Mons. Enrique Díaz Díaz shares with the readers of Exaudi his reflection on the Gospel of this Sunday, January 21, 2024, entitled: “Discover us, Lord, your ways”
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Jonah 3, 1-5.10: “The inhabitants of Nineveh repented of their bad behavior”
Psalm 24: “Reveal to us, Lord, your ways”
I Corinthians 7, 29-31: “This world that we see is temporary”
Saint Mark 1, 14-20: “Convert and believe in the Gospel”
“Remain in my Word” These are the words with which Pope Francis highlights, this year, the importance of the Word of God and insists that this third Sunday of ordinary time should lead us to an interior reflection on the value of the Gospel that transforms and gives life. Today we celebrate “Word Sunday” in a special way.
How many times do we think that changing the exterior has changed the interior? Makeup on the face, artificial implantation of limbs, additions and hairpieces transform the person’s external appearance, but they only hide the inside. Despite being in a time of change and a change of era, man remains tied to his old schemes and enslaved by his old chains. We are very given to changing appearances, but we leave the heart submerged in its same darkness. To this man, bound to his slavery, today the greatest announcement of all time is offered. With a few words, Saint Mark immerses us in a profound transformation and an unprecedented change: “The time has come and the Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the Gospel.” Three or four words that contain within themselves an entire dynamic of the true salvation that is now offered to man. Without many explanations, like a solemn proclamation, we are presented with the announcement made in Galilee. Thus, far from structures and commitments, the “Good News”, the “Gospel”, is proclaimed, which announces the decisive intervention of God in the history of man and which comes to change and transform all expectations into a reality. The central theme of this gospel is that the Kingdom of God is near. The deadlines have been met, and men are required to respond to this great gift: conversion and faith. The Kingdom of God is the synthesis of Jesus’ preaching and the central theme of his message, the center of his activity, his words and his deeds. The Kingdom of God is present in Jesus himself, in the forgiveness he offers to sinners, in the expulsion of demons, in the healing of the sick, in the liberation of the marginalized. Christ himself is a new answer to man’s questions.
But as we approach this Kingdom, we will have to shed many of our ties that would lead us to seek a kingdom in our style and our way. It is not a kingdom that identifies itself with any political program, nor with economic systems or new ideologies. Thus, we would once again fall into superficial and accommodating traits. Christ comes to offer, by offering Himself, a new conception of man by seeing him so close to God the Father; to make him feel that God shares his story; to break the borders of the people and to open the light of his love to all nations; and to locate true happiness not in things but in the heart of the person. We will find a radical change when we discover the new filial communion with God and fraternal solidarity with men, which will lead us to a transformation of humanity governed from now on by truth, by justice, by freedom and life, by holiness, peace and love to all, especially to the last and excluded who are the ones who need it most. It is the beautiful dream of a new heaven and a new earth that the prophets longed for, and that Jesus brings to a plenitude far beyond dreams.
Being a gift that Jesus comes to offer us, man will not reach the Kingdom without his own commitment and without an interior change. At the same time that the proximity of the Kingdom is proclaimed, conversion and faith are proposed to us as the paths to reach this Kingdom. Conversion means a change of mentality, a transmutation of values, a new birth through the presence of the Spirit. It is the passage from darkness to light. It is not the change with new promises that are never fulfilled, it is not the external change of colors and shapes, it is the internal change that will lead us to a new vision. It is leaving the old man and becoming a new man. They are not easy resolutions, but true inner transformation. Letting ourselves be touched by Jesus fundamentally changes our entire life. And this change is noticeable by the new attitude in the family, in groups and in society. It is a lie that we change if we continue living with corruption and infidelity, our repentance is not true if we become complicit in injustice. This transformation is the great gift that Jesus gives us, but it requires human effort. Repentance requires leaving that comfortable and indifferent modus vivendi, to set ourselves on fire with the fire of Jesus’ love and take it to all our corners. It is setting fire to light and hope every moment of our existence. Repent and believe involves the double dynamic of emptying oneself and letting oneself be filled with God. It is not the denial of man, it is the denial of his selfishness and the affirmation of his true dignity as a child of God.
Today, we open our hearts to the joyful cry with which Jesus begins his preaching, and we allow ourselves to be filled with his words. We want true change, although this means tearing and destroying the corruption that is at our side, but we will not remain empty, we will be filled with his light and his hope, we will strengthen our faith by listening to his words and feeling his presence. What is there in my heart that I must change because it distances me from the Kingdom? What scourges do I discover in my society that are not in accordance with the Kingdom preached by Jesus? How do I manifest my faith and my hope in this world so full of doubts and corruption? Sunday of the Word, Sunday of remaining in Christ, Sunday of conversion.
Father God, good Father, grant us to feel the urgency to convert to you and adhere to your Gospel, so that we become apostles and witnesses of your Son Jesus. Amen.
