Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand

1 Jn 3,22-4,6; Ps 2; Mt 4,12-17.23-25
7 JANUARY
The conversion is to dispose the body, soul, spirit, will, desires, feelings, thoughts and the whole current condition, even the religious one lived so far, so that we can enter the kingdom of God that comes, rather that has already come. With Christ Jesus, conversion has a very special, particular and unique meaning. We must also leave the faith that has sustained life so far, founded essentially on the Commandments and the Precepts and Statutes of the Father, because He came to fulfil all the Law and all the Prophets. In a simple word: for Jesus conversion is acceptance in the heart of his Word, of his Covenant, of his Law, of his Grace and of his Truth. The sons of Abraham must leave Moses and rely totally on his Word. We know that when Jesus asked for conversion to his Body to be eaten and his Blood to be drunk, the Jews told him that his speech was hard. They left him. They went away.

I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” The Jews quarrelled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.” As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him (Jn 6,48-66).

Faced with the de-Christianization of the world, can the Christian cancel conversion and faith in the Gospel in order to have some more followers? It is useless to have followers to make of them some sons of Gehenna worse than us. Conversion must be to the Gospel as it came from the heart of Christ, knowing that it is a light and gentle weight. With the grace of Christ, in the Holy Spirit, we can live the Gospel of Christ.

When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen.” From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues,  proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people. His fame spread to all of Syria, and they brought to him all who were sick with various diseases and racked with pain, those who were possessed, lunatics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan followed him.

If the ministers of the Word do not ask for conversion to the Gospel, the celebration of the sacraments is useless and vain. You make a child of God so that he lives as a true child of God and receives the Eucharist to be crucified charity of Jesus. You become crucified charity by living obedience to the Gospel until death on the cross. The sacraments cannot be celebrated as a service to darkness. They are a most pure service to light.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, do not allow the sacraments to be celebrated in vain.