June 2014 June 2014

WordWord

of of

LifeLife

“And behold, I am with you always,

until the end of the age” (Mt 28,20).

Matthew, the Evangelist,

opens his Gospel by recalling

that Jesus, whose story he is

about to narrate is

Emmannuel, which means

“God is with us” (cf Mt 1,23),

Then he concludes it by repeating these words of Jesus,

His promise to remain with us always, even after He

goes back to heaven. He will be “God is with us” until

the end of time.

Jesus spoke these words to the disciples after entrusting them with the task to bring His message

to the whole world.

He was well aware of the fact that He was sending them out like sheep in the midst of wolves and that they would meet adversity and persecutions (cf Mt

10,16-22).

That is why He doesn’t want to leave them alone in their mission. And so in the very moment in which He

was leaving them, He promises to stay!

They’ll no longer be able to see Him with their eyes, they won’t be able to hear His voice, nor will they be

able to touch Him, but He will be present in their midst, as He was before; indeed, more than before.

Up until then, His presence on earth was limited to one precise spot, in Capernaum, on the lake, in the

mountains, or in Jerusalem. Instead from now on, He will be wherever His disciples are.

Jesus was also thinking of all of us, living out day after day what can sometimes be a complex lifestyle.

Because He is incarnate Love, He might have thought: I would like to be with them always, to share their

daily worries, to give them advice; I would like to walk down the streets with them, to enter their homes,

enliven their joy with my presence.

That is why He wanted to rermain with us a

This is why He wanted to remain with us and make us feel His closeness, His strength, His love.

Luke’s Gospel tells us that after having seen Him ascend to Heaven the disciples “returned to

Jerusalem with great joy” (Lk 24,52).

How could it be?They had experienced the reality of His words.

We too will be full of joy if we truly believe in Jesus’ promise:

“And behold, I am with you always,

until the end of the age.” (Mt 28,20).

These words, the last words that Jesus addresses to the disciples, mark the end of His earthly life and, at the same time, the beginnng of the life of the Church

in which He is present in many ways:

in the Eucharist, in His Word, in His ministers (bishops, priests), in the poor, in the little ones, in the

marginalized...

in every neighbor.

We like to underline one particular presence of Jesus, that which He Himself indicated to us in the Gospel of

Matthew: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of

them.” (cf Mt 18,20).

He would like

to be present

everywhere in

this way.

If we live what He commands, especially His new commandment, we can experience His presence even outside of the church, in the midst of a crowd, wherever His presence is

kept alive, everywhere.

What is asked of us is mutual love, made up of service and understanding, of sharing in the sufferings,

anxieties and joys of our brothers and sisters; a love which endures everything, which forgives everything,

typical of Christianity.

Let us live in this wayso that everyone may be given the opportunity

to meet Him already on this earth.

Text written by Chiara LubichText written by Chiara Lubich

“And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the

age.”

(Mt 28,20).