Mt 10, 26-33
“As for you… do not be afraid”
As José E. Ruiz de Galarreta says in his commentary, today’s text reflects an old mentality of Israel, according to which the calamities of life are evil and God spares them from the just, and fortunate events are good and God sends them as a reward for their justice. Today we are proud to have overcome this mentality, but we have only gone halfway because we continue to consider “good” what brings us satisfaction, and “evil” what causes us pain or bitterness.
The interpretation of good and evil proposed by the gospel is different. In the gospel, good is identified with what helps us walk toward our destiny, and evil with what moves us to live settled in this world, forgetting that this life is provisional. And it is that the gospel is conceived from transcendence; from the premise that human life goes beyond what is seen; that there is more and something more important; and that what is seen is the path and seed for what is not seen…
And this is a message that can make us reflect to see to what extent we have assumed the criteria of the world and lost the sense of transcendence; to what extent we have forgotten that the success or failure of our actions cannot be referred only to this life, but to all of life; that before and after death; or to what extent we scorn the references the gospel makes to life beyond death because they seem to us outdated and out of place in our time.
But what exactly is our destiny?… We do not know; and we do not know because we have not been told. The image of the “hereafter,” with wonderful rewards for the just and horrible punishments for the wicked, does not follow from a correct reading of the evangelical texts, and is losing force. But having overcome the traditional image, we have tried to fill the void by resorting to others (all respectable and all gratuitous) that root themselves mainly in oriental metaphysics.
And this can be positive if it helps us to walk, but it has a risk: confusing what is an “image” born of our “imagination,” with reality, and insisting on persuading others that our version of what we are and what happens after death is the true one… and that theirs is false… But they are neither true nor false, they are all legitimate beliefs that do not affect the evangelical essence.
We began by quoting Ruiz de Galarreta and we will end with another of his quotes: “I have no idea what awaits me after death, but I hope my Mother has something wonderful prepared for me.”
Miguel Ángel Munárriz Casajús
To read an article by José E. Galarreta on a similar topic, click here