לך אמר לבי בקשו פני את-פניך יהוה אבקש
The text I just read was taken from Psalm 27, particularly the verse 8. Many Bibles translate it something like, “My heart hath said to thee: My face hath sought thee: thy face, O Lord, will I still seek” or even, “Thy hath saith, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart hath saith, ‘I will seek Thy face o Lord” but the truth is that the original text seems to indicate something deeper than that, a text that I would translate as, “My heart —as one sent by Thee— saith: ‘Seek His face.’ Yes, Yahweh, I will seek Thy face” That is, our heart speaks something that comes from God. The heart speaks the words of God. And what does God’s message say in the heart of man? Seek My face. Yes, that is the divine word that is in the heart of every person, a word that cries out, “Seek me!” That divine word is a grace gratuitously given to human beings (as it is said in theology: “gratia gratis data”) and at the same time, one of the theological virtues (that is, virtues that come directly from God) which we call Charity.
Saint Paul says today in his letter to the Ephesians “sicut elegit nos in ipso ante mundi constitutionem, ut essemus sancti et immaculati in conspectu eius in caritate. Qui praedestinavit nos in adoptionem filiorum per Iesum Christum in ipsum: secundum propositum voluntatis suae” (As He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight in charity. Who hath predestinated us unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ unto Himself: according to the purpose of His will). We see here, then, the most basic idea we must keep in mind to live a Christian life: LOVE FOR GOD (CHARITY), WHICH IS A SIGN OF PREDESTINATION AND A GUIDE TOWARD THE DESTINY TO WHICH GOD’S WILL WANTS TO LEAD US, THAT IS, TOWARD HIM.
What is the purpose of life? To prepare ourselves for a good encounter with God. And what is the most basic attitude we must have if we want to achieve it? We must learn to trust in God’s Will. This “trust in God’s Will” is what is called “Good Will” and, additionally, is the source of happiness, because happiness is “doing what God wants and wanting what God does.”
Now, this “Good Will” (this “fertile soil” that the Lord described in the Parable of the Sower) is ultimately what makes the difference between good and evil. The difference between them lies precisely in whether or not we listen to the voice of God crying out from the depths of our hearts. And, because this law is engraved in the heart of every human being, no one can feign ignorance. This law, which knows God, which also knows the distinction between what is good and what is evil, and which also knows the purpose the Almighty has for our own lives, will one day be responsible for showing us how faithful our lives were to the mission with which God sent us into this world.
Today, on this day when we commemorate the Most Holy Redeemer (Patron of our religious community), it is important that we speak not only of the inestimable love the Holy Trinity had in giving us the gift of Redemption, but it is also important to remember how it did it (and continues to do so): TRANSFORMING EVIL INTO A GREATER GOOD. If we look at the history of humanity, we see how God has been present (since the creation of the first man), prefiguring humanity’s redemption in countless ways. He shows that despite darkness and death, He is able to “make all things new,” as He stated. Thus, even humanity’s greatest crime (the murder of the most perfect being who once walked among the children of Adam), through the power of God, was transformed into the greatest blessing humanity has ever received (the Redemption).
Yes, Christ not only redeemed the human being, but, extending His rulership over all possible worlds, and through His sacrifice, He “made new all things”. He, who compared Himself to the healing serpent (a representation not only of poison and suffering, but also a remembrance of the one who brought it to the world, “the ancient enemy of men”), extended His healing grace over the whole natural reality and give the possibility of eternal health and happiness to all those who look at Him with faith and confidence, acting according to the will of God. The symbol of death (the serpent and the Tree of the Cross) was transformed, by our sweet Redeemer, into the greatest Grace for mankind.
"Sic enim Deus dilexit mundum” (For God so loved the world). Yes, He loved the whole creation at the point of proving this greatest love by assuming our nature, enduring the consequences of the Fall during His entire holy life, and dying on a cross acting as a priest and perfect sacrifice at the same time. Yes, only in the true Faith the universal Lord and King is crowned and burdened with a distinctive mark of the consequences of sin (the same with which Adam was punished, that is, thorns) and died making peace between heaven and earth as a Supreme Pontiff through the sacrifice of whom He Himself was the perfect atonement.
When the pharisees where at the foot of the Cross they said: “If thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross, and we shall believe. Others he saved, but he cannot save himself.”
That was the proof they wanted, for our Redeemer to come down from the cross. In other words, give us a religion without a cross.
Come down and we shall believe, they said… but He did not come down. And why not? Because if He came down, He never would have redeemed us.
Others he saved, but he cannot save himself…
Of course He cannot. Rain cannot save itself if it is to bud the greenery. A mother cannot save herself if -to save her child- she needs to sacrifice herself. A Soldier cannot save himself if he is to save his country. This is not the law of weakness. It’s the law of sacrifice.
This is precisely what Our Lord was talking about when He said: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
And the Church expresses today this “love that God had for us” not only with the words “Gaudens gaudebo” with which this Mass begins, but also with the color of the liturgy, which is not red, but white, probably because it better highlights the joy of the Redemption that we obtained through Christ “In quo habemus redemptionem per sanguinem eius” (In whom we have redemption through his blood).
Yes, THROUGH HIS BLOOD we are the chosen people, the royal priesthood, the consecrated nation. We are the heirs of the promise. We are the children of God by faith. We are predestined to inherit eternal life. The gates of Hell will not prevail. Non praevalebunt!
In short, the will of God is clear. It has been given to us by Christ Himself as a teaching and precept to obtain eternal life. We should be immensely grateful for this privilege and respond proportionally to the greatness of the gift of redemption we have received. God could have abandoned the world to darkness, but He decided to rescue it.
St. Alphonsus, blessed father of the good Redemptorists, you who were able to hear the voice of God sending you to the most abandoned ones, help us to detach ourselves from the world everyday more and more, and to achieve that “distacco” you spoke so much about, so we can live our lives listening and doing the will of God, that He may grant us the grace to persevere until the end.
