The paradox

This is the paradox: It is only when we have nothing that God can be our everything. But we have to make the choice.

Easter for you

It is Easter, if in your heart you have more gratitude than regrets.

The eyes who see Christ

Dear Pope Benedict,
When you were elected Pope, I felt a lot of tenderness in my heart. I knew that many people weren't too happy about it. Your election was preceded by a lot of prejudices. And of course it is no small thing to be the successor of the great Pope John Paul II.
I have been accompanying you with my prayers everyday, asking God to give you the strength to carry such a difficult mission. Yours must be a lonely life. I remember that in one of the meetings you had with young people somebody asked you if you feel lonely. In your simplicity you answered that question and it brought tears to my eyes and a great hope in my heart.
As I follow your messages, your writings, your speeches, your answers to questions, more and more I become fascinated with your person. More and more I am convinced that God gives us the right shepherd at the right time.
I admire the clarity of your thought, how you are able to communicate with the widest range of people: children, youth, adults, intellectuals, etc.
I admire your meekness and gentleness. You say that truth doesn't need to be imposed on anyone because it has a force of its own.
You convey your principles, the truths you believe in, not through the brilliance and eloquence of your speech, but through the calmness that your words and your gestures transmit. No grandstanding, as if you are always aware that your presence should point to The Presence.
Your eyes communicate the transparency of your soul. Just looking at your eyes gives me a sense of peace.
Most of all, thank you for reminding us, repeatedly, that faith is an encounter with a Person, nay, it is an encounter with The Person of the One who has always loved us. That was your first message. That is your constant message: "There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him."
And you do just that, Pope Benedict.
Thank you for sharing with us your friendship with Jesus Christ and for reminding us that it is the most exciting adventure of our life.
God bless you, Pope Benedict XVI!

Easter

The joy on our faces and in our gait, the gentleness in our speech and the hope with which we face even the biggest adversities: These are the best proofs that Jesus Christ is Risen!

Jesus, King

As I look at you, Jesus, on the cross, with that red cloth as background and surrounded by three red candles, what comes to my mind is your royalty. Funny, but it's true. Before your disfigured body, I am reminded that you are king. Red is the color of royalty. You yourself confirmed to Pilate that You are a king, but your kingdom is not of this world.
At the last supper, after you have washed your disciples' feet, you reminded them that to lead is to serve. If you, the master, have washed their feet, they should wash each other's feet.
You said that your kingdom is not of this world. It really seems so. Perhaps that is why we still cannot grasp it. We easily repeat the expression "to lead is to serve". We can use it as a slogan. We can make a theological-psychological-sociological explanation of it. Yet, very few of us are willing to stake our lives for it.
It is easy to say "to lead is to serve" when it means doing "something" good to others or offering them something. In fact, acts like this give me a certain "high". But afterwards, I'll go back to my own world, with its comforts and securities. Maybe some time again I will go back to "serve" these less fortunate.
But is this really what you mean? That I live with a certain air of superiority? I might be physically close to my "neighbor", yet my heart may be totally distant! I - they, and the distance can never be crossed.
And what if these "less fortunate" refuse my help, misjudge my deeds or totally reject me? Do I still persist in doing good? Do I allow their reactions make me review my actions and admit that grain of self-interest that is present in them?
On the cross, Jesus, yours was a marred and disfigured body, with no outward look to attract people. Totally broken and spent, You must have been quite a sight! But it was precisely then that the centurion exclaimed, "Indeed, this is the son of God!".
It is not by a show of force and grandeur, as the spectators of the crucifixion urged you, that you showed your lordship. Nay, it is in the dignity with which you bore the most cruel treatment, up to the end, that you showed that you are a king.
Yes, it is indeed a kingship that is not of this world.

Mystery

We don't define mystery; mystery defines us.

Good Friday

Today even nature is still, as if in contemplation of a love so foolish, that so utterly defies human logic, as God reveals to us in the marred body of Jesus Christ.

In the company of true friends

Yesterday's Gospel was about the anointing of Jesus in Bethany. There, in the company of His true friends Lazarus, Martha and Mary, Jesus had a little respite at the time in His life when He most felt the reality of His impending suffering and death.
Each person has to carry his own cross. Suffering is an inevitable part of life. Even those who love us most or who are willing to give their own lives for us cannot take suffering away from us, no matter how they try.
But true friends are like shafts of light in the darkest night. They don't take away the darkness, but they assure us that it is not all dark. There is light.
They give us the courage to take that difficult leap because it is important if we want to find the meaning of our lives.