FAUSTI - The Love from which nothing can separate us is that which the Father offers us in the Son. Peter, just as he did not understand the washing of the feet, so he did not understand the command of love, which says where Jesus comes from and where he goes. But having understood that He is leaving, he feels himself alone and abandoned. He wants to be with Him, but he has not yet understood that, to have "set out with him", he must let himself wash his feet. Jesus must be lifted up from the earth to attract everyone to Himself (). Before seeing the fulfillment of Love on the cross, man is not able to love: he does not yet know how he is loved. Peter will follow Him after His resurrection, when he will have known His love. So far he follows his good intentions. Peter wants to do for Jesus what Jesus does for him: he is generous and wants to love Him first. Instead it is He Who first loves us. This typically religious effort to "deserve" God's love is the sin of the "just", who goes directly against God, whose essence is gratuitous Love. Our love will only be a response to the received Love. Otherwise it is a delirium of omnipotence, precisely of those who want to be the principle of themselves and deny the source that generated it. The prediction of Peter's denial is important, as solemn as that of Judas' betrayal. In our infidelity we understand His fidelity. We know that we are justified by grace. Peter will understand this after having denied, then he will know with certainty that no one can remove him from the hand of the Son who is the same as the Father. "Let not your heart be troubled" is how the chapter 14 begins, which ends with "Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be frightened" (14:27). Jesus takes it for granted that the disciples are troubled and afraid. He wants to reassure and reassure them. So Moses before dying, with the people who had freed them from their slavery, also hears. Jesus Himself felt upset before the tomb of His friend Lazarus, as well as before His own death and the betrayal of Judas. The upset is a time of trial, an opportunity for growing in faith, but also a temptation to fall into distrust. The heart of the disciples, contended by opposing feelings, is becoming a new heart, of the new covenant, capable of loving as it is loved. "Do not be afraid! Be strong and you will see the Salvation that the Lord is working for you today" (Ex 14:13). Faith is the greatest anti - anxiety factor, just as distrust is the most powerful anxiety generator. Jesus places faith in God on the same level as faith in Himself: whoever believes in Him, believes in Him Who sent Him. He and the Father are One. To believe in Him as a Son is to believe in God as Father. On closer inspection, every temptation always concerns faith, the only force to overcome the inevitable upheavals. "In conversion and calm is your salvation, in trusting abandonment is your strength" (Is 30:15). "In the house of my Father" is how Jesus called the Temple, which He identified with His Body. The house of the Father is the Son, where God is worshiped in Spirit and Truth. Jesus, like the sanctuary made by human hands, will be destroyed, but in this way He will become the new and definitive Sanctuary. In the Father's house, that is, in the Son, there are many dwellings: one for each brother, no one excluded. The leaving of Jesus opens our home in the Father's house to all who receive Him. In fact, He gives us His own love as a Son. For this reason, His leaving from us is in reality a coming fully to meeting us. The expression "I come again" does not indicate His coming at the end of time, but His imminent coming, when shortly, Lifted up from the ground, He will draw everyone to Himself.(12,32). Then He will "receive" us with Himself.
FAUSTI - The Love from which nothing can separate us is that which the Father offers us in the Son.
RispondiEliminaPeter, just as he did not understand the washing of the feet, so he did not understand the command of love, which says where Jesus comes from and where he goes. But having understood that He is leaving, he feels himself alone and abandoned.
He wants to be with Him, but he has not yet understood that, to have "set out with him", he must let himself wash his feet.
Jesus must be lifted up from the earth to attract everyone to Himself ().
Before seeing the fulfillment of Love on the cross, man is not able to love: he does not yet know how he is loved. Peter will follow Him after His resurrection, when he will have known His love. So far he follows his good intentions.
Peter wants to do for Jesus what Jesus does for him: he is generous and wants to love Him first.
Instead it is He Who first loves us.
This typically religious effort to "deserve" God's love is the sin of the "just", who goes directly against God, whose essence is gratuitous Love.
Our love will only be a response to the received Love. Otherwise it is a delirium of omnipotence, precisely of those who want to be the principle of themselves and deny the source that generated it.
The prediction of Peter's denial is important, as solemn as that of Judas' betrayal.
In our infidelity we understand His fidelity.
We know that we are justified by grace. Peter will understand this after having denied, then he will know with certainty that no one can remove him from the hand of the Son who is the same as the Father. "Let not your heart be troubled" is how the chapter 14 begins, which ends with "Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be frightened" (14:27). Jesus takes it for granted that the disciples are troubled and afraid. He wants to reassure and reassure them. So Moses before dying, with the people who had freed them from their slavery, also hears. Jesus Himself felt upset before the tomb of His friend Lazarus, as well as before His own death and the betrayal of Judas.
The upset is a time of trial, an opportunity for growing in faith, but also a temptation to fall into distrust.
The heart of the disciples, contended by opposing feelings, is becoming a new heart, of the new covenant, capable of loving as it is loved.
"Do not be afraid! Be strong and you will see the Salvation that the Lord is working for you today" (Ex 14:13).
Faith is the greatest anti - anxiety factor, just as distrust is the most powerful anxiety generator.
Jesus places faith in God on the same level as faith in Himself: whoever believes in Him, believes in Him Who sent Him. He and the Father are One. To believe in Him as a Son is to believe in God as Father.
On closer inspection, every temptation always concerns faith, the only force to overcome the inevitable upheavals. "In conversion and calm is your salvation, in trusting abandonment is your strength" (Is 30:15). "In the house of my Father" is how Jesus called the Temple, which He identified with His Body.
The house of the Father is the Son, where God is worshiped in Spirit and Truth.
Jesus, like the sanctuary made by human hands, will be destroyed, but in this way He will become the new and definitive Sanctuary. In the Father's house, that is, in the Son, there are many dwellings: one for each brother, no one excluded. The leaving of Jesus opens our home in the Father's house to all who receive Him. In fact, He gives us His own love as a Son. For this reason, His leaving from us is in reality a coming fully to meeting us. The expression "I come again" does not indicate His coming at the end of time, but His imminent coming, when shortly, Lifted up from the ground, He will draw everyone to Himself.(12,32).
Then He will "receive" us with Himself.