(Female Creativity)

(Lk 4:38-44)

"The essential thing is to listen to what is rising from within. Our actions are often nothing more than imitation, hypothetical duty or misrepresentation of what a human being should be. But the only true certainty that touches our lives and our actions can only come from the springs that gush deep within ourselves. One is at home under heaven one is at home anywhere on this earth if one carries everything within oneself. I have often felt, and still feel, like a ship that has taken on board a precious cargo: the ropes are cut and now the ship goes, free to sail everywhere".

(Etty Hillesum, Diary)

"To the other cities also I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, for I was sent for this" (Lk 4:43).

Having left the place of worship, authentic disciples put themselves at the service of life, recovering people.

They put them back on their feet not out of paternalism of charity, but with dignity and respecting their inclinations; thus they become eager to transmit joy to others.

This is the new experience that we are called to offer also to women and men of a different cultural background and mentality from our own.

Peter's mother-in-law is probably emblematic of a community co-ordinator - of the House of Peter [perhaps drawn from an ancient heritage] - who, thanks to the decisive encounter, experienced healing and full rebirth, even to the service of others.

In the Semitic culture, at sunset and with the rising of the first star in the sky, a new day is born: here is a new Creation.

The marginalised humanity - previously forced only to lower itself, inert - is regenerated and starts to raise its head again and do good.

All those considered impure, unworthy and inadequate, who knew no recourse and at the mercy of public benevolence, are now touched by God. 

He does not stop at the hopes for redemption of the weightless.

A touch, that of the Lord and of those in the Church (or outside) who bear it - that absorbs presumed unworthiness and shortcomings.

A caress that makes one feel welcome and adequate, and reintegrates into social coexistence even those considered repulsive.

In the course of an initial approach to the Way in the Spirit it may happen that one confuses the Son of God [he who resembles God] with "the" Christ (v.41) expected: "that" Messiah whom everyone knew; the glorious avenger, who would bring victory, health, immediate opulence.

The leader who would skilfully set things right with peremptory acts of force - and subdue the peoples, abruptly granting the chosen race an easy golden age at the expense of others.

Not bad: he would be one to be held back without fail (v.42). Instead, the Master's insistence on the Mission of Announcement prevails, without which stereotypical ideas become fixed, humbling life.

God cares for everyone, even those who are distant and unconnected with Household interests - he is not someone one can take possession of.

Taking care of one's brothers personally is tiring; constantly moving beyond the borders of one's own sodality or environment, too.

But this reveals the wonderful presence of the Friend: situations are created, and everyone discovers unexpressed Pearls that recreate the existence of the world.

When, on the other hand, we think and stop at the results at hand, and do not keep the sense of Evangelisation alive, reality becomes swampy; the Spirit is not unleashed - the limit is chosen, and everything is dragged into indolence.

We would be content (flattering) with great normalised and confined gestures: lights, exaltations, reassuring formulas... but there would no longer be a new grain to be born each day.

To internalise and live the message:

Do you feel eclipsed in the proclamation and itinerancy, or vice versa empowered?

What gives you strength and puts you back on your feet, or seduces, bewitches, and blocks you?

The liberated mother-in-law and her (female) journey

A final note on Matthew's brushstroke on the story of Peter's mother-in-law, a 'woman' who rediscovers her unexpressed capacities through contact with the person of the Lord.

An icon of a mental model that is still narrow, that stifles the youth of being and doing.

Ancient figure, of a tradition (of inherited religiosity) that holds back the intimate resources of the people [in Hebrew Israèl is female].

A world of restraints that make one uncomfortable, because of stifled, compressed energies - before Christ disappeared. To the point of not realising they are still inside.

I imagine precisely that such an old woman who literally 'resurrects' can be reinterpreted with spiritual fruit, for the journey of us all.

The Lord frees; he heals "inflammations". He gives greater joy of life.

He imparts an elixir of youth - especially when we feel held as dependents or slaves, without space.

Stuck and rendered dumb by the transmitted culture or situation, not only of health."Now he rose from the synagogue and entered the house of Simon. Now Simon's mother-in-law was oppressed with a great fever, and they prayed to him for her, and bowing down over her he threatened the fever and left her. Now rising on the instant he served them" (vv.38-39).

There are revealing symptoms of discomfort: e.g. a life - even a spiritual one - that does not fit... because it denies abilities, constrains them, keeps them in a corner, does not allow them to be used.

To the point of no longer knowing what they are.

Here come symptoms that lie us down: anxious, mortifying, and feelings of constriction and dependence.

One would perhaps like to do something different, but then there are fears, tightness in the chest that close the horizon and make one tense, (even at that time) uncomfortable, stressed, blocked.

In the soul of the ancient people, talents disregarded, denied, unused had become hardships.

Now in Christ Present, the return to a fluid life, as well as care for oneself and others, becomes easy, even with minimal gestures.

Capacities that had made intimate appeal, surface, dilate even in favour of others.

Relieved, the 'mother-in-law' breathes and overcomes ageing.

Before, sadness perhaps appeared, because the desire for a new birth was stifled by the many chores to be done or other cravings (fevers) that plant us there and do not restart feelings.

We know, however, that life restarts the moment someone helps to heal the sharp actions ["hand" constricted: Mt 8:15; Mk 1:31] and widen our gaze towards what is conversely blossoming in us.

By shifting perception from what nags us (torments and hinders) to what arises more spontaneously and is finally and unexpectedly valued, the blocks of tender, fresh energy disappear.

Then the garb of the ancient role is laid aside and we no longer give up expressing ourselves.

Also - for us - without closing ourselves off in the usual environment and way of doing things, which intimately do not belong to us.

