The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
The Holy Spirit reveals the mystery
At that time Jesus said in reply, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” Mt 11,25-30
Since the childhood I was always amazed by the fact that the participants to the holy mass, especially that of the weekdays, were mostly ordinary people and of small culture. I lived in a little town near Florence, Sieci, one of those where we all know; I find it amazing that those most in view, the scholars of the country, did not ever go to the church, to pay a visit and – as it was usual to say – to addressa a short prayer. We would have thought that the faith was a stuff for simpletons who believe everything, had it not been the fact that my mother, who, as a teacher in the country, was part of the important persons of the town, was used to attend to the holy mass and to tell me to attend. So, being young, when from the altar I heard to proclaim that the truths of the gospel were revealed to the simple-hearted people, I always felt that there was in this revelation a profound truth, almost a mystery. Then, over the years, when my faith had become more mature, I began to realize that we can penetrate the truth of the gospel, as Jesus asks us, only if we go close to hear that continuous dialogue of love, of thoughts and of prayer between him and the Father, the transmission of which is ensured by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the vehicle and the engine of all of this, the one which always illuminates the simple understanding of the Scriptures and reveals the truth about Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus during his earthly life, and the Holy Spirit, in this time of the church, not only reveal to us the mystery of the things of God, but also open their arms to comfort us when we are “tired and oppressed”. The comfort is not to eliminate the causes of the fatigue and of the oppression, but to explain their reason and value and how all of this is part of the great plan of redemption of the world. To comprehend these things, however, we must not to appeal to our ability to understand, but to the meekness and to the humility. The humility to realize that the mystery in which we are engaged is infinitely greater than ourselves and the meekness not to face it with the intelligence and the wisdom, but to approach it with awe and respect, taking off our shoes, as Moses in front of the burning bush. This has been well understood by those old ladies I meet by the morning during the holy mass.