21 MAY (Mk 9,30-37)

Man is sick of pride. Satan injected into his spirit this virus against which there are remedies from nature. This virus manifests itself immediately in Adam. The woman is for him an object of contempt, a thing to be used at his own will. This already happens with Lamech, the inventor of polygamy and revenge without limit. With Cain this virus becomes homicidal will. This is the virus that creates misery, death, destruction, wars, discriminations, xenophobia, blackmail, extermination of races, intestinal and fratricidal strife, oppression, extortion, all organized and not organized crime, religious wars, holy wars, terrorism, speculations and things like that. Every disturbance that occurs in the human community is the result of it.

It is no wonder at all that this virus also reigns in the first apostolic community. It is powerful even in their spirit. It has not yet been destroyed by the virtue of humility created by the Holy Spirit in their hearts. They are true sons of Adam, and as such they walk in his footsteps instead of those of the Lord Jesus. Neither could they, if they wanted to. Their spiritual generation will occur only after the passion, death, and glorious resurrection of Lord Jesus. It will be the fruit of the Holy Spirit poured out upon them by risen Jesus. This truth reveals us that where Jesus does not pour out the Holy Spirit, man is ruled by pride, which is the mother of all other vices.

On the contrary, Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit. His mystery is sinking in the greatest humility. He, the true Son of God, God in his Person and in his divine nature, must be delivered into the hands of men, and these will kill him. He will let himself be handed over and killed. Only after having lived all possible humility to a creature, He will be exalted by the Father with the glory of the resurrection. First comes the humility and then the glory. Before the lowering and only after the rising on the part of the Lord.

The disciples of Jesus wish they could abolish the way of humility. They wish they could be raised immediately. Everyone wishes he could be the greatest in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. In his kingdom one becomes great, by making himself small, occupying the last place, by becoming the servants of all. But how does one who has the virus of pride go about thinking according to this truth of Christ the Lord? The mind is sick. It raves. It suffers from acute excitement. In order to think otherwise it must be healed, be holy and brought back into God.

They left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it. He was teaching his disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him. They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they remained silent. They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Taking a child he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the one who sent me.”

Jesus cannot heal the mind and hearts of his disciples, yet. However, he can enlighten them. He can illuminate them with the light of his truth. He can teach them the way that tomorrow, once their mind is healed, they must travel through. If they want to be truly great before God and men, they must become little, like children. They must not think that the new world will be made by them. Instead, they must think that it is they who must let themselves be made entirely new by God.

The world does not change because we have the will to change others. This change has only one name: oppression, revolution, terrorism, war, genocide, and other things which a man must only be ashamed of doing or of having done. The world changes only if we let ourselves be made by God in the image of Christ, the Crucified.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us in this saint imagine.