Yeshua at banquets of the rich

Beloved Yeshua, sometimes you're seen at banquets where the rich invite personalities like you to impress them with their wealth and make them feel like they own the people. Accepting such invitations tarnishes your image as a man in solidarity with the poor and earns you the reputation of being a glutton, a drunkard, and a sycophant to those in power. (Matthew 11:19).

You attend these banquets, in part, because you and your companions could use a good meal every now and then. But you don’t go just for that. Above all, these banquets offer you a golden opportunity to present to those in power what matters most to you in the world. And what matters most to you is the Kingdom, that is, the kind of society that needs to emerge so that our world is no longer a hell for countless human beings.

"Sharing" is the master key that opens the door to the Kingdom. It is the word that best summarizes your Good News. Whoever thirsts for justice and freedom, for meaning and fulfillment, will find it in sharing. For sharing is a true miracle. It is the only miracle capable of lifting the world from its savage state and rescuing it from death.

Of all the miracles told in the Gospels, none surpasses that of the boy who, having only five loaves and two fish, shares them with you and a crowd of hungry people. By sharing, that child feeds 5,000 men (not counting the women and children, because they don't matter, naturally…), and not only does everyone eat their fill, but there are also baskets full of leftovers to feed the rest of the world.

In this way, my formidable Yeshua, the "mystery of faith" sung at Masses ceases to be mysterious. This spectacular miracle embodies your entire life. In it also shines the supreme synthesis of your Great Good News for the universe.

It seems unbelievable, but only this miracle of sharing everything in Justice and Brotherhood can lead us to achieve the impossible. Only this miracle can knock down the mountains of iniquity that crush billions of people on our planet. Only it can finally break the chains of all forms of slavery. Only it can lead us from death to life.

If it weren’t for the accursed “Dinosaurs,” sharing would be a normal and accepted practice in the world. But these Jurassic creatures in human form, who monopolize the lands, resources, and wealth of the world, making them their private property, are the ones blocking everything. They are the ones preventing life from flowing. Their power to obstruct is enormous.

The worst part is that all of us, even the saintliest, have a dinosaur inside. Because hoarding things to make ourselves stronger, more powerful, and better able to dominate others is something instinctive, embedded in our genes. It's part of our ancient identity, rooted in our animal origins. Only sharing can free us from that beast.

It seems, Yeshua, that you have nothing against private property. On the contrary, your desire is for each person to have their own small private property, their share of the Earth's wealth, so that we can all live with dignity, freedom, justice, and peace. (Acts 2:44-47; 4:32-35). Is that too much to ask?

The first Christians embarked on the simple and grand adventure of sharing their goods according to each person's needs. But the dinosaurs didn’t like it. They unleashed their fury on the community, persecuting it and scattering it, utterly disrupting its promising project. The desolation lasted for a long time, but centuries later, the same dream resurfaced. It inspired the creation of countless monastic communities across the Middle East and Europe. These communities shared everything in common and dedicated themselves to the rescue of captives and the pacification of peoples, tribes, and ethnic groups that had been at war for ages. They were the driving force behind Western civilization and development.

From the same evangelical ideal, thousands of religious orders of men and women emerged, and to this day, they continue to serve others in the least privileged and most remote regions of the world, speaking countless languages and engaging in sometimes unimaginable areas of human life. What has been built throughout history with charity and even genuine heroism, drawn directly from the Gospel, is immense.

The most luminous of all this, however, has also had its dark side. There were deviations, gross mistakes, irreparable betrayals, monumental scandals, and abuses committed in the name of a Gospel that was never, is not, and will never be that of the Crucified One of Calvary. Much tares were sown among the wheat, stifling the good grain, but even so, the authentic and selfless love of hundreds of thousands of people who today remain silent, do not defend themselves, and endure and suffer, remains the heart of a humanity that, despite everything, will not die and will one day flourish again.

As far as we are from achieving even a fraction of the great utopia of Universal Sharing, that utopia remains and will always be a guiding light to inspire, drive, and show us the way...

Sharing the same table creates bonds of friendship and solidarity. This is why the banquet has become a strong sign of identity for Christians. In the Catholic sphere, we call it “Mass,” which, before it became a paid sacrificial ritual to deliver “little souls” from purgatory, was simply a pause on the journey of life, a simple meal shared in groups to renew everyone's strength and move forward.

But over time, this meal of the Mass has become spiritualized and turned into a complex ritual that hardly resembles a meal. The bread barely resembles bread anymore, and the wine is so rationed that it's hardly noticeable. Moreover, everything is prepared in advance according to rules so full of details that one would have to be a seer to detect any truly spontaneous and authentic sharing. Despite the lights, priestly vestments, hymns, bells, organ music, and the abundance of flowers, the atmosphere of those Masses, except in small circles, is not very festive. We barely approach one another; we speak very little, we hardly look at each other, and we laugh even less. Spontaneous joy, emotions, and connections are left at the door of the church or chapel to be picked up again upon leaving. Like in a cemetery...

Considering the still limited level of human evolution, Universal Sharing is far out of our reach. However, by always keeping it as a project, at least in our dreams, and by sincerely valuing that sharing which, at all levels, is already happening in the world (in the emotional, intellectual, scientific, artistic, spiritual, and ordinary aspects of life), it is certain that the culture of Sharing will eventually establish itself as a force as natural and vital as food, water, air, and sunlight. It almost already is, though much remains to be done.

We are great, yet at the same time, we are very little. The most certain thing is that we have not yet finished being born. Made of light and clay, what often prevails in us is the clay and the darkness. However, we are not discouraged, for you, Yeshua, warn us that it is precisely in the clay, in the darkness and the smallness, that the Kingdom germinates. Hence the intuition that in simple sharing, perhaps, and why not, we could find the deeper meaning of our lives… that is, the “pearl of great price” that a merchant suddenly discovered among mountains of trinkets at a flea market (Matthew 13:31-32 and 45-46).

Be that as it may, dear Yeshua, it is by dining with the rich in passing that you tarnished your reputation as a holy man. But thanks to this scandal, you have inscribed for eternity on the world’s menu of life your incredible Good News of Universal Sharing. A heavy menu, to be sure, for all the dinosaurs of the world’s banks, but highly recommended to fill the mouths of all the starving souls of the rest of humanity. Let your Kingdom come!