VATICAN - Ave Maria : Mgr. Luciano Alimandi -
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - It would be splendid if our "I" were immersed in God and speeding towards Him, as its sole Beginning, the Source of Life, spontaneously, without resistance, in an impetus of eternal communion. In the beginning, before the fall, this was so, but then no more. Because of sin which entered the world when "I" rebelled against God, we are no longer immersed in Him the Eternal One, we are prisoners of self, our selfishness which, beginning with Adam and Eva, with original sin, is now a tyrant over
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every man on the face of the earth.
Terrible is the tyranny of "selfishness", relentless, it always finds something new on which to feed: dreams of greatness, illusions, presumption, plans, desires, initiatives… Such "ego", since it tends not to the Transcendent but to the immanent, not to the Definitive but instead to the transitory, wanting to prevail over everything and everyone, even over God!
To admit the tremendous dictatorship of selfishness is a most difficult task, and still more difficult is to want to be truly free of it. Only God can help us, since man, every man, is unable to save himself from his passions.
We could apply to this arduous liberation, the inspired words of the psalmist: " if Yahweh had not been on our side when people attacked us, they would have swallowed us alive in the heat of their anger. Then water was washing us away, a torrent running right over us; running right over us then were turbulent waters. Blessed be Yahweh for not letting us fall a prey to their teeth! We escaped like a bird from the fowlers' net. The net was broken and we escaped; our help is in the name of Yahweh, who made heaven and earth. " (Sal 123, 1-8).
Without the salvific grace of Jesus, received with faith, there is no way to break the chains which hold us prisoner, vain are our attempts to escape the control of passions, simply because we are our own prison warder.
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"Look, I am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to share a meal at that person's side" (Rev. 3, 20). Only these words of Jesus found in the Book of Revelation, can save us: Jesus is outside our prison, He is the only one with the divine power to set us free. All we need do is to want to be free! He knocks, He wants our cooperation to free us, to lead us out of the labyrinth we have built putting barriers between us and God, between us and others, between us and self. Only this "exodus" can restore our original innocence, our freedom as children of God. The "Way" to going out of ourselves has only one name: Jesus!
From the beginning the Church has announced this Jesus: "This is the stone which you, the builders, rejected but which has become the cornerstone. Only in him is there salvation; for of all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved.' ". (Acts 4, 11-12). The Church believes that Jesus alone is the way which leads man to the lost Paradise. Before taking this way we wander in life's thousands of deserts and cannot help losing ourselves.
This is why Jesus came one earth and stayed on earth, first of all through the Sacrament of his Love: the Most Holy Eucharist which nourishes the life of the Church and of every believing soul. "I am with you until the end of time" (Mt 28, 20). The Lord is with us as broken bread and wine poured out, which become his Body and Blood in every Holy Mass. If we wish to be His disciples we must imitate Him. We too must become broken bread. In Italian there is a saying to express generosity: to cut oneself in four to help others! "Cutting oneself in four" is only possible if we accept the Gospel logic of "breaking oneself". If we want refuse to renounce self, we refuse the logic of the Eucharist, where 'transformation' demands 'breaking'. If I wish to let Christ transform me I must give myself wholly to him, making an offering of my whole life, as St Paul writes: "I urge you, then, brothers, remembering the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, dedicated and acceptable to God; that is the kind of worship for you, as sensible people. " (Rom 12, 1).
If we refuse to offer ourselves, if we let only Jesus "break himself and pour out himself", if we expect others to make sacrifices, our participation in Mass will always be incomplete and the words of the Lord will apply to us: "these people honour me with their lips but their heart is far from me" (Mt 15, 8).
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The more selfish we are the further our heart is from God. The more we refuse to 'break our bread' the more we wander from the infinite Love of God. God never leaves man - since His faithfulness is eternal! -, it is man with his selfishness, his crazy whims, who wanders away from God, like an insane fragment which flies away from Everything preferring the nothing of self and the world!
To stop this insane flight of man, a prisoner of his senses and passions, Jesus presents himself still today at the door of our heart like a Beggar, like a "poor Christ" burdened with the Cross, who 'breaks his bread' for us. Before this "Man" - "Behold the Man" (Jn 19, 5)! – we need only trust in his Word, and the insane flight towards "nothing" will stop because in Him we find "Everything". The drop will at last reach the Ocean and one gesture will suffice to change our life for ever: to pour ourselves into Him!
(Agenzia Fides 17/6/2009; righe 69, parole 1.085)
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