Decisive Encounters. Roberto Badenas

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Invariably, many young people quickly lose their most legitimate ambitions, as it pertains to the sphere of study, work or personal success as well as to the spiritual realm of ideals and values.24 In all areas of existence, the prevailing inertia is to be content with mediocre results or to justify them.25 Not committing, not daring to try anything new because of convenience, because of fear of exerting effort or fear of ridicule, acquiescing to the “push and pull” between improvisation and despondency, when so many could attain a highly motivating reality with a bit of effort and more will.

That’s where Jesus sets Himself apart from other Teachers.26 It is true that He preaches a simple and modest lifestyle, but He arouses noble aspirations and teaches a profound philosophy of existence. He radiates “a hidden power, which cannot be wholly concealed.”27 Even His enemies must confess that “No one ever spoke the way this man does.” 28

      If there is something that is made clear to his followers, it is his desire that they achieve excellence:

What do you do that is extraordinary? — He will ask his disciples demonstrating that He does not settle for little. He even dares to encourage them to be “perfect,” that is, to develop the innumerable possibilities pulsing in their beings!29

      This is how He transforms their lives, demonstrating that they are capable, and what they can become if they let in the power of divine grace.

      Since the start of his ministry, the Teacher calls young and even younger people to turn their ordinary lives into extraordinary lives. To change that mediocre existence of which they do not feel satisfied, for something grand, noble and beautiful. By calling them to follow Him, He invites them to enroll in a mission committed, consecrated to a great cause. His calling removes them from their routine reality and casts them to a fabulous, risky, intense, difficult, even heroic adventure in which there is no room for either meaninglessness or superficiality.

Those who follow Jesus soon stop being ordinary citizens. His example stirs in the depths of their beings the answer to the call from the ideal, and, in that way, those young people will soon be willing to continue the impassioned journey initiated by Him.30 By giving meaning to their existence, Jesus gives their ordinary lives an extraordinary dimension.

The Teacher senses that His ministry on this earth may be very brief. For that reason, He experiences it in such an intense way. After having spent His youth as a carpenter31 building homes to dwell in, plows to cultivate the land and yokes to share the loads, He now has set His mind, as an educator, on building a more inhabitable world, devising new tools to cultivate hearts, and searching for more united ways of sharing human hardships.

Since not entirely pleased about the manner in which the majority of people live their spirituality in the religious community they were born into, He decides, rather than abandoning it, as most who are dissatisfied do, to do something infinitely better, but much easier, in other words, gradually build together with His followers a new community, which he decides to call His “church.”32

      The representatives of the clergy and the leaders of the country mutter:

      Do not listen to him. This carpenter is not qualified. He is an ignorant megalomaniac.

      He does not know what he does.

      But He does not become disheartened for He knows that, when someone decides to do something important, He must face the opposition of those who would have wanted to do the same—but do not venture to take the risks—with the criticism of those in support of something different, and above all, with the resistance of those who never do anything.

      At the beginning, He relies on nothing more than His own support and already has close to 30 followers. But the passion of those first disciples won over for His cause is so infectious that they themselves gradually extend the invitation to others.

      When He decides to start building the community of believers with which He dreams, the Teacher makes it very clear that He does not want to establish a religion, but a school. He already has a true religion: it is the one God has revealed. Now He wants to teach for the purpose of putting it into practice. The essence of his doctrine can be formulated in a pair of sentences:

A pure and unblemished religion in the eyes of God consists of tending to the needy in their straits and not allowing itself to be contaminated by the world.33 Or, said in a different way: being a good believer consists of living in communion with God, and in treating fellow man with the empathy and solidarity with which one would like to be treated in his circumstances.34

To Him, spirituality and education have a common objective: to teach to think, to teach to be, to teach to live and, consequently, to teach to coexist; that is, to teach to love.35

This courageous reformer has many innovative ideas and very few prejudices. For that reason He accepts in His team young and old, learned and ignorant, men and women,36 something completely unheard of in that world, because He also accepts them without any prior training. And He does everything independent of the most-established religious institutions of their time, that is, outside of the temple and of the synagogue. He knows that “the special truths for this time are found, not with ecclesiastical authorities, but with men and women who are not too learned or too wise to believe the word of God.”37

      His great topics are life itself, courageous truth, sincere love, true freedom, real happiness; thus, His focus is formation of character. He tells His disciples that, if they are unhappy with the society they live in and want to change it, they must begin by allowing themselves to be transformed. Only in doing so can they convince others, providing them better reasons to live and a higher scale of values. To this effect, He asks them for reflection, discipline of body and mind, eagerness to work, joy in sharing, the desire to carry out responsibilities and respect for others.

He teaches them not to confuse humility with fear, or contentment with laziness.38 That is to say, to recognize their limits; yet, without refusing to use their capabilities, allowing themselves to be guided by God to make them perform to their highest ability.

Being able to be content with few material goods does not mean to not have great plans and noble ambitions, or to accept with excuses what is inexcusable, or to confuse spontaneity with superficiality. God has for each an ideal of progress and excellence. Hence His endeavor to spur the utmost use of the possibilities without falling into an inferiority complex, nor giving in to vanity or arrogance.39

The young Teacher knows how to encourage, excite, tactfully correct, motivate to desire to give their best, and He does so with patience, firmness and affection. By means of constant analogies, stories and images, and above all, through His example, He teaches His disciples to understand the Scriptures, to interpret reality, to listen to nature and to learn from experiences, to not fear death and to take existence seriously; to pray intelligently and to fill their daily activities with spiritual strength; to live in solidarity, to exercise forgiveness; to be willing to suffer before causing others to suffer and to undergo evil before causing it.40 In a word, to live entirely positive lives, which will turn their surroundings into a better world.41

In a short time the common lives of John and Andrew, of Simon, of Philip and Nathanael, by reflecting that of the Teacher,42 will gradually turn exceptional. They need only follow Him and continue moving forward with Him on that steep and narrow but thrilling path, which goes from the lowest lands of their human mediocrity to the highest peaks of the divine realm.

And they will follow Him so closely that the members of His group will be known by their environment as “those of the Way.”43

      1 . John 1:43-44.

      2 . Augusto СКАЧАТЬ