Reflection on Today’s Gospel - Lk 11:29-32
The Lord Jesus healed the blind, deaf, lepers and paralyzed, freed them from unclean spirits and performed various other miracles. So, what another sign was expected from Him by those who said, " Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." (cf. Mt 12:38) And why did this request so outrage the Lord Jesus?
Now, Jesus' teaching was one with the miracles he performed. It was also one with his love for the Father, with his prayer and with his concern for people. The Pharisees didn't care. His teaching irritated them and they were not going to listen to it. The fact that Jesus' teaching was powerful and overflowing with new miracles made them angry rather than listening to what He was saying to people.
Well, a person of bad will usually know that his will is bad, and at the same time he would like to convince himself and others that he is doing the right thing. This very mechanism worked in the Pharisees. Let Jesus show us such a sign that would really convince us, because we are not convinced by the fact that the blind can see, the paralyzed walk, the lepers are cleansed, or other miracles of Jesus.
This demand was doubly perverse. The Pharisees tried to order God what He should do so that they would be gracious to believe. Moreover, they demanded a miracle that would not be a miracle at the same time. After all, the very essence of an authentic miracle, a religious miracle, is that it is an integral part of God's teaching to man. A miracle separated from the religious message is no longer a miracle, but a juggling show.
Therefore, the Lord Jesus tells them: People, come to your senses! Begin at last to listen to the teaching that I brought you from my Father! After all, even the Ninevites heard the teaching of the prophet Jonah, and I am more than Jonah. After all, the queen of Sheba took a long and tiring journey to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and I am more than Solomon. Beloved people - this is the meaning of the words of the Lord Jesus - try to finally listen to my teaching.
By the way, how often happens to us - both of these perversities with which the Pharisees sinned. After all, we also try sometimes to order God and set conditions that He should fulfill, so that we would be gracious to believe in Him.
And how often there is a longing for miracles isolated from the teachings of the Gospel. And yet it would be enough to live the Gospel a little more seriously to see the miracles of reconciliation of the quarrelsome, the miracles of liberation from the paralysis of selfishness, and the miracle of growing interpersonal kindness.
One more thought
The sign of Jonah is a much deeper, much stronger sign than we can imagine. What is the resurrection? The resurrection is not just about God getting you out of the belly of a big fish. Resurrection is not resuscitation. Resurrection is entering into God's life, into God's thinking, into God's action. This is what Jonah has a lot of trouble with. We are not closing the case of Jonah. God converted Nineveh through his ministry, but did he reach Jonah himself?
What does it mean to be resurrected in Jesus Christ? It is about the quality of life, about the experience of that love, which is the essence of God's life, which is God's name, the content of God's life, the quality of God's life. It's not just about getting over the threshold. Resurrection, I repeat, is not resuscitation, it is not simple bringing back to life. Resurrection is entering into a life that is at the center of the life of God himself. We understand little of it, but God has revealed to us that the essence of His life is love that is sine modo, with no limits. Love which is a mercy that goes beyond any measure that we like to impose on this love. It's not just that God can lead you through the cross. The point is, He can lead you to a life that is His own, to that love that is called agape.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george