Dear friends of Gethsemane, peace be with you!
We have just crossed the threshold of the New Year, and it seems right to us to hope that it will be a time in which the Lord can be a centre and a source of hope for all of us believers and for all of humanity. Unfortunately, despite the beauty and the old but always new "novelty" of the birth of the Saviour of the world, we cannot hide certain concerns that we all live: the wars that exist in various parts of the world, the economic crisis, the political confusion in many countries and the spread, of situations of injustice in which we see speculation by the rich and heavy situations that impose themselves on families to the point of bringing them to an inhuman life. Richer rich and poorer poor!
We also see here difficult situations, resigned people and we hear sentences full of discouragement: "Nothing ever changes!". The whole Church also lives a time of trials and purification, apostasy is rampant, vocations are in great decline and confusion reigns a little everywhere. Together with you we ask ourselves how we can look at these situations and this history... which despite everything is always followed and loved by the Lord! We think this is precisely the crucial point, to have more and more a way of contemplating history with trust in God. We await his manifestation, the Epiphany, and we want to do it today, with even more confidence and hope in Him. Here in Gethsemane, at night, the Lord reveals to Nicodemus: "For God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him does not die, but has eternal life" (Jn 3:16).
This statement: "God (…) loved the world so much that he gave his only Son" is very intense and timely. In the light of Christmas which we have just celebrated, we can contemplate how the Mystery of the Incarnation is truly the absolute novelty that God, the Father, in his omnipotence, he wanted to give to humanity, making himself a man Jesus has placed the limit to the mystery of iniquity and to the power that the evil one has over us. With the supreme gift of the Son, Emmanuel, it is as if he said to each of us: "Do not be afraid, here I am doing something new (Is 43,18-19), I am with you until the end of time (Mt 28,20)". At the same time, his Word who becomes Flesh and comes to dwell among us (cf Jn 1:14) is the most eloquent Word for every situation that is contrary to God, for every thought or situation of darkness and hatred that we all see or experience. It is as if God were saying to evil: "Now your end has come, your time is numbered, you no longer have dominion over my creatures!" When situations of opposition or trial want to stifle our trust in God, let us remember this great truth that God still manifests to us today with the Mystery of the Incarnation! Let us look at our humanity and this difficult time with a gaze of faith and with great hope, not only with human eyes, otherwise we cannot fully understand the greatness of the work of the Redemption that God has accomplished for us! Let us never tire of praying and invoking the Prince of Peace and our heavenly Mother who intercedes for us.
May the Lord bless you
In the one prayer of the Lord!
