It is fulfilled.” In this word, I see an authoritative proclamation of fulfillment realized by Jesus in obedience to the Father’s will, and the total giving of Himself. In the Gospel of John, we read: “Before the festival of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father, having loved those who were his in the world, loved them to the end” (John 13, 1). Here, we have a word of fullness, perfect love, mature oblation, and a priceless gift. Moreover, what is implied here is the Father’s approval of Jesus’ every movement to renew the life of all people by embracing them with the kind of love that expresses victory over every evil and even death, and enables the loved ones to dance in anticipation of eternal life.
HUMAN EXPERIENCE OF FRAGILITY
In his book entitled ‘To be a Pilgrim’, Cardinal Basil Hume, a Benedictine Monk from England, expresses this beautiful insight: “The Father set his eyes on the suffering Son and rejoiced saying: “This is my Son the Beloved; he enjoys my favor” (Matthew 17, 7). What a great insight this is! The Father expressed the same contentment as He did, while Jesus was transfigured. Why? Because Jesus had said, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away. Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine”. He was going on to complete to the degree of perfection the mission entrusted to Him: to free humankind from sin and death and lead it into eternal salvation. In Jesus, God took upon Himself the misery of the first Adam and the whole of humankind, thus becoming “like a root in arid ground. He had no form or charm to attract us, no beauty to attract our hearts. He was despised, the lowest of men, a man of sorrow, familiar with suffering, one from whom, as it were, we averted our gaze, despised, for whom we had no regard. Yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing, ours the sorrows he was carrying” (Isaiah 53, 2-4).
Summarizing what we have said in the above paragraph, we can say that the Lord made His own human experience of fragility, moving from darkness to light, from death to eternal life in which all human aspirations found their total fulfillment: the will of God accepted and done in a perfect way. Nothing is left out of this target hit with deep love. How much have we learned from the life and the ministry of Jesus? We learned that everything made sense, and everything was in harmony with the Father’s project of love that He fulfilled with complete faithfulness to the proclamation He made one day in Samaria: “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work” (John 4, 34).
What about us? Can we say that our great desire is to do the will of God with total dedication and love? When we plan for this or for that, do we harmonize all our movements with the will of God sought through prayer and discernment? Or do we consider the Will of God a burden?
WE ARE BLESSED IF WE OPEN OURSELVES TO GOD
What about the future? What is God going to do for us and for the whole world? We do not know His plans, but we are blessed if we open ourselves to God who holds the future in the palms of His hands. Blessed are we if, day after day, we grow into the desire to do God’s will. Blessed are we if we strongly believe that God has so many dreams and missions for us. He, who is the source of hope, will take us toward the fulfillment of all the initiatives we are spending our energies on. Let us then make our own then the proclamation of Julian of Norwich, the fourteenth-century English mystic who wrote, “All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”
To conclude, let us ask for the grace to make our own this prayer that Saint Charles de Foucauld wrote to join Jesus on the cross:
“Father, I abandon myself into your hands: do with me what you will. Whatever you may do, I thank you. I am ready for it all. Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures. I wish no more than this, O Lord. Into your hands I commend my soul: I offer it to you with all the love of my heart, for I love you, Lord, and so I need to give myself, to surrender myself into your hands, without reserve, and with boundless confidence, for you are my Father.”
