The Servant of God

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,

and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

for I am gentle and humble in heart;

and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Mt 11:28-30).

Is there any magic word that would sum up these two magnificent frescos? Love? In any case, hidden and palpating, here lies the living mystery of the Poor One from Nazareth: the way leading from poverty to love. And with this, have we not touched the deepest profundities of Jesus?

Everything begins with a “poor and humble heart.” Jesus had a secret song that played in his heart like a background melody and which resounded incessantly like a cantus firmus.

He who has nothing and wants to have nothing may fear nothing. He had a clear idea of his vocation, as though he had fixed in his mind his own image that corresponded to the figure and destiny of a person, not necessarily historical, but an image which he had contemplated and assumed from the days of his youth: the figure and destiny of the Ebed-Yahweh, the humble servant of Yahweh.

If the prophet does not begin to detach himself, to divest himself of material objects, that is, to become poor, he cannot serve anyone. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? Some poor, free, available servant who has travelled the pathway from poverty to love.

Extracted from the book "The Poor one of Nazareth", by Father Ignacio Larrañaga.