MISA DEL ESPÍRITU SANTO

FRIARS OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS
GENERAL CHAPTER OF PROVINCIALS
Bogotá – 2007

MASS OF THE JULY 24
By
Fr. Benedikt Robert Hajas, O.P.
Provincial Prior
Province of Slovakia

Jesus shows us, through the questions made by His close friends, His relationship with His disciples. "Behold my mother and my brethren" He loves each one of them just like He loves His mother and cousins; He considers them like His brothers and friends. "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord Doeth…" Saint John says.

Becoming a disciple means to have an objective in life. It is a movement that goes from one life to another. There is a beginning and a road to follow marked by a radical change of life led to there.

This radical change is translated in a total abandonment, and also in a received reward once the end of the journey has been reached. "And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." The Disciples reach their objective by the abandonment of their past.

What constitutes a link between the Gospel and today’s first reading is exactly this idea of the abandonment of the past in order to have a promise of life. The Israelites leave Egypt to go to the promise offered by the Lord. Their departure leaves after them dead people. So they can be free, there should be the destruction of what has oppressed them.

Origins, explains in a comment, that the dead left behind the Israelites when they crossed the sea represent in fact some things about ourselves. Our capabilities of which we feel proud, the qualities and forces of which we are proud that stop our advance along the way. In the Psalm we read that to conquer "the horse is not but an illusion and all its strength does not allow it to escape. But the Lord looks after those who fear him and those who believe in His fidelity".

This perspective is observed fully in the condition of disciple, called by Jesus to follow Him. The condition of disciple obliges to abandon the past. If we remain attached to our free will, if we do not we get rid of our selfishness that means that we have not begun yet… It is necessary that everything is covered by the sea behind us. To the contrary, once we are on the road, Jesus assures us that He is with us. Then, we are for Him, His mother, and His brothers; He considers us His friends.

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