Gospel according to Luke 6:20-26
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. In these words, the heart of the Gospel resounds: God loves us to the point of giving Himself. The Cross, which was a cause of death, becomes in God’s hands a source of life; what inspired fear and meant condemnation becomes an instrument of salvation, the Tree of Life, and the sign of the greatest Love. Jesus does not remove the Cross: He passes through it and fills it with His love. From that moment on, no cross of ours, when lived with Him, is only pain. Even what we do not understand can become a place of encounter with God, because on the Cross Jesus says to us: “I love you to the point of giving everything for you. I did not come to condemn you, but to save you. Perhaps we also need to rediscover the solemnity of the sign of the Cross. So many times we make it quickly, almost without realizing it, and yet each time we are proclaiming with our body the greatest mystery of our faith: in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We entrust ourselves to the Most Holy Trinity and remind ourselves that we belong to God. Let us think of Lourdes: Saint Bernadette said that she was deeply struck by the recollected and solemn way in which the Virgin Mary made the sign of the Cross, and she learned to make it with great devotion. We too should return to making it slowly, consciously, and with love: bringing our hand to our forehead, to our heart, and to our shoulders, as if we wanted to allow the Cross of Christ to embrace our whole person, our thoughts, our heart, and our entire life. Today, let us look at the Cross not as a sign of defeat, but as the greatest declaration of God’s love for humanity. And before Jesus Crucified, let us allow ourselves to be reached by a certainty capable of changing everything: I am loved, I am sought, I am saved. Jesus, teach us not to be afraid of the Cross. May every sign of the Cross be for us a small act of love, an abandonment into Your hands, a “Yes” to the Most Holy Trinity. And when our own crosses come, give us the grace to cling even more tightly to You, certain that where Your Cross is present, life does not end: the Resurrection begins. On the Cross, Jesus gave His life for our salvation: an immense, total, infinite act of love.
-Rosanna Dora De Lucia
