The kingdom of heaven suffers violence

THURSDAY 12 DECEMBER (Mt 11,11-15)

Jesus says that “the kingdom of heaven undergoes violence and the violent seize it”. Of course it is primarily about violence against our flesh, our body that will have to predispose itself to be crucified with Christ. Jesus exercises this violence in a very unique way in the Garden of Gethsemane, when during his prayer his sweat turned into drops of blood: “Then going out he went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. When he arrived at the place he said to them, “Pray that you may not undergo the test.” After withdrawing about a stone’s throw from them and kneeling, he prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done.” (And to strengthen him an angel from heaven appeared to him. He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground.) When he rose from prayer and returned to his disciples, he found them sleeping from grief. He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not undergo the test” ” (Lk 22,39-46). It is the violence of prayer. For it the Father is asked to submit our flesh to the Holy Spirit.

It is also the violence to remain on the cross, without letting ourselves be tempted to descend from it. For this violence Jesus is annihilated in his divine nature and person, according to the great teaching left us by Saint Paul: “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work. Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world, as you hold on to the word of life, so that my boast for the day of Christ may be that I did not run in vain or labor in vain” (Phil 2,5-16). It is the violence of perseverance. Many are the ones that get lost for lack of perseverance.

Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force. All the prophets and the law prophesied up to the time of John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, the one who is to come. Whoever has ears ought to hear.

Today the disciple of Jesus lives totally separate from the Evangelical Dictate. For him the Word of his Master no longer exists. He thinks and acts as if Jesus had never spoken and not even the heavenly Father had ever revealed his will to obey his Word, his Law and his Voice. If the Gospel is no longer the way to go, the Law to be observed and the Word to obey in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, there is no need, either for the violence of prayer or for the violence of perseverance. What good is it to be violent to stay on the narrow way that leads to eternal life, if Paradise is given to all, according to the new Gospel that the Christian wrote today for himself and for others? What is the use of being violent in the mission in order to make Christ Jesus be known, if every path is good to enter the kingdom of heaven? One heresy is enough, one mistake is enough for all Revelation, Tradition and the Magisterium to be declared a thing of the past. Now is the time when the whole past of religion and of the Christian faith is considered dead.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, free the people of God from this great, infinite foolishness.