Life is worthy of wonder. It’s as simple as that. So beautiful. It is not an object of consumption, nor something prepared; it is Life. Every life asks to be looked at closely, lifted up when it is humbled, encouraged when it pales. The lives of family members are never owned, dominated, or taken away and put away as an object. Life is a miracle. Life asks for a space of silence to enter, through amazement, into the heart. Jesus called himself LIFE.
A biblical icon: Ex 2, 1-10
An icon that becomes a reality every day in every family. Three women agree to give air to life. Life, always concrete, is a Hebrew child in danger. For the powerful in power, it has no value. Disappear! After all, what difference does the life of a child make? But there is one woman who looks at the child’s life with amazement. She is the child’s mother. He sees so much beauty in that bud that begins, that it breaks his soul if that life is destroyed and hidden in oblivion. Day after day he contemplates, silently, trembling before Pharaoh, life so beautiful. There is another woman, with a very deep compassion, who raises life, about to sink in the drowning waters. His heart has gone out of him after what his eyes have seen. She is the daughter of Pharaoh. Fortunately, it’s not all hardened hearts. There is a third woman, barely a child, who turns her love of life into daring to go to and fro. He mobilizes people, seeks means with the art of his innocence, so that life does not perish. She is the child’s sister. She is a mediator in favor of life. Between three women, they managed to give the child a name and a future: Moses, the one saved from the waters. God has a memory of life. There are people who do not want the sound of life to cease to be heard; they join hands in favor of life.
This is how Jesus cares for life. This is how he is amazed. Thus setting it on the way to generate more life.
Jesus looks and teaches how to look (cf. Mk 12:41ff).
Look at life with attention. Before the small and the little ones, tenderness springs up. He shudders at gestures of love, however small they may be. The gesture of a widow, who gives what she has, fills him with joy. Fragile life guides his compassion. It looks at the insignificant and lifts it up so that nothing is lost. He exposes himself to be looked at in his annihilation for love.
Jesus hears and teaches how to hear (cf. Mk 10:46ff). Jesus has an open ear to hear life. His word in the face of everything closed is “Ephpheta, open up”. He is disarmed by what he doesn’t want to hear. He calls those who listen “happy”. Blessed are those who tell each other life with love! He pauses to listen to the shrieking cry of a blind beggar. He listens to it. He calls it. It offers you possibilities. Thus begins a dialogue between friends.
Jesus shares and teaches to share (cf. Mk 6:33ff). Jesus is pained by the hunger of the people. His friends don’t know how to feed so many people. A child steps forward in his naivety and offers what he has. “What is this to so many?” they murmur beside him. But Jesus distributes and even surpluses. The little, shared, is a party.
Jesus accompanies and teaches how to accompany us (cf. Lk 24:13-35). They have lost track of joy. Hope has been hidden from them. There are only complaints, laments, disenchantment. And Jesus approaches, pilgrim. And it begins to work with the poor. “Stay with us,” they tell him in the afternoon. And Jesus gives them his love with full hands. And, filled with inner joy, they return to the community in a different way, to tell the things of the Friend.
- With Jesus, each family can stop placing itself before life as something already known and possessed and place itself before life as one who is amazed.
- In the style of Jesus, every family can pass:
- From life unattended, to life looked at.
- From life enclosed, to life that opens up to listen.
- From life just for me, to life contemplated.
- From life lived alone, to life lived in company.