Au In the beginning was the Word
 

1.-     Paul knows it by experience: that who has met Christ is like if he were born again, a new creature, a new man (2 Co 5,17), he is in a new life (Rom 6,14). In some sense, in the encounter with Christ he has been created again. The depth of this relationship is expressed as follows: It is me who lives, but it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me! (Gal 2,20).

2.-     The discovery of this event places Paul out of himself, it demolishes his old centres of interest, it inverts his hierarchy of values, it changes the cementation of his world: All those things that I might have considered as profit, I reckoned as loss compared with the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake I have let everything fall away and I now consider all as garbage, if instead I may gain Christ. May I be found in him, without merit or holiness of my own for having fulfilled the Law, but with the holiness which comes through faith in Christ, the holiness given by God which depends on faith in Christ Jesus (Phil 3, 7-9).

3.-     Jesus in his  message on the mountain proclaims the new man’s justice, the God’s kingdom justice. The beatitudes are not wisdom maxims, but a call to conversion to the Gospel: when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, he sat and his disciples gathered around him (Mt 5, 1-2). First thing that calls our attention is that Jesus Gospel, proclaimed in the mountain, is not for a few, but for the crowd that could transform it. In a special way, the message is for the Christian community, who in this Magna Charta finds their own identity. And it also is for the world, that – with that salt – needs to be preserved from the corruption and – with that light – needs to be liberated from the obscurity (5, 13-16).

4.-           Fortunate, lucky, happy… In this manner, up to nine times. The true happiness is not found by the ways of the power, the money and the strength, but through service, generosity, renounce to the power, tameness, pardon, peace, fight for the Gospel, Jesus cause (Mt 5, 3-12). Happiness is a formal promise of the Gospel. The expression  fortunate, lucky not only contains a promise, but also congratulation. Jesus announces the arrival of the Kingdom of God among congratulations, luckiness, and beatitude. It would be a contradiction to announce the Good News immerse in sadness. The kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. The man who finds it buries it again and so happy is he that he goes and sells everything he has, so that he may buy that field (Mt 13, 44).

5.-     To go, to sell, to buy is due to the merriness to have discovered God’s action in our own life. This merriness backs every decision and also every renunciation. It blossoms among the insults and the persecutions and it becomes uncountable when the disciple experiments the power that the Good News announces. Above all the true motive of the merriness is this: Your names are written in heaven (Lk 10, 20).

6.-     Jesus word, promising the beatitude, is not only the announcement of a consolation for the other life: it also means that the Kingdom of God comes to us. All the Beatitudes are oriented towards the imminent Kingdom of God. God is with those who need Him. He will console them, will satisfy them, will have mercy of them, will call them his children, will give them the earth as heritage, will manifest them his face. The Beatitudes are not only the proclamation of an exigency, but, above all, they are the announcement of a gift.

7.-     The Beatitudes moral is situated in this context, the new man’s moral, which is born from God’s Word and lives according to it. The Decalogue is not abolished, but taken to its plenitude (Mt 5,17): Do not think that I have come to remove the Law and the Prophets. I have not come to remove but to fulfil it  (Mt 5, 17). The Gospel is perceived like dangerous, subversive. It is suspected that Jesus comes to destroy the Law and the Prophets, the very foundation of Israel’s social and religious identity. Jesus must defend himself from it. His Gospel does not suppose the destruction of the Law and the Prophets, but its surmount and its deepest accomplishment. It happens so when he proclaims the superiority of man over the Saturday (Mk 2, 23-27), the heart’s fidelity (Mt 5, 27- 28), the fraternal sincerity (Mt 5, 33 – 37), the love to the enemy (Mt 5, 38 – 48).

8.-     Jesus Gospel presents an ideal greater than the one in the Old Testament. It goes farther away that the Law and the Prophets. It is God’s Law prolongation taken to its last consequences. It is the perfection and the accomplishment of the Law. The Gospel style is this: You have heard that it was said…. but I tell you… When listening Jesus program, the crowd was amazed (Mt 7,28). To day the amazement continues. Certainly, there is no greater ideal. It answers to the man’s deepest aspirations and his greedy thirst of dignity, peace and justice. The Gospel is the Good News. Besides, its accomplishment is announced like a grace to those who, by themselves, cannot accomplish even the Law. With its accomplishment, merriness, peace and beatitude blossoms in their heart.

9.-     Talking about the Decalogue, the Gospel’s moral ideal, proclaimed in the Sermon of the Mount, is presented like a not only… but… The Decalogue moral ideal not only is accomplished to the last I  (Mt 5,18), but it is even overcome. In the sermon of the mount, Jesus proclaims in a global form, the Christian existence orientation, configured by God’s gift and man’s conversion to the Gospel’s justice, a justice that overcomes that of the scribes and Pharisees (5,20), of the publicans and gentiles (5,46-47), a justice similar to that of the celestial Father (5,45- 48), the Justice of the kingdom of God.

-        Not only you will not have other gods before me (Dt 5,7), but also you will set your heart first on the kingdom and justice of God (Mt 6,33)

-        Not only you will not take the name of Yahweh, your God, in vain (Dt 5,11), but also you will not take an oath for any promise (Mt 5, 33-34)

-        Not only you will keep holy the Sabbath day (Dt 5, 12-15), but you will be fed by the bread of life (Jn 35-51)

-        Not only you will honour your father and your mother (Dt 5,16), but those who listen the Word of God will be your family (Mk 3, 31-35)

-        Not only you will not kill (Dt 5,17), but also you will love your enemy (Mt 5, 43-46)

-        Not only you will not commit adultery (Dt 5, 18), nor will desire the wife of your neighbour (Dt 5,21), but also you will be faithful with all your heart (Mt 5,27-30)

-        Not only you will not steal (Dt 5, 19), nor will you covet your neighbour possessions (Dt 5, 21), but also you will share your wealth (Lk 19, 8-10)

-        Not only you will not give false testimony against your neighbour (Dt 5, 20), but also you will excuse and forgive (Mt 18, 21-22).

10.-   It is important. The evangelisation process is developed in a fighting field, and, so, of temptation. The spiritual combat is as brutal as the human war, said about his conversion Paul Claudel. Conversion marks the jump from a world to another, from a way of life to another, from a scale of values to another, from a false god to the living God of Jesus Christ. The conversion asks, so, a strong renouncement (at the end, to everything) and offers a total liberation. All of which is not carried out without fights and resistance. Like Jesus says, the cross marks the frontier from a situation to another: If you want to follow me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me (Mk 8,34). To evangelise means a process of overcoming the resistance. Or, what is the same, it means to cast out the demons (Mk 1,39).

11.-   The conversion to the Gospel is inserted in a process. It is a follow up (Mt 4, 18-32; Mk 1, 16-20; Lk 5,1-11). The initial conversion is the answer given to the first evangelisation. The fundamental conversion is the fruit of the catechumenal process. The second Vatican Council says: This step, that includes a progressive change of feelings and costumes, should manifest itself with its entire social consequences and it should develop step by step in the catechumenal process (AG 13). Permanent conversion is proper of the believer, who – regardless everything- must request forgiveness everyday (Mt 6, 12).

12.-   You must be born again from above, says Jesus to Nicodemus (Jn 3,7). This radical change is also expressed in other forms, like a step from the thirstiness to the water of life (Jn 4), from blindness to light (Jn 9); from death to life (Jn 11)