Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - Let us not deceive ourselves: the experience of the Lord Jesus in life, the delight of his peacemaking and healing presence must be taken seriously! To welcome Jesus means to make more and more room for Him in our life through true faith, which makes us not just partly, but truly and totally committed on the journey of personal conversion, in every walk of life. If commitment for conversion is only partial, this means that Jesus is not considered to be the Lord of life, but instead someone who deserves half, or part of our heart, but not the totality of our whole being.
Often our commitment to love and serve the Lord is limited and fragmented and, although we do not realise, this renders the wondrous exchange between his Holy Spirit and our spirit impossible, since we impede the continual and wonderful action of sanctifying grace, which does not allow sinful obstacles.
God wishes to transform our life, he wishes to irradiate with his Light and instead… “men have shown they prefer darkness to light because their deeds were evil” (Jn 3, 19). The Gospel clearly demonstrates that the only way to follow the Lord is to follow his commands. Hence the necessity of the presence of holy Tradition in the Church, so that all that is true, holy, sacred, is not distorted by the passing of time and the passing of men in time. The truth of the faith, the demands of “sequela Christi”, remain unchanged through the centuries, like the Word of God; so there exist no easier, shorter, discount paths to holiness. The Lord came not to deceive mankind, and even less to sell a product to the best bidder!
The Lord, unlike us, is not an opportunist. Men, who could no longer bear the invincible power of the Truth which emanated from his whole Person, his every word and deed - an indelible sign that God had come down to earth and was walking among them -, crucified Him!
The Lord Jesus, as provided by divine mandate, does not come to negotiate salvation, He is salvation, He does not come to bring us a little light, He is Light; he did not come to tell us a few more truths, He is Truth, the whole Truth! This is why there is no room for uncertainty in what he asks of us: “if anyone loves me he will keep my word and my father will love him and we shall come to home and make our home with him” (Jn 14, 23).
The Risen Lord, precisely because He is such, is worthy of all our attention and our commitment, as the marvellous words of Revelation announce: “You are our Lord and God, you are worthy to receive glory and honour and power because you made all the universe and it was only by your will that everything was made and exists ” (Rev 4, 11).
In the light of the Truth, that is the Lord Jesus, even the trials of life, great or small, acquire new meaning, which is also a concrete and regular verification as to what extent our heart is truly oriented to the Kingdom of God. When the cross falls on our shoulder, whatever our situation, we must say with Saint Paul: “by turning everything to their good God cooperates with all those who love him” (Rom 8, 28). Everything! Even during the hardest trials, if we live them with the Lord - accepting his word, believing without any if or buts in the promises of the beatitudes -, we will find that the grey sky will open and the mind will rise to higher and better horizons, to things immensely greater than those which the trial takes from us here on earth: health, loved ones, security, dreams of human realisation, fame, honour…
If we the Lord seriously on our way through this short life on earth, we will join all those in Heaven who “these are the people who have been through the great persecution and because they have washed their robes white again with the blood of the Lamb they now stand in front of God's throne and serve him day and night in his sanctuary; and the One who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. They will never hunger or thirst again, neither the sun nor scorching wind will ever plague them, because the Lamb who is at the throne will be their shepherd and will lead them to the springs of living water and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes ” (Rev 7, 14-17). At the head of the army of light stands the Queen of Saints, who in her “witness” here on earth, left us only one task: take my Son seriously, “do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2, 5)! (Agenzia Fides 26/9/2007; righe 51, parole 790)
