Jesus the Great Troublemaker 2

The book presents, in the author’s usual lively style, how Jesus put the Beatitudes into practice, the synthesis of his Gospel, through the events, speeches, and all the references found in the Gospel - often overlooked in a quick reading or abstract catechesis - that reveal Jesus as a “man,” capable of showing us how the Creator wants us to live the life he gives us. Each chapter, except the first and the last, is divided into four parts. The first analyzes how Jesus lives that beatitude. The second asks how, where, and to what extent Christians live it and bear witness to it. The third encourages an examination of conscience to realize that Christian morality is not merely avoiding lies, swear words, blasphemy (“when necessary,” one of my parishioners used to say), losing one’s temper, or skipping Mass (the sins usually confessed), but behaving like Jesus in everyday life. The fourth is a prayer asking Jesus for the strength to live as he lived. The aim is to rediscover Jesus in his profound humanity and move from admiring his humanity to imitating it. Jesus, in fact, did not ask us to pray to him or worship him, but to follow him - that is, to live as he lived.