Au In the beginning was the Word
 

1.- After the exile (year 520), almost in coincidence with Haggai´s first prophecy, God´s word is addressed to Zechariah in the following terms: Yahweh was very angry with your ancestors, Therefore, tell the people: Return to me and I will return to you (Zec 1,2-3). It is a denunciation of the national and religious past. The people that think of himself that he is believer, at last, he is pagan. A national confession (Ps 106) is required. The name Zechariah means: The Lord remembers.

2.- Twenty years has gone away from the end of the exile, but where is the announced and expected future? The Persian empire enjoys peace and nothing seems to bring a change to bring independence and freedom. Zerubbabel (Babel’s sprout), Judah´s governor, is a descendent from David, but and empire´s satrap. Josiah, high priest, directs the religious business, but he does not possess the true priesthood dignity: his ropes are not clean. Nevertheless, the moment is decisive for the new believer community. The temple rebuilding is finished the year 515 (Ezra 6,15). But it is not important only the house, the pending renewal is important too.

Papa Luciani nella pupilla di Dio - Mario Massarin3.- Under this context, Zechariah receives eight visions that begin in February 519. It is necessary to interpret them and to discover what is their meaning today. In the first vision appear four horsemen. It appears by night. A man, who rides a red horse, is standing amidst the myrtle that grow in the ravine; behind it, there are red, sorrel and white horses (Zec 1,8). The horsemen run across the land and find peace (1,11). This calm disquiets the believer who expects the shock of new times (Hg 2,6). Due to this, the man who is standing amidst the myrtle raises to the Lord this prayer: Until when will you continue without being merciful to Jerusalem? (Zec 1,12; Ps 74 and 79). The Lord answers: I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion… and I am very angry with the nations that feel themselves safe (Zec 1, 14-15)

4.- In the second vision four horns appear, power symbols. They are bestial powers that assailed and dispersed the believer people. The oppression was total: No one dared to raise his head (Zec 2,4). The four blacksmiths are liberation forces that drove away the oppressor powers. The blacksmiths forged weapons. That was, perhaps, the reason why the king of Babylon carried with him many of them (2R 24,16). Where are the bestial forces today?. Where are the liberation forces?

5.- In the third vision appears a man with a measuring line in his hand. He is going to measure Jerusalem: to find out its width and its length. Jerusalem will be the open town, due to the crowd of men and cattle inside it. The believers are in God´s eye: Whoever touches you touches the apple of my eye (Zec 2,12). The perspective becomes universal. Many foreigners will join the Lord (2, 15). How do we handle the measuring line today?. With which indexes (qualitative and quantitative) do we measure the believer population?

6.- In the fourth vision appears the high priest. His clothes are not clean. They take out his dirty clothes, clothe him with rich garments and put a clean turban on his head (Zec 3,5). It is to say, the high priest recovers the true priesthood dignity. It is sung in the psalm 132: I will clothe her priests with glory… a son of yours will sit upon your throne. God will send seed upon your servant, who continues the promise made to David. He is the stone upon which the true temple is built (Ps 118). Its seven eyes symbolize God´s presence that sees everything. Is it necessary to recover today the true priesthood dignity? Where germinates the true hope? And also: Who underestimated the modest beginnings day? (Zec 4,10).

7.- In the fifth vision appears the candelabrum and the two olive trees. The candelabrum of the seven lamps is the symbol of the living God´s presence. The seven lamps are Lord´s eyes that run over the land. The two olive trees are the two anointed who stand near the Lord (Zec 4,14; Ps 52), the two chiefs, civilian and religious. Like olive trees, they deliver blessing oil for his people. In the Revelation, two are the witness who prophesize and they are assassinated. Killing them, they think that they take them away, but they do not count on their new presence, resuscitated: they live despite their death (Rev 11,3-13). Where do we find today God´s living presence?

8.- In the sixth vision appears a flying scroll. It is enormous. It is thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide. The temple´s vestibule fronting can be covered by it (1R 6,3). God´s word becomes judgment, punishment and curse. He will enter the thief´s house and in that of the one who swears falsely (Zec 5,3), to execute on them the written sentence (Ps 149). Do we see any flying scroll over the face of the earth?

