"Come and see" (John 1, 39)
Dear priests, religious, brothers and sisters in Christ,
Come and see the eternal Word of God (John 1, 1).
Come and see the Son of God, God Himself (John 3, 16).
Come and see Him who dwells in the Father and in whom the Father dwells (John 14:11).
Come and see the Dispenser of the Holy Spirit (John 20, 22).
Come and see the Hope and Light of the world (Revelation 22, 16).
Come and see our Mediator with God, who prays for us (John 17; 1 Timothy 2:5).
Come and see the Prince of Peace, our Reconciler with God (Isaiah 9:6).
Come and see the Lamb of God, who died for us and in our place (John 1:29; Romans 6:23).
Come and see the One who has the power to forgive all our sins (Matthew 9:6).
Come and see God lowering Himself before us (Matthew 3:13; John 13:5).
Come and see the Good Shepherd (John 10, 11).
Come and see the Merciful One (Luke 7, 13).
Come and see the Physician of our souls and bodies (Mark 1, 40; Luke 8, 43; Mark 1, 23; Mark 7, 24; ...).
Come and see Him who is our Food and Bread of life (John 6, 35).
Come and see Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14, 6).
Come and see Him who is the Resurrection and the Life (Matthew 28; John 11, 25).
Come and see Him who is always with us for eternity (Matthew 1, 23; Matthew 28, 20).
Come and see, an invitation to move from intellectual and respectful knowledge to the vigilant awakening of the personal and intimate encounter that builds a life and makes every moment the indispensable support of the whole structure of an existence. Let us note, in passing, how much it resembles the cornerstone!
Jesus is the name of God in his intimacy with humanity and with the Father. His name is Emmanuel, “God with us”, but also the Son, eternally begotten of the Father and dwelling with the Father. To settle for knowing him merely intellectually would be an affront to our own humanity, before even being an affront to God.
In Jesus, God has revealed himself as Father. Not only Father of a Son, but Father of a multitude of adopted sons in Jesus. This is our Faith!
The Son took flesh from the Virgin Mary to reveal his unbreakable and eternal closeness to us. This closeness makes us all, without exception, brothers and sisters in Jesus: the family of God. This is our Charity!
The Father and the Son give us the Holy Spirit, who creates the Eucharist, who forms the Church, who makes the unity of the Body and makes God present in the world. He enables us to pass on all Truth of God to one another. This is our Hope!
This vigilant awakening to a personal encounter is above all, a grace of the Holy Spirit, sought and received tirelessly. It is also a gentle determination, a balance between the temporal and the spiritual, to fulfill God's will at all times. This vigilance is the profound joy of justifying God through our choices, thus becoming his children (Luke 7:29 and 35). It is also the inner pain of seeing that Love is not loved (Francis of Assisi) and that humanity does not yet reflect the image of its destiny. This is exactly the testimony of truth that the world awaits to believe, yet it is also the reason for which Christ and his Church are being fought in the world.
It is a difficult balance that confronts us with our own limitations and the echoes of the Word of God within us. For this Word calls us to be an extension of his right hand, an extension of his love, an extension of his forgiveness, an extension of his reconciliation, an extension of his Peace, imitating Jesus' humiliation by washing feet of each other and wiping away the tears caused by so much suffering.
So, as disciples of Christ and baptized in Him, let us weep with those who sing laments, dance with those who play the flute, and justify God (Luke 7:31-35) everywhere and at all times by doing His will. Let us be witnesses of Hope in a world that so desperately needs unity against the true and only enemy of humankind: the Devil, the ancient Serpent.
God is merciful. Let us have the courage to be sons and daughters of our Father (cf. Matthew 5:44-46). And let us entrust ourselves to the Virgin Mary, who maintained a perfect relationship with God without ever appropriating the One she brought into the world. She knew how to be both mother and servant, how to balance her adoration with her service, and how to love to the very end, giving Jesus to the world to the end. Amen
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2025.
Nicosia-Cyprus, Christmas 2024.