Jesus is present in us…

FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD

9 MAY 2024   EASTER THURSDAY 6

WORD of the DAY 

Jesus said to his disciples:
“A little while and you will no longer see me,
and again a little while later and you will see me.” (John 16: 16)

How shall I live this Word?   

What do these enigmatic expressions of Jesus mean? They refer to the two times He is about to accomplish. The first concerns His earthly life, which is about to end; the second concerns His glorious life inaugurated by His resurrection. His return, then, is not limited only to His Easter apparitions, but is prolonged in the hearts of believers with His presence in Word, in the Eucharist, and in fraternal love. His words are not understood by the disciples who ask various questions, like us today. Jesus, who knows the depths of His disciples and the events that await them, tries to remove their sadness by instilling His trust in them with a new revelation; your sadness will change into joy. In this pericope, we can already taste the ‘already and not yet’ that we usually hear in Advent. The Kingdom of God is already present here but its definitive realization has yet to be accomplished.

LIVE THE WORD: “I will return to you.”

The voice of Pope St. Leo the Great

Beloved, the days between the Lord’s resurrection and His ascension have not passed unnecessarily, but in them great mysteries have been confirmed and great truths have been revealed.

The fear of a cruel death was eliminated, and not only the immortality of the soul but also that of the body was announced. During those days, by virtue of the divine breath, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon all the apostles, and St Peter the Apostle, after the handing over of the keys to the Kingdom, was entrusted with the supreme care of the Lord’s flock.

Therefore, O my loved ones, during all this time spent between the Lord’s Resurrection and His Ascension, Divine Providence has targeted this, has communicated this, has wanted to insinuate in the eyes and hearts of His own, the firm certainty that the Lord Jesus Christ had truly risen, as He was really born, had really suffered, and really died. Therefore, the holy apostles and all the disciples who had trembled at the tragedy of the cross and were doubtful about believing in the resurrection, were so comforted by the evidence of the truth that, at the moment when the Lord ascended into the high heaven, not only were they not saddened at all, but they were filled with great joy.

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