9.- In the seventh vision appears a woman inside the bushel. The lead cover was lifted and there sitting inside was a woman. It is the wickedness, the guilt of the people throughout the land (Zec 5,7). She was thrust inside the bushel closing it with the lead cover. The cup is drained. Two women, with wings like those of a stork, lifted the bushel into the air, between heaven and earth, and take it to Babylon. They will place it on a base in the wickedness temple. (Zec 5,11). In the Revelation the woman is the prostitute with whom the kings of the earth fornicate. (Rev 17,1-2), the great city sovereign of the world, Rome (Rev 17, 18). In which city is the wickedness temple to day?

10.- In the eighth vision appear four chariots that come out from between two mountains of bronze. Red, black, white and dapple gray horses draw the chariots. The red horses come out towards the north; the white go behind them and the dapple-gray go out to the south (Zec 6, 8). In the Revelation they are terrible whips destroying the earth: bestial powers, wars, famine, pestilence and deaths (Rev 6,1-8). They are a signal that this world does not walk all right, that it is unstable, that it is falling down. Where do we perceive those whips to day?

11.- A special fast remembered Jerusalem and temple destruction in the year 587. Seventy years later, in November 518, the people ask themselves: once the reconstruction is in course, should we continue fasting? (Zec 7,3). Lord´s answer means a denunciation over the national and religious past: When you mourned, was really for me that you fasted? (Zec 7,5)  The true fast is this: Render true judgment, be kind and merciful to each other. Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the alien or the poor; do not plot evil in your heart against one another (Zec 7, 9-10). What do we have to fast for?

12.- The faith experience transmitted by the community has before it a future without limits. In those days, ten men from all nations languages will grasp a believer by the fringe of the cloak saying: We, too, want to go with you for we have heard that God is with you. (Zec 8,23). Do we shelter to day to those who are searching? Do we perceive the fecundity of the faith experience? Which communities deliver it?

13.- Chapters 9-14 are considered collections of diverse origin. Nevertheless, important passages are accomplished in the final step of Jesus life: the entrance in Jerusalem (Zec 9,9-10; Mt 21,5; Jn 12,5), the expulsion of the merchant from the temple (Zec 14,21; M6 21,12; Jn 12,5), Judas treason for thirty coins (Zec 11,12 foll.; Mt 27,9 foll.), the mourn for that who was pierced (Zec 12,10; Mt 24,30; Jn 19,38), that saying “I will wound the shepherd and the lambs will disperse” (Zec 13,7;Mt 26,31; Mk 14,27).

14.- Eighth of December 2005. Forty years after the end of the second Vatican Council. The great event of the twentieth century had two great objectives, that – in a large percentage- still are pending  true achievement and effective accomplishment. The Council wanted the church renovation, following the first Christian community model (Acts 2,42-47; LG 13; DV 10; John the XXIII, 13-11-1960). The Council wanted the reconstruction of the unity between the Christians (UR 1). If it is desired to be serious with these great council objectives, every church (ours too) must have the courage to review their own tradition under God´s word light, under Gospel´s light. In this line, a new council is necessary, a recouncil making possible the pending reconciliation

15.- For Spain, the Council means the liberation from the national and religious past, named national-Catholicism (1936-1976). Spanish bishops resisted to accept the council Declaration over the religious freedom (DH), which directly incised on the dictatorship juridical ordaining. The transition was made under reconciliation basis (1978), favoured by the renovator bishops. The indicators of that moment brought this fact: many are the baptized, few the evangelised. Spain is also a Mission country (1979). The 17th march 2006, Europe´s Council approves the proposal to condemn “the grave and multiple violations of human rights committed in Spain by the Franquista regime between 1939 y 1975” and proposes to the spanish Government to start an investigation national commission to establish “the truth upon the repression”.

 

* What does the pending renovation mean to day?

-                     To denounce the national and religious past

-                     To denounce the terrible whips destroying the earth

-                     To recuperate the true priesthood dignity

-                     To transmit the faith experience, to create living communities

-                     To revise the own tradition in God´s word light, in Gospel´s light.