Whoever gives the other a proper space draws on the virtues of our inner, evergreen primordial states - and opens up those of all.

All for a growth that does not only correspond to a precipitous elevation, but rather to a better grounding in the being of people.

By hibernating the burden of duties or models that do not correspond to us, life is renewed.

We realise that we are as if inhabited by divine Gold that wants to surface and express itself with breadth, instead of remaining tense and controlled.

This is the healing action of Jesus, all at everyone's doorstep.

Power of the Word and healing creativity of Jesus, in the feminine 

(Lk 4:38-39)

In the communities of pagan extraction in Lk, one wondered: do the "Beatitudes" and "Alas for you" of the "plain"... create exclusions (cf. Lk 6:17, 20-26)?

Or do they correspond to the hopes and deep feelings of the human heart, of every place and time (e.g. Lk 7.9.13.28-29)?

Those far from religious Judaism possessed a keen intuition for the novelties of the Spirit, and discovered the experience of Faith from other positions [not installed, less tied to conformist concatenations; perhaps uncomfortable].

Those who possessed the freshness of substantive intuition saw clearly. They proposed healthy jolts of outspoken Trust, wedded to the Newness of God.

Unlike those from habitual or markedly ethnic religiosity (even of Israel) the newcomers sensed that it was not necessary to explicitly ask for Christ's intervention - as was the case with the ancient gods, according to customary thinking. 

It was enough to communicate face-to-face with the Lord, in a sense of secure friendship (Mt 8:2-7) - not to urge Him to perform miracles: a fundamental acquisition, in order to be able to activate a new course even today, and finally emerge from the idea of a well-chiselled, organic culture.

It is the Risen One who authentically does the opportune good... and all the rest: as in Jesus - strengthened by the intimate experience of the Father in the Spirit - all we need is Faith, that is to say, nuptial and fertile confidence in the Word, effective (Lk 4:39) and inventive.

There is no need for any additions to this secret, in order to be born again.

God is immediate Action already in his Voice that "threatens" evil (v.39): he does not like to be "prayed to and reprimanded" - as if he were any kind of sovereign, who delights in forcing his subjects into deference [with a view to a consequent paternalism of relationships].

The relationship between the common man-woman and the Father in Christ is sober and instantaneous, without any mediating means: the work of Grace is in no way conditioned by acknowledgements and formulas, or 'internal' titles, veteran rank; nor targeted bowing, prior 'bribes', or rigmarole.

Starting from his simple experience, the centurion of the parallel passage in Mt (8:5-17) understands the "distant" value of the Word and the calamitous effect of true Faith [which does not claim "contacts" or material and local elements: Mt 8:8-9].It is not like magic: the intimate sensitivity of the direct personal relationship communicates to the eye of the soul a Vision of new genesis. Not doctrine, discipline, morals, ritual appointments (Lk 4:38) and so on.

It is a strongly existential picture; engaging not for a selfish result: it is for the promotion of life, everywhere. This corresponds to the deepest yearning of our hearts.

In fact, another great novelty of the new Rabbi's proposal - which was spreading - was the acceptance of women as we would say today "deaconesses" [v.39 Greek verb] of the Church [here in the figure of the "House of Simon": v.38].

This was what had been happening since the middle of the first century (cf. Rom 16:1) and still has much to teach us. With God, one cannot get used to (multi)secular formalities emptied of life.

But religious traditions resisted the onslaught of the Faith-Love experience: even in the mid-1980s, even the communities of Lk did not feel free to gather those in need of care until the evening had come (v.40).    

According to the parallel passage in Mk 1.21.29-34 [source of the passage in Mt and Lk] it was in fact the Sabbath day (v.38) - and after leaving the synagogue. The same impediment and delay is described in the Magdalene's episode at the tomb on Easter morning.

The cultural heritage and sacred religious conformity remained a great burden for the experience of the personal Saviour Christ, and the complete discovery of the power of full Life contained in the new total and creative proposal of Happiness "on a plain place" [cf. Lk 6:17] for "a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem": the observant centre.

The Tao writes (xxviii):

"He who knows that he is male, and keeps himself female, is the strength of the world; being the strength of the world, virtue never separates itself from him, and he returns to being a child. He who knows himself to be white, and keeps himself dark, is the model of the world; being the model of the world, virtue never departs from him; and he returns to infinity. He who knows himself to be glorious, and maintains himself in ignominy, is the valley of the world; being the valley of the world, virtue always abides in him; and he returns to being crude [genuine, not artificial]. When that which is crude is cut off, then they make instruments of it; when the holy man uses it, then he makes them the first among ministers. For this the great government does no harm'.

Master Wang Pi comments thus:

"That of the male is here the category of those who precede, that of the female is the category of those who follow. He who knows that he is first in the world must put himself last: that is why the saint postpones his person and his person is premised. A gorge among the mountains does not seek out creatures, but these of themselves turn to it. The child does not avail itself of wisdom, but adapts itself to the wisdom of spontaneity'.

In the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas we read in Nos. 22-23:

"Jesus saw little ones taking milk.

And he said to his disciples:

"These little sucklings resemble those

Who are entering the Kingdom.

They asked him:

"If we are like those babies, will we enter the Kingdom?"

Jesus answered them:

"When you make two things one and make

The inner equal to the outer and the outer equal to the inner

And the superior equal to the inferior,

When you reduce the male and the female to one being

So that the male is not only male

And the female does not remain only female,

When you consider two eyes as a unit of eye

But one hand as a unit of hand

And one foot as a unit of foot,

A vital function in place of a vital function

Then you will find the entrance to the Kingdom'".

"Jesus said:

"I will choose you one from a thousand and two from ten thousand.

And these shall be found to be one individual'".