Faith's Victory Over Power's Logic

Julián Carrón - Every man who desires to live authentically in his daily situations knows this decision isn’t a private affair. He quickly realizes that living openly involves risks. These risks are those to which the righteous man mentioned in the first reading reveals himself: “We tend snares to the righteous man, who is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us with faults against the law.”

Although no one holds anything against others, a life lived in authenticity is perceived by others as a rebuke: “he is inconvenient to us,” and, living as he lives, “he rebukes us.”

And the hostility of those who feel rebuked is unleashed: “Let us test him with violence and torment, that we may know his meekness and test his spirit of forbearance.”

Then, we can see if the God he relies on “will come to his aid and deliver him from the hands of his adversaries.” Jesus challenges the mindset of his adversaries, agreeing to surrender himself freely to show that his Father will come to help. “For he taught his disciples and said to them, ‘The Son of Man is delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; but once he is killed,after three days he will rise again.’”

The resurrection will show everyone that God comes to his aid not because it delivers him from death or suffering but because it does so much more: It resurrects him. Victory over death is the great defeat of his adversaries.

But the disciples “did not understand these words and were afraid to question him.” What did they not understand? It wasn’t the first time they didn’t understand. Just before, “As they came down from the mountain [of Transfiguration], he commanded them not to tell what they had seen until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.”

And they asked, ‘‘What does it mean to rise from the dead?’” (Mark 9:9-10). Confirmation that the disciples didn’t understand is evident from what they were concerned about: “They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, ‘What were you discussing on the road?’ And they kept silent. For on the road, they had been discussing among themselves who was greater.”

When Jesus doesn’t know if God will raise him from the dead, the disciples keep thinking like the human way of power. Jesus’ rebuke to Peter after the first announcement of the passion hadn’t been enough: “Get behind me, Satan! For you do not think according to God, but according to men.”

They continued to put their hope in being greater and in the first place. What initiative does Jesus take on his own to make himself understood simply by the disciples? He takes the most frail and helpless being there is, a child. “And taking a little child, he placed him in their midst, and embracing him, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one of these children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me, but him who sent me.’”

St. Matthew’s version of the Gospel explains well why Jesus chose the child to demonstrate who is greater. When they ask him, “Who then is greater in the kingdom of heaven?” "Jesus called to Himself a little child, placed him in their midst, and said, ”Truly I see, unless you are converted and become like children, you won’t enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever will make himself small like this child, this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever will receive one child like this in my name, he receives me.’” (Mt 18:1-5).

So, what enables us to become like Jesus—which is what we desire in our daily lives—free from seeking first place or depending on success?

We can be free from pandering to human logic, from succumbing to it, if we welcome Jesus as a child. For whoever “welcomes me, [Jesus says] not only welcomes me, but welcomes the One who sent me.” He who welcomes Jesus as a child’s easy-to-be-like Him welcomes Him who sent Him, His Father.

Only those who accept, like children, being introduced to Jesus's relationship with His Father will be able to free themselves from the dullness of putting their consistency and hope in something as flimsy as human strategies of power.

Those who are free from such strategies can respond with their lives to the challenge to which their adversaries will subject them: “Let us test him to know whether God will come to his aid and deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.” Jesus’ freedom shows how close he is to the Father. He trusts him completely and accepts that he’ll become helpless as a child, be made the least of all, and serve all.

Thus, those who today in the reality of life, in the circumstances of living, in the everyday circumstances of living, witness to this freedom from the logic of power do so not because of their strength or consistency -- as if there is a need for a superhero -- but because they accept Jesus as a child and allow themselves to be introduced to their relationship with the Father.

“This is the victory that overcomes the world: our faith. ‘This is how we can contribute in this situation in which so many times the world finds itself because, as St. James the Apostle told us, ’Where there’s jealousy and a spirit of contention, there’s disorder and all kinds of bad deeds.

Instead, the wisdom that comes from above is pure, peaceful, meek, yielding, full of mercy and good fruits.

Those who do works of peace are sown in peace, a fruit of righteousness. “We create peace where we are by not using ‌power logic. But it is difficult for the disciples to accept a logic that seems like a failure! Only those who believe and feel Christ’s fullness can be so free to make a contribution that makes peace.
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