HEAVEN AND EARTH WILL PASS, BUT MY WORDS WILL NOT PASS (Mk 13,31)
Peace to you all from Jerusalem.
Our Lenten journey is approaching the great Paschal Mystery that has been accomplished in this very city: Jerusalem! The days that we are all living refer us to the real offering that our Lord Jesus Christ has made here. Once again, all of us, faced with God’s way of acting, find ourselves out of place... in wonder. The Mystery of our salvation is fulfilled in this way so different from how we think and imagine it! The Gospels of the Passion, not by chance today, resound in a strong way, as if the Word of God were interpreted by the events that we are all experiencing, first of all, when we see the innocent victims of this conflict and every injustice.By visiting the places of our redemption ourselves, we perceive a new meaning in which events and the Gospel come together and redefine new lights, new meanings... as if the Lord were to identify himself with all the innocent victims, with all those who are suffering, with the children created in his image and likeness. A dramatic and real mystery of the Gospel that takes place today!In the Upper Room it is He who says: "This is my Body (...). Take it and eat it all (...). This is my Blood of the new and eternal Covenant poured out for you" (Cf. Mt 26:26-29). He identifies himself with those who are breaking themselves: "my body". The people, the suffering members, this wounded humanity... is his Body. Here at Gethsemane this verse resounds loudly: "In anguish, he prayed more intensely; and his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground" (Lk 22:44).How much innocent blood, how many people (souls!) are and will be "falling" to the ground? Always in this garden, Peter in his sincere love for Jesus, will try to defend the Master, but he is heard to answer: "Put the sword back in its sheath, for all who put their hands on the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot pray to my Father, who would immediately give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled, according to which it must be so?" (Mt 26,52-54). This is a great pro-vocation still today misunderstood and not accepted: an invitation to the path of peace. Weapons do not lead to life, nor to the fulfilment of the Scriptures. It is not just any man who says this, but the Son of God, the Word of the Father! At Golgotha, the torture of Christ on the Cross gathers all the cries of every crucifix: "All of you who pass by the way, consider and observe if there is a suffering similar to mine" (Lam 1:12). And it is still thundering between the human 'shouting', the unsurpassed supplication raised to the Most High who still feels like an echo in the human valley: "Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing" (Lk 23:34). And as the last word, in the heart of an infinite multitude of people (also in our hearts) there is the desired expectation of the gift of the Risen One: Peace! He alone is our spring... And at the end he will surprise us with his resplendent Presence, his comforting smile to open his arms with the marks of nails and tell us again: "Peace to you, it’s Me!Events highlight the Gospel, but in reality they are the events that are reached and interpreted by the eternal Word, which will never end. Let us pray with great confidence and help the Lord to redeem the world with our small participation, prayer and sincere offering.
The Lord is alive, He is Risen!
