VATICAN - AVE MARIA “It is the Lord!” by Rev. Luciano Alimandi

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “When it was already light, there stood Jesus on the shore, though the disciples did not realise that it was Jesus. 5Jesus called out, 'Haven't you caught anything, friends?' And when they answered, 'No,' 6he said, 'Throw the net out to starboard and you'll find something.' So they threw the net out and could not haul it in because of the quantity of fish. 7The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, 'It is the Lord.' At these words, 'It is the Lord,' Simon Peter tied his outer garment round him (for he had nothing on) and jumped into the water.” (Jn 21, 4-7).
“It is the Lord!” This exclamation from the apostle Jesus loved came from the depth of his heart: the purity of his heart enabled him before the other disciples to recognise the Lord. This happened after the race to the tomb with Peter on Easter morning when we read only John, ‘saw and believed’: he saw the shroud in the empty tomb and this was enough; in him the Master’s promise “blessed are the pure in heart because they will see God”, was coming true.
John “saw” because his heart was free, focused only on the Lord, not concerned with self or self interests. In his simplicity he ran more swiftly along the paths of faith and freely given love. Simple souls are like this they are the first to saviour the goodness of God in their life, to savour the freedom characteristic of friendship with Him, the longing for holiness which the Lord gives, day after day, to all who keep and live His commandments, first of all the commandment of love.
John has always been considered apostle of love par excellence; because he had total trust in Jesus. His sincere desire to want Christ’s will above all despite the inevitable struggles with human weakness took him a long way: his sails were unfurled to catch the wind of the Spirit and he sailed more swiftly.
Peter realised that John was loved by the Lord precisely for the ‘innocence’ of heart revealed in his eyes and in his actions. He was not a boy he was a man with such a strong temperament as to merit with his brother James the nickname coined by Jesus “sons of thunder”; but his heart was that of a boy who had established a profound spiritual friendship with Christ because he, more than the others, was similar to Him.
It was no coincidence that it was to John that Jesus from the cross consigned his most precious treasure here on earth: his Mother, creature all pure, Immaculate Mary. John made Mary a home in his own home immediately. His heart was ready to host the Heart of Our Lady, his soul, because he was similar to his Master, was close to the heart of Mary and ready to receive her perfect testimony on the depths of the human and divine person of the incarnate Word. On reading the 4th Gospel one rightfully feels that those wonderful words are a fruit of the closeness between John and Mary. Who other than Mary would exclaim “the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us; and we saw his glory, as only begotten Son of God, filled with grace and truth ” (Jn 1, 14)!
Another John of our day, the Servant of God John Paul II, left us the marvellous legacy of becoming “apostles of God’s loving mercy”, just like the disciple whom Jesus loved. We heard this call again from Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday of Divine Mercy : “as I have just said in my Homily, according to the wish of my venerable Predecessor, Servant of God John Paul II, who died precisely after First Vespers of the Festival, this is also called Divine Mercy Sunday: The Holy Father, John Paul II, wanted this Sunday to be celebrated as the Feast of Divine Mercy: in the word "mercy", he summed up and interpreted anew for our time the whole mystery of Redemption. He had lived under two dictatorial regimes, and in his contact with poverty, neediness and violence he had a profound experience of the powers of darkness which also threaten the world of our time. But he had an equally strong experience of the presence of God who opposed all these forces with his power, which is totally different and divine: with the power of mercy. It is mercy that puts an end to evil. In it is expressed God's special nature - his holiness, the power of truth and love. Two years ago now, after the First Vespers of this Feast, John Paul II ended his earthly life. In dying, he entered the light of Divine Mercy, of which, beyond death and starting from God, he now speaks to us in a new way. Have faith, he tells us, in Divine Mercy! Become day after day men and women of God's mercy. Mercy is the garment of light which the Lord has given to us in Baptism. We must not allow this light to be extinguished; on the contrary, it must grow within us every day and thus bring to the world God's glad tidings. ” (Benedict XVI, 15 April 2007).
May this garment of pure light clothe our every day so that whenever Christ’s love touches us like a ray of sunshine through the chinks in the shutters, glimpses of eternity, in every day life, we too may cry from the depths of our heart “it is the Lord!” (Agenzia Fides 18/4/2007, righe 54, parole 862)