We do not know

16 DECEMBER (Mt 21,23-27)

Intelligence, wisdom, skills and supernatural light to read and interpret the life of Jesus Christ is a present gift of the Almighty Lord of history, of all history. If the Lord, for a mysterious reason known to him alone, deprives man of so great a gift, the deprived of the gift of God walks wrapped in thick darkness. He is a poor and miserable blind, a deaf and a dumb man who can neither see, hear, nor report the wonders of the Lord. When a man reaches the sin of pride, her heart is closed to all divine grace and his mind staggers in the darkness of the web of human thoughts. The light of the spirit is obscured and it is darkness without end.

Be irresolute, stupefied; blind yourselves and stay blind! Be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from strong drink! For the Lord has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes (the prophets) and covered your heads (the seers). For you the revelation of all this has become like the words of a sealed scroll. When it is handed to one who can read, with the request, “Read this,” he replies, “I cannot; it is sealed.” When it is handed to one who cannot read, with the request, “Read this,” he replies, “I cannot read.” The Lord said: Since this people draws near with words only and honors me with their lips alone, though their hearts are far from me, And their reverence for me has become routine observance of the precepts of men, Therefore I will again deal with this people in surprising and wondrous fashion: The wisdom of its wise men shall perish and the understanding of its prudent men be hid. Woe to those who would hide their plans too deep for the Lord! Who work in the dark, saying, “Who sees us, or who knows us?” Your perversity is as though the potter were taken to be the clay: As though what is made should say of its maker, “He made me not!” Or the vessel should say of the potter, “He does not understand.” But a very little while, and Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard, and the orchard be regarded as a forest! On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book; And out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see. The lowly will ever find joy in the Lord, and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the tyrant will be no more and the arrogant will have gone; All who are alert to do evil will be cut off, those whose mere word condemns a man, Who ensnare his defender at the gate, and leave the just man with an empty claim. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of the house of Jacob, who redeemed Abraham: Now Jacob shall have nothing to be ashamed of, nor shall his face grow pale. When his children see the work of my hands in his midst, They shall keep my name holy; they shall reverence the Holy One of Jacob, and be in awe of the God of Israel. Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding, and those who find fault shall receive instruction (Is 29,9-24).

At the time of Jesus, the Pharisees and scribes lived with pride, religious arrogance, conceit, envy, jealousy and every other vice. Their hearts were very similar to a jug without water full of mud and sand. God cannot pour into these hearts his wisdom, his strength and his light and they come to declare themselves incompetent, unable to discern, not fit in the works of the Lord. They define themselves blind, alone. They say to Jesus that are devoid of any discernment in the wisdom and truth. They reveal themselves masters of nothing, since they do not know whether a man is from God or from himself, from heaven or from the earth and preaches God or preaches the earth.

When he had come into the temple area, the chief priests and the elders of the people approached him as he was teaching and said, “By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?” Jesus said to them in reply, “I shall ask you one question, and if you answer it for me, then I shall tell you by what authority I do these things. Where was John’s baptism from? Was it of heavenly or of human origin?” They discussed this among themselves and said, “If we say ‘Of heavenly origin,’ he will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we fear the crowd, for they all regard John as a prophet.” So they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.” He himself said to them, “Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.

But it is always this way. That is how one lets his heart be overcome by sin, instantly it obscures the light of truth in his mind. It is no longer the wisdom of the Holy Spirit the one to illuminate his thoughts; one the contrary, it is the darkness of evil that obscures it and makes it useless for the good and valid, instead for the evil. Sin and light are mutually exclusive.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints preserve us from all sin.