December 27, Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist
The mistery of the love of God
So she [Mary of Magdala] ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. Jn 20,2-8
Like to all the grandparents, it also happens to us, from time to time, to give advice to the sons and to the grand-sons, in the light of the experiences which we have faced and of the mistakes which we have made over the years. Today Maria Letizia, the oldest daughter of Anna Rita and Eugenio, while lunching with the leftovers of the Christmas dinner, asked: “Why when one is eldest gives always advice?”. “Because, like the thrillers, the life is well understood at its end” I replied. The same goes for the human vicissitude of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God who has been made man. The event of the incarnation, which we have lived in these days of Christmas, although we meditate it since long time, is still a mystery of the God’s love for the man. However we penetrate it a bit more in the light of the expression of love, even greater, which is the death of Jesus on the cross for our liberation from the bondage of the sin. St. Paul calls it “the stumbling block of the cross” (Gal 5,11). These two events which illuminate each other, such to become a single mystery of the God’s love for the man, are only the gateway to access to the first step of that ever greater mystery of love which is the resurrection: mystery of love of the Father to the Son, which could not be able to be overcome by the love of Jesus Christ for the man. We are talking about heights of love for us incomprehensible and unreachable, on which, however, it is nice to try to climb up to where it is possible. It is for this reason that the Church, immediately after the days of Christmas, proposes us to meditate on the death on the cross and on the resurrection of Jesus.