Purifying our soul to see Jesus





My soul is consumed and longs for the courts of the Lord, my heart leaps for joy for the living God, we read in the Entrance Antiphon of the Mass. And to enter God's dwelling place, it is necessary to have a clean and humble soul; to see Jesus, good dispositions are necessary. The Gospel of the Mass shows us this once again.

The Lord, after a time of preaching in the villages and towns of Galilee, returns to Nazareth, where he had grown up. There everyone knows him: he is the son of Joseph and Mary. On the Sabbath he attended the synagogue, as was his custom. Jesus stood up for the reading of the sacred text, and chose a messianic passage from the prophet Isaiah. St. Luke records the extraordinary expectation that was in the air: rolling up the book he gave it back to the minister, and sat down; all in the synagogue had their eyes fixed on him. They had heard marvels about Mary's son and expected to see more extraordinary things in Nazareth.

Yet, although at first they all testified in His favor, and marveled at the gracious words that proceeded from His lips, they have no faith. Jesus explains to them that God's plans are not based on reasons of homeland or kinship: it is not enough to have lived with him. A great faith is necessary.

He uses some examples from the Old Testament: There were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cured, but Naaman, the Syrian. The graces of Heaven are granted, without limitations on God's part, regardless of race - Naaman did not belong to the Jewish people -, age or social position. But Jesus did not find good dispositions in the listeners, in the land where He had been raised, and for this reason He did not perform any miracle there. Those people only saw in Him the son of Joseph, the one who made their tables and fixed their doors. Is this not the son of Joseph, they asked themselves. They could not see beyond that. They did not discover the Messiah who was visiting them.

We, to contemplate the Lord, must also purify our souls. "That Christ whom you see is not Jesus. -It is, in any case, the sad image that your cloudy eyes can form.... -Purify yourself. Clarify your gaze with humility and penance. Then... you will not lack the clean lights of Love. And you will have a perfect vision. Your image will truly be His: Him!".

Lent is a good occasion to intensify our love with works of penance that dispose the soul to receive the lights of God.


Hablar con Dios