Dear friends of Gethsemane, may the Lord give you his peace!
At the end of the daily Holy Mass, in our Basilica of Gethsemane, in a brief moment of recollection, I thank, I pray to the Lord and I kiss the sacred Rock that received the most precious Blood of our Saviour.The Lord gives various consolations from this holy place and I wish to share one: the water that flowed from the rock for the thirsty people through the intercession of Moses. ''Behold, I will stand before you on the rock, on Horeb; you will beat on the rock; water will come out and the people will drink'' (Ex 17:6).I do not comment on the dramatic context narrated in the Exodus, but I emphasize only 4 aspects worthy of attention: Moses, mediator between God the Father and the people; the rock that is beaten; the water that springs from it and that quenches the thirst; the needy and exhausted people.These are just simple aspects that speak to each of us and help us to reflect because the Word of God is eternal! (Is 55:9-12) There is no time for what is eternal and eternal is the dialogue between God and our soul. In this garden Jesus is the new and only Mediator who intercedes for the man past present and future, He Himself praying more intensely, with his knees bent and the drops of Blood falling to the ground (Lk 22:44) strikes this Rock. The saving action that flows from it, the supreme offering of the Son of God, born in the Upper Room, suffered HERE and accomplished on Calvary is the water that quenches the souls of every time! We are all involved and challenged.Our prayer, explicitly requested by the Lord in this holy place, expresses all the strength and importance in two meanings: it is like a wave of His GRACE that becomes refreshment and new vital breath of needy souls and at the same time it becomes an imperative of God and a warning to the evil one and all his followers, who makes them retreat in their wicked plans of adversity to God and to humanity.We invite you to come spiritually HERE in prayer.In our worship or in whatever way we can pray, we too ''beat'' with our knees the Rock of our salvation (Ps 94:1).
