Dear friends of Gethsemane Peace to you!
We have just begun the new year and perhaps we still have in our mind and in our heart the manger of Bethlehem that welcomed the Lord who became man. Often in these Christmas days I found myself thinking of St. Francis who, at Greccio, on his return from the Holy Land, expresses to his trusted friend named Giovanni his desire of see with his own eyes and touch with his hand the discomforts that the Child had met in assuming our human condition and, therefore, of representing a small Bethlehem live (Franciscan Sources FS: 466-471). Every time I am more convinced that this great saint, who became small, has intuited a secret that still remains hidden today for us, his sons. Mystery... the characteristics of "seeing" and "touching" seem to express not only a human need that belongs to each one of us, but also represent a concrete form in which we experience the real closeness of God. At the same time, with a broader and deeper theological view of the Gospel we hear, we must admit that God, in the supreme gift of the only begotten Son, sees with his own eyes and touches with his own hands our needy humanity... Great Mystery, old and always new! God 'experiences' our life... our life is known, visited, inhabited by Jesus Christ. Our desire at the beginning of the year is precisely this: that you can "experience" how much the Lord loved our humanity and that He loves us infinitely.
