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Master·evangeli.net

Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
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Gospel text (Mt 12:14-21): The Pharisees went out and took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place... This was to fulfill what had been spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight; I shall place my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not contend or cry out... And in his name the Gentiles will hope.”

Jesus, "God’s Servant"

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today, the evangelist drives our attention to another "title" that portrays Jesus’ attitude: "God’s Servant". In the Old Testament, and together with the hope of salvation, the perspective of the "Servant of God", who suffers for everyone, of a Messiah that redeems us through despise and suffering, excels prophetically.

To serve is Jesus’ true way to rule and it lets us guess to a certain extent how God is Lord of all: in His passion and death, Jesus Christ’s life appears as "living for others". Jesus Christ washed the Apostles’ feet: in this gesture of meekness —where the wholeness of His service is synthesized— the Lord appears before us as He who has become a servant for us, who takes upon Him our burden and thus, gives us the true purity and the capacity of getting closer to God.

—O Jesus, through your mortification and humiliation until the Cross, I discover the glory (the greatness) of God.