Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Episode 20 - Gospel
Today's word is Gospel.
Gospel, yes.
It is a word that we use very often, but it is not a book.
No, it also means a book, but we take it with the meaning of Matthew 4:23 which is used in
today's liturgy: "Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues,
proclaiming the good news of the kingdom".
Gospel, in some Bibles is also translated with Evangelo.
Evangelo. Euangelion. In fact we use a Greek word which means good new.
Yes.
Good new. But obviously good new is intended with a strong meaning. Good new,
the only good new is the new of salvation.
Certainly.
So today's liturgy uses, I mean, the Gospel of today utilizes the word Gospel to indicate
what is the radical good new, the fact that, that salvation becomes manifest,
that salvation is there. The people that lived in darkness, says the
Gospel quoting the prophet, saw a great light for those who lived in the region of the shade
of death, a light arose. So it is a salvation, a point of reference we could say.
Yes.
And the salvation consists in the fact that the Kingdom of Heavens is close. The Gospel
of the kingdom is what is being announced by Jesus who travels across Galilee and teaches in the synagogues.
Right, then, somebody could say, well, the Gospel had been announced this way but then
it wasn't fulfilled, I mean, how did it become true? Because then it didn't change much.
No, I mean, wait a minute, the kingdom doesn't have to be accomplished, it doesn't say that it has to be accomplished,
it says that it is already. The Kingdom of Heavens is close, I mean, is not close meaning that it gets closer.
Yes.
But, so it is not there yet, but..
Later it arrives.
Later it arrives, isn't it? But it is close in the meaning that it is close, the way I am close to you, namely,
now it is a fact that I am close to you and you are close to me. So, the Kingdom of Heavens is close,
what does it actually announce? It announces that Jesus is close, that to be close to the
Kingdom of Heavens is nothing more than to be close to Jesus, to his person. And why does this Kingdom
of Heavens manifests in being close? Because Jesus heals every kind of disease
and of infirmity in the people, exactly the way that the prophet had announced.
In another text it is said that the blind see,
The crippled jump,
The crippled jump, etc etc. So the Kingdom of Heavens is close, means that Jesus is
close. We could say that the Kingdom of Heavens is Jesus. And this is the good new. So
it is not an intellectual content.
Yes.
Isn't it? Ah, you know, the stocks went up.
Yes yes.
Ah, very good, you have given me a good new, isn't it?
Yes yes.
Or, Tizio has found a girlfriend. Poor him! Ah, this is a good new, what a good
new.
For us it is like that, that is..
And so, instead, the good new is a fact, is a happening, is the fact that the Christ is
present. The fact that in Christ.. In Christ it is present, the whole truth of history becomes
present, the whole fullness of the history of God with man.
To accept the Gospel does not mean to change life towards.. Now I do better because
there is a new order to follow, but now I do better because there is somebody to meet.
Exactly. In fact we use another word which may be the case to recover, the word
conversion. Maybe we had already talked about it.
Yes, yes yes.
But here it is useful to recover it because in fact Jesus says: "Convert because the
Kingdom of Heavens is close". So to convert has rather the meaning of look,
be careful, convert..
Turn the eye, basically.
Metanoeite, in Greek. Namely, watch out, be careful to this thing, so
not really : "Oh, God, we are unfit, we are impure", etc etc, but: "Ah, there is something",
the Kingdom of Heavens is close, it is necessary to convert, namely to look.
is, to look straight into this fact, this event. So the Gospel is the presence of the person
of Jesus towards which we look, which we consider, whose presence is a marvel, and
above all we look at it. Later there will also be some consequences of a moral kind, but the
irst attitude in front of the presence of Jesus is that of an admired stupor in front of
the Kingdom of Heavens which is coming closer and this is the good new.