Father’s words taken from the Message to Mother Eugenia Ravasio:
“I recognize that you honor me in my Son, and that there are people who know how to raise everything to me through my Son; but they are few, very few. However, do not think that by glorifying my Son you do not glorify me as well. Of course you glorify me in this way, because I live in my Son! Therefore, whatever is to His glory is also to mine. But I would like to see man honoring his Father and Creator in a special way, with a particular cult. The more you honor me, the more you will honor my Son, since it was by my Will that He became the incarnate Word and came among you, to make you know the One who sent Him.
When you know me better, you will love me and you will love my beloved Son more than you do now. Behold how many creatures of mine, who had become my children through the mystery of redemption, are no longer to be found in the meadows which I have established for all men through my Son. Behold how many others – and you know it – are unaware of the existence of these meadows, and how many creatures of mine have escaped from my hands, and do not even know the hand that has created them. You do not know them, but I know them all.”
It is clear that the reason our Father asks us for this special veneration is so that he can be closer to us and give us even more grace.
We, as Catholics, know that all prayers are offered to the Father through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. There is no doubt that this is the right and pleasing way to God. As the Father said in this passage, there are also those who know how to apply in their life of faith this offering to the Father through the Son, as happens par excellence in the Holy Mass. But, as was said, they are few…
What the Father wants is for us to acquire that most personal and loving relationship with Him, as our Heavenly Father, as He has arranged for us. Then, with an open heart, the Father will be able to grant us everything with which He wants to consent us in His love, making us at the same time more capable of loving other people.
Logically, all the acts of love and glorification that we render to Our Lord Jesus we will give equally to the Father, because Jesus and the Father are one (cf. Jn 10,30). And likewise -as this part of the Message- every honor and love we show to the Father, will honor Our Lord even more.
Then, we have to learn even more that everything comes from our Father, and be aware of it also in our personal faith life. We are invited to have a relationship with each of the Divine Persons. And in this private revelation that we are meditating on at the moment, the Father calls us to address Him in a special way, since everything comes from Him.
As I write these words, I am thinking about how this is in my personal case. I love the Father as Creator and I trust Him as Father; the Son as my Lord and brother; the Holy Spirit as my friend and teacher. In my spiritual life, I realize that, depending on the specific situation, I address either the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit.
But in no way should we fear that, in addressing one particular Divine Person intensely, we would be neglecting the other two. Everything always returns to the Father. And this is what our Lord wants us to understand and welcome more deeply into our hearts.
While this first part of the meditation was about deepening our relationship with God as believers, the second part makes us see the many people who are lost and do not welcome what God has destined for them. Indeed, it hurts to see how people seek their happiness and do not find it. There are those who look to other religions and belief systems, but no to the pasture grounds that God offers us in his Son. And if it hurts us, how much more so the Father!
There are also those who have practically no knowledge of the Church of God, the place where God has established His pastures for men. Then there are also those who live far away from God, who have escaped from His hands and do not even know Him.
Listening to the language of love that the Father uses in this excerpt, we understand why He does not rest until He leads the men created by Him back home, and takes all possible paths to conquer them. And He invites us to do the same. It was this “urgency of love” that led St. Paul to “work harder than others”, as he expresses it (1 Cor 15,10). It is the same fire of love that burns in God; that fire that, according to Jesus’ wish, should burn on earth (cf. Lk 12,49).
If we try to grasp our Father’s love even better, thus loving the Son even more and letting the fire of the Spirit work in us, what the Lord said to his disciples will become a reality: “You are the light of the world” (Mt 5,14).
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
