Jesus teaches His disciples to live exactly what He Himself lived. May each one be able to fulfill in their own life only what Jesus fulfilled in His.

 

Jesus teaches His disciples to live exactly what He Himself lived. May each one be able to fulfill in their own life only what Jesus fulfilled in His. Everyone should be, before God and men, only and exclusively what Jesus was. In truth, Jesus is the model of a perfect man, because He is the New Man, loved by the Father. He is the Father's mercy acting in history, He is the highest expression of love, the GIFT of God for the salvation of the world. This is how Luke wants to show Jesus, not using terms like justice and perfection, typical of Matthew 5:48, but using terms that directly express God's goodness towards humanity.

2. The challenge for the disciples is precisely this: to be like the Master in divine realities. The truth is that everyone is called to these realities. Humanity exists for God, for eternal communion, for divinization. This is not a dream, an idea, but a reality, a project of the Father, who will realize it through His Son, in the Holy Spirit. When the disciples chose Jesus, the Son of God, they placed themselves at the disposal of this divinization, which demands the renunciation of self, in order to embrace the things that are from Above, such as Mercy, which is God’s own, and unconditional love. To be a disciple, a person needs to conform himself or herself more and more to the Master, to Jesus, the Beloved Son; to allow himself or herself to be molded in the image of God. 3. In the order of today’s text, Jesus, speaking to those who listen to Him, that is, to His disciples, asks only the following: that they love their enemies; do good to those who hate them; bless those who curse them; pray for those who slander them; turn the other cheek when slapped (do good when you receive evil); offer your tunic to those who stole your cloak (reach the maximum you can in kindness, because in this way you put a stop to the sequence of evil); be able to give to whoever asks you; Do not ask for the return of what was taken from you; have a heart turned towards those who live in misery and know that you will be measured with the same measure used to measure others. In other words, what Jesus commands, in relation to others, concerns a form of the Ten Commandments: 1. Love your enemies; 2. Bless those who curse; 3. Pray for those who slander; 4. Do good; 5. Lend without expecting anything in return; 6. Be merciful; 7. Do not judge; 8. Do not condemn; 9. Forgive; and 10. Give of what is yours and, as Jesus did, give of yourself for the good of those in need. 4. Jesus demands that His disciples neither have nor develop any form of evil within themselves or in their actions. To be a disciple, one needs the maximum possible perfection that a human being can achieve. By acting in this way, the continuity of evil is eliminated and a new reality is built according to the will of God. Hence the requirement that His disciples love their enemies, do good, lend without expecting anything in return. What do they gain from this? What will be the reward? Jesus categorically states: “… you will be children of the Most High, …”. Becoming a child of God means participating in His life, being divinized, entering into eternal communion and being a reflection of God Himself. By acting in this way, they will overcome the natural man and become the spiritual man desired by God. 5. As children, because of the Son Jesus Christ, disciples must be true gifts to their brothers and to humanity. How? In what way? Luke, in verses 36-38, gives the following answer: be merciful, as the Father is merciful; judge no one, so as not to be judged; condemn not, so as not to be condemned; forgive, so as to be forgiven; and give, so as to receive. In other words, Jesus wants his disciples to be only kind to everyone and to be, for everyone, the visible expression of God's love. This is the measure of the disciples and may it also be ours.