Lectio divina
Loving Jesus
God is thirsty to be thirsty! I am grateful to Jesus because he asks me to love him... I often hear the words of Jesus addressed to the apostle Simon Peter: "Simon son of John, do you love me...?" as if they were addressed directly to me. And again: "Is it true that you love me?" And answer as the apostle Simon Peter did: "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you".
(Jn 21;15).
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Evangelical love
John defined himself as the disciple whom Jesus taught, and if I wish I can become a disciple myself to be like John and allow Jesus to reveal himself.
How enchanting it would be to repeat the prayer of Saint Bonaventure: "Pierce, oh my sweetest Lord Jesus, with a sweet wound my heart, so that it languishes and beats only for You, and I desire nothing else but to dissolve and be with You". And to feel in the heart that ardor that exalts the soul, with a love that is in direct relation to the knowledge and goodness of life.
We must keep in mind that Jesus is an abyss into which we must descend to scrutinize and see in the many aspects the prodigious wonders. A quick and distracted glance at our Lord will succeed in a superficial reproduction.
Jesus is love, because God is love. And love is a great good, indeed, the most important of goods because it makes every burden light and makes every bitterness sweet and pleasant. Love is a movement that ascends and is not held back by the pettiness of life and soars in the heaven of God.
Love for Jesus spurs us to do great things and pushes us to desire virtues. Nothing, after all, is sweeter than love, stronger, more sublime, more expansive and richer. He who loves, flies, runs, rejoices and in everything finds the All.
Often love knows no measure, but it is inflamed beyond all measure; often does not feel weight, does not care toils, would like to do more than he can, because he believes that everything is easy and allowed.
Love is watchful, and even sleeping, it is vigilant; if tired, it does not lose strength; if forced, it does not work by force; if threatened, it does not dismay, but like a living flame, like a burning torch it goes up high and proceeds safely.
The ardent affection of the soul that says: Lord, my love, You are all mine, and I am all yours, is like a cry that goes up to the ears of God.
Love is ready, sincere, pious, joyful and cheerful; it is strong, patient, and very faithful, prudent, long-suffering, virile, and never thinks of itself, because when one seeks himself, ceases to love; love is cautious, humble, upright, not soft nor light, does not concern itself with vain things; Sober, chaste, firm.
(Imitation of Christ, III 3,7)
Everything is so beautiful, so great, so divine in Jesus, and therefore so lovable!
Saint Bernard expresses his painful wonder by writing to Folco, who no longer feels the attraction of the love of Jesus and finally discovers its cause: "Poor you who so soon you feel annoyed about Jesus, of whom it is written: that it is milk and honey for those who pronounce it with faith. I am amazed that you can say annoyed by such a food; assuming that in the past you have tasted how sweet the Lord is! But you certainly have not tasted and therefore do not know what the Lord is and therefore do not desire to taste it; but if you have tasted it and now you do not taste it, a sign is that your palate has failed". And that is why the palate is spoiled: because you eat acorns daily. Even a little voluntary taste of these." acorns" to prevent the attraction of Jesus' love.
We draw intensely and willingly from the epistles of Saint Paul the desire to know Jesus, the will to love him without measure, the desire to make him known.
I also intuit the holy vehemence of love in Saint Paul’s sentence: "If one does not love our Lord Jesus Christ be excommunicated". If I do not have a serenely restless desire to grow in that love, the excommunication is also a little for me. With what emotion the Apostle must have written: "he loved me and gave himself for me!"
Jesus is the flame of love, it burns in this personal contact and then devours the world. We must use everything: the stars and plants, men, poetry, music, holiness and diseases, joys and sorrows, successes and failures, memories and hopes: all to be used to live more strongly, to love better, to pray better.
Let us not delay the commitment to love Jesus. Let us permeate with love every little thing and load with love every occasion. Does the Holy Scripture record how Moses spoke with God face to face, as a friend and how is our conversation with Jesus?
How beautiful it would be to come to a living faith, to a personal love, and to feel Jesus in us. And to be united with him intimately through the exercise of a continuous and tender love.
We meditate on Psalm 8
Lord, our God,
How great is your name on all the earth:
Your magnificence rises above the heavens.
With the mouth of children and infants
Affirm your power against your adversaries,
to silence enemies and rebels.
If I look at your sky, the work of your fingers,
the moon and stars you have stared at,
what is man so that you remember
and the son of man why do you care for him?
Yet you have done it little less than the angels,
of glory and honor you crowned him:
Thou didst give him power over the works of thy hands,
You put everything under his feet;
all the flocks and herds,
all the beasts of the field;
the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea,
Who walk the ways of the sea.
Lord, our God,
How great is your name on all the earth.
