Lord does not exercise abuse, nor does He want resigned followers around.

His Dream transcends common sense - to make us wince with an unexpected ‘pondus’ that we find free in our hearts.

In commentary on the Tao xxvi, Master Wang Pi writes: "To lose the foundation is to lose the person".

And Master Ho-shang Kung adds: "If the ruler is light and arrogant, he loses his ministers; if the ruler is light and licentious, he loses the essence.

Light-heartedness, externality and booty are puerile expectations.

Henceforth there is no more bargaining: this is the new Tower (vv.28-30) to be built.