Do you want an authentic proof of this desire that I have just expressed? Why did I command Moses to build a tabernacle and the ark of the covenant, if not to come and dwell, as a Father, a brother, a close friend, with My creatures, men? This was My ardent desire.
In spite of this, they have forgotten Me and offended Me with countless sins. I gave Moses My commandments to remind them, in spite of everything, of God, their Father, and of His sole wish, to save them. They were supposed to observe the commandments and thereby remember their infinitely good Father, always intent upon their present and eternal salvation. All this was forgotten and men sank into error and fear, considering that the observance of the commandments as I had transmitted them to Moses was too taxing. They made up other laws in accordance with their whims, in order to observe them more easily. Little by little, in the exaggerated fear they had of Me, they forgot Me more and more and heaped outrages upon Me. Yet My love for these men, My children, never quite ceased. When I realized that neither the patriarchs nor the prophets had been able to make Me known and loved by men, I decided to come Myself.”
How many times, both in preparing the daily meditations and in my personal life, have I experienced how the Holy Scriptures provide answers and indications for the concrete situation! Now I can experience this with joy and gratitude in these meditations on the “Message of the Father”, the content of which is perfectly adapted to our present situation.
Today we can begin by reflecting on the great proof the Father gives us of his desire to be in our midst. The Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant were built to show his closeness to us. How much more present is the Lord today in the tabernacles of the churches, and how many times do the faithful forget him! Could the Lord have left us a more vivid sign of his holy presence than the Eucharist, along with the Holy Spirit and his Word? How clearly this is reflected when we Catholics bend the knee before the Presence of the Lord!
Precisely in the present crisis, we should remember His presence in the Tabernacle and visit it frequently. Perhaps the Lord has allowed us to be partially deprived of His presence, because we Catholics appreciate His special closeness less and less. The presence of the Lord in the Tabernacle is a treasure of the Catholic Church! Neither Protestants nor other ecclesial communities know this as we do. Among our Orthodox brothers, the relationship with the Holy Eucharist is also different in this sense…
God wants to live among us as Father, brother and trusted friend. What a wonderful promise! All these forms of love that we experience in our human life have their origin in God and subsist in Him. Who does not need at times a friend, to whom he can entrust everything; someone who knows how to listen and understand? If we have found such a friend on the human level, we are already blessed, how much more so when we discover our Heavenly Father as a friend! Then a new dimension of trust opens up to us in our relationship with Him. Not only are we called and honored to live as friends of our Lord Jesus Christ; the Father also wants to be our friend.
He also offers us the character of “brother”, as a natural relationship of love. Unfortunately, in families what should be a brotherly relationship is not always adequately reflected, but in the relationship with our Lord. Blood brotherhood is a natural family bond, based on having common parents. Spiritual fraternity, then, refers to the fact that we have and serve a common Heavenly Father. The supreme expression of this is that God himself becomes our brother in the Incarnation of the Son!
From the passage we hear today, we are left to reflect on the fact that the Lord has given us the commandments.
His Law was no longer alive in the hearts of men; they had forgotten God and His precepts. The Lord had been offended. The commandments had seemed to them too difficult to fulfill, and they made their own laws, which went according to their vices, and fell into increasing confusion.
Is this not a fairly accurate reflection of the state of the world today? Do men not create their own laws so that they can give in to unbridled inclinations and even justify them? This spirit has even entered the Church, weakening her resistance against the “Son of Perdition”-the Antichrist-who comes before the Lord’s Return and wants to seduce the world.
This is what the Lord, out of love, wants to remind us of through his reproofs. Yet His love for us has never been and will never be extinguished. He Himself came to this world in the Person of His Son! Now, how will He make Himself understood even more clearly? Will it be in His soon return?
Come Lord Jesus, Maranatha!
Harpa Dei accompanies the daily scriptural interpretation or spiritual teaching of Br. Elija, their spiritual father. These meditations can be heard on the following website www.en.elijamission.net
