Dear friends, peace be with you from Jerusalem, from Gethsemane!
It is not so easy
to write this usual greeting! We all know that the 'peace' we invoke from
Jerusalem over the past month has been strongly threatened by winds of war and
violence. We who are here in front of this city of the fulfillment of Love and
among these peoples, realize how the Word of the Lord and his commandment seem
unknown! Yet there is a need for forgiveness and respect for the other in order
to be able to begin to dialogue even in diversity. We need God; alone, with our
strengths and strategies we are unable to do anything (Jn 15:5).
We share with you a phrase of Jesus that has resounded so strongly in this dramatic and special time: "As the Father loved me, so I also loved you. Remain in my love (...) This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you" (Jn 15:9,12).
Looking at the Rock on which the Lord sweated his precious Blood, this Word and this Love of which Jesus speaks we "see" it true and real! He assumes as an authoritative depth: he said it, he lived it, for us all! The measure of his love for us is that of the love of the Father... so Jesus invites us (commands!) to love us in the same way!
The adverb "as" should not be understood as a term of comparison or quantity, that is, an effort on our part to return the love of the Lord with our abilities, because we realize that ours would be a fickle and failing love! In the biblical-evangelical context this adverb has a "generative" meaning: we can love the Lord, our neighbour whom God places beside us because we have been loved in this way, we have received this love... All this is true and moving! We see it HERE at Gethsemane, on the Cross, in the Risen One who comes to meet us and tells us "I am!" and in the Comforter, he who reminds us of his eternal Word of Covenant: "The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I have spoken to you" (Jn 14:26). We have realized, in this time marked by hatred, that whoever is not able to welcome and live Jesus, the King of peace, the Father God and Creator of everything and the Spirit of love, cannot find a true way of peace and forgiveness. May our prayer be thanksgiving, praise and intercession, so that all humanity may return to the true God.
United in prayer in the Lord!
