Dear friends of Gethsemane, may the Lord grant you his peace!
This month I wish
to share with you a light that the Lord has 'given' to me and that I still
perceive full of love, and when I think about it, it still moves me. I’m convinced
it’s not just for me. I was celebrating the votive Mass of Gethsemane, and a
small group of Mexican women living in America joined. After explaining to the
pilgrims the typical Gospel of Gethsemane, in which the Lord expresses his
desire to his disciples: "Stay here with me, pray and watch with me"
(Mt 26,38.41), I wanted to deliver the last word, but it was the culminating
moment, when we had just received the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
There was silence and prayerful recollection! And it was precisely at that
moment that I found myself as a child praying silently: "Stay here with
me, Lord!". A thrill caught me and a certain awareness… “This is the most
intimate moment ever, in which we children can pronounce his Word and make it
become prayer, request and thanksgiving: "Stay here with me, Lord!"
His desire in us, and our desire for Him!
I am convinced that there are many occasions in which each of us can repeat this prayer: from the child who is afraid of being alone at night to that elderly grandfather who finds himself at the end of his days, ready to pass to true life in eternity. Or, from the young woman who is excited and fully worried, who with her husband caresses her belly ready to enter the delivery room… to the bride who finds herself excited to take the step towards the Altar to pronounce with her groom that "Yes, forever!"… “Sir, stay here with us!" So, in the same way those who find themselves fleeing their own country in search of a better future; as well as those who find themselves suffering from hunger and cold under the bombs: "Lord, stay here with us! Protect us!".
This prayer and desire of Christ pronounced in this Garden 'visit' each of us, in the place where we are, as we are. He takes us by the hand and makes us come out of our solitudes that often 'bite' us and make the soul created by the Eternal bleed. From the 'garden' most visited by God, our heart, let us raise together this supplication, this desire for Love that desires to be loved, and let us say for all humanity, with the whole Church: "Stay here with us, Lord!"
The Lord bless you
