Jesus: Close to the People
Pope Francis
God wanted us to be like His Son and His Son to be like us. Today’s Gospel recounts the genealogy of Jesus. There are saints and sinners too on this list, but history continues because God has willed that all men be free. And even if it is true that when man misused his freedom, God drove him out of Paradise, He also made a promise, so man left Paradise with hope. A sinner… but with hope. Mankind did not make this journey alone: God walks with us. Because God chose an option: he opted for time, not for the moment. He is the God of time, He is the God of history, He is the God who walks with His children. Until the fullness of time when His Son becomes man. God walks with the righteous and the sinners. He walks with everyone, to arrive at that encounter, the final encounter of man with Him….
He is the Lord who walks … and He is the Lord of patience. The patience of God. The patience he has had with all these generations. With all these people who have lived their story of grace and sin, God is patient. God walks with us, because He wants us all to come to be conformed to the image of His Son. And from the hour that He gave us the freedom in creation – not independence – until today, He continues to walk with us….
These are things of love! Love does not consider whether someone has an ugly face or a beautiful face: it loves! And Jesus does the same: He loves and chooses with love. He chooses all. In His list, no one is ‘important’ – in inverted commas – according to the criteria of the world: it is the common people. But there is one thing, yes, one thing to emphasize about all of them: they are sinners. Jesus has chosen sinners. He chooses sinners. And this is the accusation made by the doctors of the law, the scribes: ‘This man goes to eat with sinners, he talks to prostitutes…’ Jesus calls everyone! Let us call to mind the parable of the wedding of the son. When those who were invited did not come, what did the master of the house do? The Gospel says he told his servants: ‘Go out and bring everyone to the house, good and bad.’ Jesus has chosen everyone. Jesus even chose Judas Iscariot who became the traitor … the greatest sinner toward Him. But he was chosen by Jesus….
Then there was the third moment: ‘Jesus near to the people.’ They came in great multitudes to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases…. Everyone in the crowd sought to touch Him because power came forth from Him and healed them all. Jesus is in the midst of His people: He is not a professor, a teacher, a mystic who is far from the people and speaks from the professor’s chair [Italian: cattedra]. No! He is in the midst of the people, He lets them touch Him, He lets them ask of Him. That’s Jesus: close to the people. And this nearness is not something new for Him. He emphasizes it in His way of acting, but it is something that comes out of God’s first choice of His people. God says to His people, ‘Consider: What people has a God as close as I am to you?’ God’s closeness to His people is the closeness of Jesus amid the crowds.
This is our Master, this is our Lord. One who prays, one who chooses the people, and one who is not ashamed to be close to the people. And this gives us confidence in Him. Let us trust in Him because He prays, because He has chosen us, and because He is close to us.
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